This week, on America's Next Top Model ...
Tyra exploits stereotypes?
In an episode with the innocuous title "Let's Go Surfing," Tyra paints the models brown and dresses them up in "ethnic" clothing. I think I speak for many when I say, the hell is this? Check out the comments on one of my favorite blogs, Sepia Mutiny, for some good discussion and some obligatory ranting.
2 comments:
This episode aired two weeks ago, and since I'm a Top Model fan (guilty pleasure, baby!), I watched it the night it aired.
While I agree that "black face" is a gross part of history, in this case I didn't get the feeling it was anything like that. The photo shoot was about celebrating diversity, and since the girls themselves were black, asian, and white, it's not as if they were all parading around in top hats and tap shoes with black face, you know?
I'm sure part of the point was to stir up controversy, but I don't remember finding it shocking or offensive or anything like that. The point was to model modern clothes that evoked a certain ethnic heritage, and the pictures were of the type you would see in any fashion magazine.
And yeah, this comment ended up being way longer than I intended, but I just wanted to say that, as a viewer, I agree with the other blogger that the whole thing was absurd, but I didn't find that it crossed the line to offensive. It's Tyra, which automatically means it's ridiculous.
I wasn't personally offended, either (though the fact that she put together both kinds of "Indian" definitely elicited an eye-roll). But I can easily imagine that someone might've been. There was a really interesting comment on Sepia Mutiny about how she's conflating culture and race, which was something I hadn't considered. Anyway, it was an interesting bit of television.
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