Society’s perception of beauty has become grossly distorted and limited. Our obsession with physical perfection has taken over American culture and recently television with the explosion of new modeling reality shows.
The average American woman is 5-foot-4 and weighs 140 pounds, while the typical runway model is 5-foot-11 and weighs 117 pounds. Being thinner than 98 percent of American women, models define a beauty in terms that only 2 percent of women can relate to.
Yet our society can’t get enough of the slim and beautiful. From celebrity tabloids to ‘E! True Hollywood Story’ specials, we are bombarded with images of unrealistic beauty. Capitalizing on our obsession with physical perfection, many networks are playing off this superficial fascination.
‘America’s Next Top Model,’ the original and most popular of the modeling shows, has inspired many more knock-off shows to come, such as ‘The Agency,’ ‘8th and Ocean,’ ‘Project Runway,’ ‘The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency’ and, this summer, ‘The Petra Nemcova Project,’ a show which will feature Nemcova, the 2004 tsunami victim and supermodel.
Undeniably addictive, modeling-based shows have attracted a wide and fast-growing audience. Nadine Kohane, a BU sophomore, credits their success to their Cinderella-like transformations of average Janes. By looking pretty, regular girls are living out the glamorous American dream. ‘The shows are everything all girls wish that they could be,’ she said. ‘I’m addicted.’
Like ‘Sex and the City,’ which popularized the cosmopolitan and glamorous life, the influx of modeling shows reflects our obsession with being thin and materialistic.
‘We’re obsessed with it and we want to live vicariously through the models,’ Kohane said.
In addition to the glamour, modeling shows rely on the interplay between drama and realness to keep viewers interested. With dramatic characters like Jade and Camille from ‘America’s Next Top Model’ (ANTM) making outrageous comments and creating fights, it’s hard to turn away from the theatrical display. Without a doubt, drama gets a reaction. Monisha Mealing, a graduate student at BU and academic adviser, said that it’s a necessary component for any reality show.
‘The drama helps ‘ it makes it more interesting,’ she said. ‘I think they put one crazy person on the shows and keep them around for awhile for better ratings.’
But less drama and more reality is the direction taken by the newer crop of modeling shows, which portray the uglier side of the modeling industry. During the premier episode of ‘The Agency,’ an agent told an upcoming model that, ‘If she was less hungry for fucking huge sandwiches and more hungry to be a top model,’ she’d be more successful. Dave Broome, producer for the upcoming ‘The Petra Nemcova Project,’ agrees that the majority of modeling shows like ANTM present an unrealistic view of the industry.
‘With no disrespect, those shows are the make-believe world of modeling. We’re doing the reality,’ Broome said, also stating that the models of his project were cast based on their potential to thrive in the real world of modeling rather than for their ability to create reality show drama.
‘This isn’t a game show,’ he said. ‘You’re not going to get the clawing and bitch-slapping you get in the other shows. The drama here is real and not put together.’
It’s the realness of the shows that might be the biggest draw for their targeted audience. ‘What attracts me the most is to see whether they’re real people,’ Kohane said. Mealing credits the popularity of ANTM to another sincere character, its producer and host, Tyra Banks.
‘Tyra’s real, so people can relate to her,’ she said. ‘She tries to show all sides of the industry and helps stop the stereotype that only skinny girls can model with the plus size models that have been on ANTM. If anything, the show’s more about loving yourself.’
ANTM has become the CW’s highest rated show, with over 6.5 million viewers tuning in to watch the last season. Cycle eight of the reality show premiered with a two-hour episode on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 8 p.m.