F06 :: Feminist Film Studies

Myra Mendible, in “Humiliation, Subjectivity, and Reality TV,� writes that in 1996, Avaishai Margalit said, “humiliation involves treating human beings as if they were ‘merely things, tools, animals, sub-humans, or inferior humans.’� In “America’s Next Top Model,� the contestants could not fit this definition more perfectly. They are not “people� (although Tyra’s infrequent bonding/therapy sessions with the girls may have you think otherwise). They are “models.� They are there to stretch and morph and make-up their bodies and faces until they look like a product, a tool, for selling clothes. They are told throughout the series, by judges, photographers, and fashion designers, that they are “canvases,� blank slates, there to be molded into the client’s vision, regardless of the actual person and emotions and intellect beneath the skin. They are tools. The means to an end.

And they are often humiliated. Alessandra Stanley wrote in the New York Times in 2002, “humiliation is the unifying principle behind a successful reality show.� In “America’s Next Top Model,� the contestants are constantly shown as stupid, inept, and odd, despite being recognized for a perceived beauty. In front of judges, they’re critiqued for not having enough personality. For making a biting comment to a photographer. For being too “porn-star looking� or “boring� or “adolescent.� In photo shoots, where they’re made to pose in painful looking, odd, poses, sometimes in front of wide animals, like a bull, which often causes them to run in fear, and appear idiotic on screen. When learning how to walk down a runway, they’re laughed at and made fun of when their walks aren’t up to par. And the viewers, along with the show’s judges, often laugh along, enjoying watching these “beautiful� women display their imperfections, thus making the audience feel better about themselves.

The women are also blatantly ranked, in a “scaling of bodies� that is, ultimately, the point of “America’s Next Top Model.� Not only do the judges rank the contestants bodies, but in Episode 10, of season seven, the models are asked to point out, in front of each other, which model they think has the most and least potential. In this way, the contestants are forced to rank and demean each other, a move that causes distress for the women who live and work together on the show, and ultimately, more drama for the viewers at home to salivate at.