When I think of the summer holidays when I was a teenager, I think of watching America’s Next Top Model for hours on end, critiquing each contestant with my sister. The makeover episode was always my favourite: girls sobbing as their hair was cropped short, or even shaved off. At the time, Tyra Banks seemed like a big sister, giving the contestants the tough love they’d need to succeed in a ferociously competitive industry.
I hadn’t watched America’s Next Top Model since I was young, but like many, I recently watched Netflix’s excellent series, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model. It was the strangest sensation, rewatching episodes I hadn’t seen in more than two decades. At times I felt almost teleported back.
How could I not find these scenes of models collapsing with hunger utterly abhorrent? I wondered what influence watching a show that celebrated eating disorders had on my own brain. I think it had an impact.
I think the residual taint of it is still there. I can’t watch America’s Next Top Model any more, nor do I want to. Ironically, it’s all too ugly.
Sirin Kale Truly, has any show in the history of television had a worse legacy than The Apprentice? The main culprit is obviously the American original, for the way it legitimised Donald Trump, but the British version doesn’t exactly get away scot-free. In terms of values, it preaches the sort of idiocy that should have been torched after the financial crisis; competitive selfishness and relentless greed at all costs.
It has also churned nimrod after nimrod out into the media landscape. Plus, it isn’t fun to sit through. Why are people still applying for this mess?
Extract — continue reading at the source.
