The Disturbing Delectability of America’s Next Top Model

by Morgan Stone

When I sat down to figure out what to write about for the Guilty Pleasures issue, I was a bit stumped. My first thought, because it’s very prominent in my mind at the moment, was to write about my guilty pleasure love of Panic! At The Disco. However, I simply cannot allow myself to write or think any more about that stupid band than I already have in the past month, because my dislike/obsession with their new album has made it my second most listened-to album of the year. Please. I need a break from it.

So I threw some ideas around. I could write about the Warrior Cats books, but they’re not necessarily a current guilty pleasure, just a series I liked as a kid that in retrospect is so weird. I could write about some guilty pleasure movies that I enjoy, except I have no guilty pleasure movies…mostly...how could I feel guilt for liking Scooby-Doo (2002)? Then the perfect guilty pleasure hit me: America’s Next Top Model.

Everything about this show makes me ooze guilt. I leave any time watching the show with a feeling of disgust, because it is just plain terrible. It exploited the contestants and their personal struggles, it furthered rigid beauty standards, it perpetuated cultural appropriation…I could honestly go on and on. And yet…I have seen every episode of the show, many of them multiple times.

If you’ve never seen America’s Next Top Model, let me give you a quick overview. America’s Next Top Model (also known as ANTM), was a show created by Tyra Banks (entrepreneur and ex-supermodel) in 2003 where a group of contestants competes against each other for a cash prize and a modeling contract. They scout for contestants who are either amateurs or completely new to modeling, give them a makeover to appear more “modelesque,” and then give them weekly challenges and photo shoots where they must do their best, or be sent home packing. As you can imagine, in 2003, it perpetuated some terrible standards for beauty, body image, and how models should be treated by other professionals. There were many “isms” prominent in the show, and to call it problematic would just be scraping the surface of everything that’s wrong with this show.

I first watched ANTM in the fall of 2020. I wish I could say that I had a nostalgic attachment to this show, but I didn’t see it before my brain was fully formed. As a full-blown adult, I have willingly enjoyed it for the first time. There is true guilt tied up in my enjoyment of this series. I don’t quite remember why I started watching it though, it just sort of happened. I think that my roommates and I at the time started watching when we became really obsessed with reality TV, and needed something to watch between finishing every available episode of What Would You Do? With John Quiñones and waiting to watch new episodes of Love Island. When I went home for winter break in 2020, I fell into a routine where I would spend an hour or two a day crocheting and watching the show, and it was such a pleasant experience. I could watch models be brutally torn apart by Tyra Banks's words while gently crocheting an adorable plush Appa. The irony of the contrast of these actions is not lost on me; I understand that it really, really was a strange routine.

There is something so intriguing and watchable about the show. I may just be a product of early 2000s makeover movies, but seeing these models transform from their normal selves to whatever deranged look Tyra Banks decided would make them bookable is so strangely satisfying, even when it is aesthetically disturbing. I sometimes will even skip the first couple of episodes of a season, just so I can get to the satisfying treat of a terrible makeover. Not saying they’re all bad, but oh boy, many of them are truly terrible.

(an example of a terrible makeover decision)

It is easy to sit down to watch an episode or two and quickly find yourself hours into an unmediated ANTM experience. Each episode is designed to be easy to watch, with the episode previews of course showing the most salacious drama that will happen. You can not pay attention for half an episode and still be up to par with what’s happening. The photoshoots become more and more extreme as the show progresses, to the point where you wouldn’t be surprised if they did a shoot where they submerged the models in literal freezing water (which did indeed happen, all in the name of good television).

I could go off on the terrible shoots they did, including putting a girl in a grave for a shoot, right after she found out her friend had passed away (which actually happened another time as well), making a Deaf model do a shoot in complete darkness (eliminating his ability to receive communication) and having a shoot where models portray “different ethnicities,” which I think you can imagine was quite disturbing. They seem to always frame it as “we didn’t know that was a bad idea,” or that it was a terrible coincidence that they happened to plan it this way, but I highly doubt that. Personally, I think that many of the terrible coincidences that happened in the show were just purposeful manipulations to make the show more interesting, outrageous, and marketable.

More often than not, the best model does not win the competition, and your fan-favorite will be off the show for a reason that makes absolutely no sense. Their modeling abilities are typically judged on a single photo from their shoot that Tyra Banks chooses to show the judges, so what’s saying that she didn’t look at all 50 images and rig the results to kick off who isn’t making good television? While watching, I find myself yelling at the screen and suddenly imagining that I am an expert in modeling. Spoiler alert: I am nowhere near an expert in modeling. But the show sure makes me feel like I know a lot about it, which I feel may be part of why it’s enjoyable to watch - it gives you a sense of knowledge about something you may have no tangible connection to. It’s also just fun to watch early 2000s fashion and makeup trends, which are simultaneously amazing and terrible. I suppose there’s a nostalgia factor, for a time that I didn’t really get to cognizantly experience, since I was a literal baby. 

However, I think the most important part of why I like this show so much is because it’s a piece of media that doesn't require much from me to watch. It doesn’t ask me to do any analysis or make any intelligent connections, I can just watch and make knee-jerk judgments about people that I don’t personally know. It’s kinda gross if you think about it, but by that thought, all reality TV is. I suppose I will continue to watching my America’s Next Top Model and crochet my little guys. I will just maintain self-awareness and shame about it.

Comments