I started watching it out of curiousity. Why was this a competition? Don't you just take a tall, pretty woman and take pictures and voila, she's a model?
It turns out that it takes some serious skills to be a high fashion model. You really have to be in tune with your body and comfortable with your body. You have to engage in the scenario. You have to express the designers purpose behind the outfit, but do it with your style. You're bringing your personality to the photograph, so you need to know who you are and be confident in it. You have to be willing to go outside of your personal comfort zone and trying something new that might make you feel scared or vulnerable.
The other cool thing about Top Model is that Tyra in the past few seasons has emphasized having plus sized models. Now, I have to admit, the plus sized contestants on the show don't seem very plus sized to me, but it's still a positive step forward for an industry where people starve themselves for years to stay the right size. Oh, and there's also a contestant on the show right now with Asperger's syndrome which is way cool.
There have been plenty of women on the show who appear to me to be unattractive or average attractiveness, or have acne or have cellulite and you see them transformed into this blemish free product. So you see that they aren't naturally the way they appear in the photographs. I think it helps chip away at the idea that women could look like these models if they just exercise more or diet more or get liposuction or whatever because these models don't naturally look the way they do in photographs. You understand that it's an image and not a reality. They get there with make up people; hair people and wardrobe people.
All that being said, there is still plenty to critique the modeling industry on and plenty that concerns me, but it's still been a pleasant surprise that the show has challenged my views on what modeling is and who a model is.
Oh yeah, and without 5 years of de-sensitatization, you'd never be ready for this stuff.
For some strange reason, this makes me glad I gave up TV about half a decade back.
Oh jeez Janelle..you touched on one of my most favorite-ist shows ever! Hehe...I watched and entire season in one sitting once on accident :) Of course...part of me wants to vomit with rage and the other part of me is endlessly fascinated. But I agree with you...a lot of the women aren't exactly gorgeous, but they don't have to be, they just have to take good pictures, and there is some talent involved with that. What I don't like is when they walk into the judging booth and Tyra tells this one or that one to take off her shoes or her earrings because they don't look like a model.
Also...I dunno if you saw this one, but they did one where they were supposed to be dead...murdered by another model. That was disgusting and I am sorry I am rambling in your comments but the fact that we can find a supposedly dead woman's body sexy is outrageous. The end.
It actually is a better show than I thought it would be. Something that I was also impressed by from the earlier seasons was when they had they had a contestant with lupus who ended up winning. It was inspiring to a lot of my friends who have the disease, because we often feel unattractive from the effects of it on our bodies. We thought it was cool to see her succeed as a model, and then do campaigns for the Lupus Foundation of America.
tyra banks is a beast.
THE Beast even.
also she is starting to look like RuPaul.
I cannot watch that show based upon her alone.
Sad really..