Friday 27 February 2009

ANTM debrief #1: Dominique the bloke?

Watching reality TV is like that other pastime - everyone's doing it, but no one wants to admit it.

In keeping with THM's tradition of tackling the issues that really matter, we bring you our new weekly feature: ANTM debrief. You may also want to comment on other shows, including Project Runway. (I'd love to join you, but I seldom manage to see it right to the end - it's past my bedtime.)

Tonight, Dominique and her irritatingly high self-confidence got sent packing. I can't say I'll miss her. But I've been intrigued by the ongoing, mocking comments made by the judges about Dominique looking like a transvestite. Most often, they've come from Mr Jay, who's not exactly known for conforming to gender conventions.

A little bit of maleness is endearing - I remember the lesbian model (Kim?) was celebrated for her boyish charm. But too much masculinity is a bad thing, apparently. Why is it shameful for a model - indeed, for any woman - to be 'masculine'? And what does it mean to be masculine anyway?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

"And what does it mean to be masculine anyway?"

Amongst other things irritatingly high self confidence...

Julie said...

We have a bit of a Friday night telly clash - my partner prefers to watch Coro on One, and cedes to me for BSG on C4 later.

Is there a "plus size" model in this series?

Stephanie said...

Yes there is a "plus size" model (size 10) on the show and she's made it through to the final 3.

Danielle said...

Next series (yes, I am such a nerd that I read ahead) has a contestant who is transgendered. I can't wait to see how Tyra makes this All About Her. Again.

The scuttlebutt about Whitney's 'plus-sizeness' is that she was normal-model-thin a year or two ago and was told by ANTM to fatten up a little. Thereby giving even more credence to the 'it's all fixed anyway' thing.

Anonymous said...

Ummm 10 is plus sized? And is that a US 10 or a kiwi one? That must make us 16's huge lumbering elephants.

Julie said...

I totally don't understand the correlation between US sizes and ours. The smallest you can get here is usually a 6 right? And even those are very rarely stocked in normal stores. Most ranges in my price range seem to start at 8 or 10. So size 10 definitely wouldn't qualify as "plus" in my book!

I suppose it's another example of how the fashion world is so far removed from the world most people live in.

Anonymous said...

I think to convert from US to NZ sizes you count up by two so their 12 is our 16 etc but I'm not sure that it's entirely linear. Whitney certainly looks smaller than an NZ14 to me.

Julie said...

Don't they talk about size zero models? Would that be like a 4 here then? Must be hell to find clothes when you are a 4 in NZ.

I went in a catwalk show once, featuring almost entirely non-models (one designer chose to have a model at the last minute, which I could understand because her most beautiful dress was basically impossible for a non-model to walk in). When we had a big try on before-hand, to work out which women would wear which dresses, etc, almost all of the designers had brought along 10s and not much else.