After our discussion on Ms. America and Vanessa Williams and the "Means to the End" these big moments for typically disempowered or discriminated minorities in our society, America's Next Top Model came to mind. The premise is similar to that of a beauty pageant except the girls cattily compete to become America's Next Top Model on the cover of Seventeen magazine! There is A LOT to be said about representation and the presentation of class, race, and Tyra Bank's herself but I'm going to focus on three seasons ago when Whitney Sinclair, a plus-sized model, was deemed America's Next Top Model.The Banet-Weiser article discusses the significance and the reality of Vanessa Williams, an African American, winning Mis America "this precence is understood as noncoincidental and purposeful" (127). The crowning of an America's Next Top Model who was a plus-sized model in the 10th Cycle who competed against an almost entire cast of "regular," "normal" models was a very parallel occurence. By having a winner be plus-sized, it was not only a "purely 'political' matter" (127) but it also pointed out how this was not typical beauty for AMERICA's Next Top Model but of how things were progressing.
As we discussed in lecture, beauty pageants are explicit negotiations of body and use and these women in both ANTM and Ms. America are representing the nation. ANTM is shown in 170 countries internationally and many countries have their own Next Top Model competition as well. As we are perpetuating this image of what a country's TOP model should be like, we are continuing to disempower and constrain women. Spelman highlights how Plato discusses that Beauty always goes beyond the body. Yet this show is entirely focused around the women's body and the way that it can be used to find success and for women to represent their nation proudly.
Men are never contestants as they can't be America's Next Top Model. As well, the few men on the show are almost always homosexual and extremely effeminite. The show is embracing and celebrating the female body but as Spelman says "(Plato) points an accusing finger at a class of people with a certain kind of body - women -because he regards them, the class, as embodying (!) the very traits he wishes no one to have."
So we have this idealized image of a woman. America's Next Top Model is finally not a zero! A ridiculously beautiful plus-sized girl wins who is a size 10..we have progress! African Americans can become Ms. America too! These are good in theory and in all honesty, they're pretty good things in general. I mean, progress is still progress, right? My question for you guys is where you think we should go with these performances? Do we need radical change, a complete reversal of women's representation? How can we demonstrate to the mainstream audience the falsities that exist in the representations of women? Are these pseudo-victories useless in the long-run and just reaffirming past notions or do they hold value?
The hype that surrounded the 10th cycle of America's top model contest surprised me. Whitney being identified as a plus-size model in the fashion industry is normal, however in the real world a size 10 is not labeled as plus-size. A size 10 is a typically size for most American. When I go into stores the plus-size section does not start at size 10, it is usually size 14. To address your question about progress, yes Whitney becoming a Top Model is progress in the fashion industry for women to know that you don’t have to be a size 00 to become a model. However I don’t feel that it is progress for our society and women's insecurities with their body image/aesthetics. The hype that was placed around her winning made me have to self reflect like WOW I am plus-size, my beauty is questionable/marginalized because I don’t fit into a size 0. I do feel like we need a radical change to gain progress on this issue.
ReplyDeleteI believe that ANTM is helping the society to realize that size 00 is not always the case to be have beauty. I remember the girl from cycle 10 won, everyone was surprise because in the other season the girls were smaller in size. As you can see more fashion stores started to put more so called 'plus-size' clothes on market and included people who were supposedly plus-sized features. I think it should be a radical change because if the media don't set the tone about beauty then the society won't know how to perceive beauty. I'm not saying it's right, but that's just reality for most people.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find most interesting about the discussion relates back to this week's readings discussion and debate between Plato's ideologies about the "soul" versus "body." Did America's Next Top Model have the soul intention (no pun intended) to really relay that beauty is more than body, even in the modeling world. If you have ever watched the show you would know that most of the critiques of the models during elimination round was "you weren't showing your beauty" "I just didn't feel it from you." What does this mean? Does this mean that is takes a little bit of soul to show the body? Perhaps this could be an optimistic moment.. Forget the label plus size, forget black or white.. Everything is political whether one intends on it or not. Because public = politics. But what about brains, personality, "feeling", and soul have to do with portraying the body?
ReplyDeleteANTM produces entertainment, promotes consumption, and certain standard of 'beauty'.
ReplyDeleteI think we have to keep in my mind that the winner of ANTM becomes a 'worker',the girl that wins will use her body to market makeup, jeans, jewelry, etc. In this sense the 'beauty' that the judges are looking for is a marketable one, that will serve the sponsors of the season. If we look at the program from this perspective, ANTM is an open door to a big casting, were different values are subject to judgement. Who's more sexy? Who's more conformable with extreme photo shootings? Who can model and at the same time say how good is the deodorant they're wearing?.... the only thing is that us, the audience, also participate in this program, and we become the judges for their beauty too... maybe people at home base their decision on representation, who is the next top model.. the one that represent us?
"I mean, progress is still progress, right?"
ReplyDeleteThe entire rhetoric of this event is contextualized by the fact that it is an anomaly for a "plus-sized" model to be beautiful. How is this progress? It takes for granted the fact that society largely equates beauty with thin-ness.
Also, this situation is very similar to the Vanessa Williams story in that this "plus-sized" model is hardly a plus-size (as Kortney points out), just as Vanessa Williams has a very light complexion for a "black" woman.
This post seems to question if hegemony is inevitable or if social change/progress can indeed change social relations. I would argue both sides, but more heavily the latter argument. Individuals and their stories, like Vanessa Williams and Barack Obama, break through barriers of the status quo, yet the status quo seems to perpetuate. For example, Williams and Obama both have mixed heritages and their "blackness" was safe and accessible and "permitted" to break barriers. Williams became the first black Ms. America, yet white is still the standard. The ANTM winner was plus-size, yet skinny is still the standard. President Obama became the first black president of the United States, yet it can be debated whether we are in an age of postrace (I would argue we are not, similar to women still not being socially equal to men). I do not think radical change is plausible; changes in the representation of women needs to come in baby steps, likely from the ground up to be sustainable. I think small victories do hold value and are additive to social progress; yet I think social change, such as representational change, will take a long time. There needs to be a paradigm shift to puncture and rupture the socially constructed, non-existent, ideal, unhealthy "female" body and expose the authentic, natural woman. Expose cellulite, back fat, wrinkles, saggy skin, etc! It is real. In the image-based, superficial culture in which we live, women are conditioned to want to be something they are not, when they are beautiful in the beginning! Going off of the Banet-Weiser reading, these small changes are inevitably going to be tied to the political; even if the stage needs to be set for "breakthroughs" to happen, so be it. I think they are a step in the right direction. Going off of the Spelman reading and discussion of Plato's soul/body distinctions, I think a key, pivotal revelation would be in detaching the "female" from the bodily. As we discussed in class, females are essential to reproduction, yet are compromised and marginalized time after time as being the lesser gender. This makes no sense; the empowerment of women, and the acceptance of it, is inevitably tied to a representational change in culture. Slowly but surely, I think we can get there; cultural evolution is a slow process.
ReplyDeleteIn response to the questions raised about ANTM, I think the show is perpetuating the body value of the female. The body value is measurable and able to be judged according to cultural constructions of beauty, such as clothing size and appearance. Yet, how do you measure the soul?
I do remember Whitney winning that season of ANTM and I remember looking at her compared to the other girls and thinking "wow, she is a heavier than the other girls, but she is still pretty". I was happy that she won. However, when her size revealed that she was only a size 10, my heart dropped, for I am a size 9 (does that make me too fat to become a model?) It is a shame that this is considered progress in the modeling industry, for Whitney is considered to be healthy. However, like someone pointed out, they are judged based on how marketable they are, or in other words, how much beauty can they sell through different products. The Banet-Weiser article really did a good job with this as she was talking about Vanessa Williams and how that was progress.
ReplyDeleteAs far as ANTM progressing, does anyone remember Isis (I don't remember from what cycle..there's too many), the trsnsgendered model? I felt that was very progressive for ANTM, but I sometimes question Tyra's motives for putting certain on the show. Is she really trying to change the face of modeling, or is she just doing things for ratings/attention/controversy? Or both?
I definitely believe Whitney winning was progressive, because it gave every little girl or woman who doesn’t fit the average model size hope. It allowed them to say I can be the Next America’s Top Model. I agree that Tyra strategically picks these girls for ratings and publicity. We know this because she always sticks to the same line up one plus size girl, two to three black girls, one girl of Indian heritage, one girl of Asian heritage and the rest of the models are white. However during this particular cycle America wanted to see a plus size model win. Tyra already gave us a white girl, a black girl and Indian so we needed something different.
ReplyDeleteknecast2 asks "how do we measure the soul?"
ReplyDeleteWell, if we were Plato, as discussed in the Spelman reading, we would judge it as a size 10, for Ms. Whitney, winner of America's Next Top Model, because soul and body are inexorably related--the body as a shallow manifestation of a shallow soul.
I thought a alot about the implications of this blog's topic.
-Why must there be an America's Top Model?
-Is advertising at the root of ANTM and at the root of our body image issues?
-Why do we where such tight fitting clothes that we need to be so completely familiar with our waist and leg measurements--when it would be more comfortable to wear a sari (South Asian) or a paigne (West African--a type of wrap-around skirt)?
We are asked to show our body's shape as much as possible (skinny-jean craze? It's hard for someone that isn't skinny. I don't fit in skinny jeans, period. They should be called scrawny jeans. ;) )
According to the Banet-Weiser reading, there was a sort of "forced awareness" on the part of Americans in the context of "an economic climate where representations of race, diversity and difference" became a part of advertising culture. We are seeing the same situation here, with the dimensions of a body.
It wasn't the end of racism when Vanessa Williams (cause we all know that that was 2008 with the election of Obama), just as this isn't even close to the end of our self-hatred and fat-animosities.
The Banet-Weiser article talked about how monumental of a victory the Miss American crown was for Vanessa Williams and the black community as a whole. The Miss America crown in the ultimate sign of what is acceptable, better yet desirable for a woman to look like. I think that America's Next Top Model tries to present this supposedly perfect model of a woman's body as well. Thus, by choosing a so-called plus size model, they are celebrating the diverseness of bodies, and saying that ultimate beauty does not require anorexia and surgery. I think that this was a good idea, because I feel that the image presented of the ideal woman in today's media is almost impossible to achieve in reality.
ReplyDeleteWhen its comes down to women, identity, acceptance and the hegemony of a cultural. I want say that I believe in our cultural we develop an identity that we believe is right and when individuals challenge the norm and push the limit of this "unwritten standard" we then become aware of the hegemony that exist amongst us and want to challenge it. In reference to ANTM, I believe the plus size model being crowned the winner is a major accomplishment. Our society seems to be closed minded into what true beauty is. In some country in Africa, such as Uganda, fat is known to be beautiful. Women are placed in a fattening hut 2 months before their wedding to gain weight for their future husband. In American society this is completely unacceptable and probably would be viewed as obscene and grotesque.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to it. Click on Uganda
http://www.vh1.com/shows/jessica_simpson_the_price_of_beauty/episode.jhtml?episodeID=166388
I do think that Whitney winning the 10th cycle of America's top model was a great change to the usual skinny thin models that win and compete in the competition. Although this is so I do think that in order to change the view of popular media on what is thin and whats fat there definitely needs to be a radical change. Even so, this is a process that will take a VERY long time. And as nibia said as well, even though a plus size model did win she still becomes a woman whose body is used only for the purposes of selling.
ReplyDeleteIn response to this article, I really appreciate it because a lot of times this area within politics goes untouched because of the need to keep these forms of oppression silent. However, I do agree that this move is progressive and we're beginning to come to see that big is beautiful and why not own it? I identify with this representation because, I am plus-sized girl. However, I wouldn't call her a "big girl" because that situation is too perplexed right down to the waist size lol. However, I remember watching this episode and was very excited to see her win. The moment in which our society stop focusing on the waist line we would then be able to see radical progression because this will only repeat in slow cycles of oppression. I recall the time in which I was a part of a Christian Praise Dance Team. I was constantly referred to as that "big girl" that can dance her butt off. Oddly enough, I didn't accept this as a compliment. What spectators failed to see was that my heart was in it fully. I was not there to prove a point. However, the point had been proven because I successfully performed my gender and sexuality in spite of my limitations (according to society)for those who have internalized fat-animosities. My point is that I agree with Plato's understanding of the spirit and the body because an understanding of those two would help to eliminate and not expand this image of the ideal woman (in size, race, and body in general) but rather embrace the woman who begs to differ.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with many of the people who have said that yeah it was nice to see a plus size model win ANTM, even though she represents what a "normal" woman in America looks like but isn't considered normal. But still I always think that the reason she won was a strategic one and I hate the fact that like it was said in previous responses size ten is not plus size and if you are 5 11 and a size 00 you look scary, but yet on ANTM you are considered normal. it makes woman all over question whether they are normal and makes them want to fit into this ridiculous unhealthy mold. The whole things just angers me at times.
ReplyDelete