Comments on: Britain’s Missing Top Model

By: MagPie

MagPie — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 02:10:53 +0000

I am a bit late on finding this blog but I feel compelled to add my two cents regardless. I myself only have one hand and I strongly disagree with your opinion of this show. I have never seen it but I get the gist. I see exactly where these women are coming from and why they would go on this show. I agree it may have exploitative motives but what reality show doesn’t? With missing a hand I know that a disability is automatically your identifier and label. It’s the first thing people notice and usually focus on. These women obviously want their beauty to seen over their disability. The world of modelling has a very skewed view of beauty we all know that…but they are powerful. The media controls our mental picture of what a woman should look like and are at fault for the millions of girls who feel ugly and inadequate. It is constantly pounded into our heads that perfection is beauty. Though I’m not a fan of reality shows it is becoming the most popular form of television and I can support a promotion for more realistic women to be representing us in the world of modeling. I do not think this show is the best way to go about it however and honestly I think the focal point of the show being that they are disabled just isolates them even more from real models….But how else could they do it? There are no other opportunities in modeling for them so why not? I think it is a step in the right direction. I am starting to see more realistic models now a days and I hope one day we could get to a point in society where a disabled woman could be a model without it being taboo or unconventional.

By: honeypants

honeypants — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:59:05 +0000

WHY hasn’t anyone mentioned Heather Mills yet???!!?!?!!! Surely her 15 minutes, and Dancing with the Stars appearance opened this door.

And I thoroughly agree that it’s the modern day freak show pretending to be inclusive. Besides, if one of these women has SUCH an amazing face, why couldn’t she pursue a career that would involve modeling only her face, so that no one would even have to know she had a stump for an arm?

I think the whole thing is pathetic. The people who watch it, the producers, and the sad women competing in it. It really won’t be long before a Running Man type “Death Game Show” gets on the air…

By: julie

julie — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:56:24 +0000

I think Sonja hit the nail on the head. She lays out exactly what I felt when hearing about this show. I sort of have a gut reaction to it, that it just isn’t quite right.

http://www.shinylittlethings.com

By: enc

enc — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 04:21:31 +0000

I’m not sure what it is. Using one’s “differentness” to be “the same?”

I’m not being very articulate here, either.

By: Sonja

Sonja — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 04:01:20 +0000

ok but about your response. I personally feel that it is a modern day freak show disguised in equal opportunity rhetoric. so completely disgusting to me. are we calling this some kind of progress in human rights or something? But probably the people to ask about it are the people involved – the contestants on the show. can you ask them? I’m serious.

By: Sonja

Sonja — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 03:41:12 +0000

your husband makes a point, I concede, but what the fuck?? i think it’s about the absolute dissolution of collective dignity. And it becomes more blatantly apparent every day, with every new twist on every old twisted commercial premise, however twisted it has all ready been revealed to be.

By: Lora

Lora — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:00:14 +0000

“Reality” TV in general seems to be the problem here. It’s unbelievable what they will find to make a series out of and even more unbelievable that most of it develops an actual following.

Practically all professions/jobs require BASIC QUALIFICATIONS. (your analogies made perfect sense) Not everybody has to do everything, it’s just thinning the herd. I apply the same rule to myself while trying to find a job or possible new career.

By: Sister Wolf

Sister Wolf — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:50:27 +0000

Kari, I’m not saying the women have no right to compete on this show. I’m trying to examine my response.

My husband says “Why shouldn’t they get to make fools of themselves on reality TV just like everybody else?”

I think Miss Wombat isolated the problem, ie they won’t get to be mainstream models. I don’t think it’s empowering. I think the producers are just giving the audience a ‘freak show’ while pretending to be inclusive.

By: Imelda Matt

Imelda Matt — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:57:11 +0000

fuckity fuck the British are twisted! I don’t even want to know what debbi’s new gentleman callers ask her to do with that stump…or do i? I’m hoping for a runway challenge, not that’s good TV!

By: hammie

hammie — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:10:13 +0000

Well, if you want to check out the carnival of NO! that is people with untreated mental health issues going on TV to compete; Check out the audition rounds of American Idol or America’s got Talent.

As for that show. Hmm, it is a confrontation and perhaps desensitisation. Or perhaps it needs to be shown, so that next season a really hot looking, fit and healthy girl missing a limb can try out for that other monument to untreated mental health issues “America/Britain/Australian’s next top Catalogue Model”.