TV shows are starting to wrap up, with season finales gracing the screens each week. This past week I bid a sad farewell to two favorites, America's Next Top Model and The Office, both of which were "shockers" in their own right. But while The Office was just downright hilarious and terrific as usual, it was ANTM that made me scratch my head a bit.
I've written about this show before, how odd it is that I like it -- I really, truly do! -- and the creativity that goes into these weekly photographic transformations. What made this season particularly interesting is that, for the first time, a "plus size" model made it into the finals. A girl with a figure, with hips, with curves raced neck and neck with her toothpick size 0 fellow contestants toward the coveted prize and title. The season finale sported the final 3, all distinctly different (which is part of why I love the show) -- an East African young woman who suffered horrors as a child yet emerged a strong woman with the most stunning features; a cute, fun Hawaiian with the looked-for "odd" features and the most bizarre accent I've ever heard in my life; and our "plus size" representative who stood her ground.
The Somalian woman was the first to go, leaving us with our bottom two: the two (dyed) platinum blondes, who couldn't be any different. And I was blown away when my prediction was incorrect, with the "plus size girl" winning the prize.
I was very pleasantly surprised. While I did prefer her over the other, I just didn't think she would win. "The industry isn't ready for a plus-size model," someone commented earlier in the season. Well, it's about time, eh? Who is a more authentic representative of women -- a bone-baring size 0, or this "plus size" regular woman off the street? It was refreshing, really, to see her win. It was a great, positive statement long overdue.
But here's where I started to scratch my head. This "plus size" girl -- and I use those quotes quite deliberately -- is only a size 10. While I'm glad she won, I find that completely and utterly troubling. A size 10 is now "plus size?" Since when? She's NORMAL, she's HEALTHY, she's AVERAGE-FIGURED ... and now that's considered "plus size?" I'd like to think that those kinds of images will stay in the "high fashion" world, but I wonder ...
The show is done for now, and I'll watch it again next season. What can I say -- I love photography. And now I'll take my More-Than-Size-10 figure into the kitchen to prepare food ... to eat ...
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