For one, I'm embarrassed to admit that not only have I seen America's Next Top Model, I've seen every episode ever aired, most of them multiple times. I'm ashamed that I can't deny offering a critical opinion on the photo shoots and prancing struts down the self-important runways that the contestants on the show produce. Not only is the quality of the production terrible, but the show takes the subjects that I rage against -- superfluous fashion, vanity, materialism -- seriously. Devoting an article to the show forces me to draw on my expertise as a religious -- dare I say 'fan'?
Giving up on a show once I've seen a full season is hard for me to do. Hey, I stuck with Chuck for several seasons, and even Heroes long after it stumbled away from its geeky, self-referential fun and into a swamp of convoluted melodrama and useless characters.
(If this character had been killed off any later, I think I would've acquired her "power.")
This leads me to my second reason for my hesitation before typing the title: what do I call this article? I want to discuss the 'evolution' of the show, but while I've watched its artistic direction change, I certainly wouldn't suggest it has improved on its formula.
I started watching the show after Vh1 insisted on playing frequent weekend-long marathons of the show. What hooked me was watching someone do this:
Or make this:
And watching the show means following the back stories, so I cheered when I saw an Internet meme named "Creepy Chan" go from posting pictures of herself on 4Chan like this:
To this:
The first season of the show spared no reality TV cliche: creating catfights, exaggerating characters to make villains, reiterating sob stories, you name it. Even for reality TV, it wasn't innovative or smart. Yet, as a teenager somewhere around 14 years old, I was entranced by how chic the visuals seemed and how fascinating the makeup, hair, and costumes were.
And up until somewhere around the fourth season, this seemed to be their demographic. After all, the self-important young woman who plunges into social trends and scoffs at the quirky and weird has kept magazines such as Cosmopolitan a profitable market.
Maybe Tyra Banks was disappointed at the spoiled generation upon which she depended for her audience. At this point, "personality" became a main criterion in hiring participants.
Alright, sure. This is TV, right? In order for me to appreciate the contestants a little more, I need to cheer for the endearing ones as they fight against the antiheroes.
Yet more and more, "endearing" is turning into "relatable." So sure, we all have temper tantrums once in a while. And not all of us know everything about fashion without this show. But when has this ever been charming?
As it disintegrates into trashiness, America's Next Top Model simultaneously begins to cater to the tween market. Pastel colors pop up everywhere. Contestants are fed lines such as "I'm just SOOO super excited!" to squeal. Since cycle seven, one of the prizes has been a spread in Seventeen magazine, which prides itself in putting "role models" on their cover.
If the show sells out the dignity of its contestants by proving them to be vapid, selfish, arrogant, and/or short-tempered, why bother appealing to the younger audience?
Tyra's Top Model doctrine, which she makes painfully obvious, is to accept intriguing and unconventional bodies and faces to redefine "beauty" and offer girls a standard. With contestants cursing at each other and referring to themselves as "the head bitch in charge," I wonder how that's going.
