I'm watching the Facebook statuses roll in. 'Horrific' says one. 'Loved "Shoes by Hannahs"', chuckles another. 'It has a creepy, jailbait vibe', in the opinion of a third viewer.
As awful TV goes, I felt NZ's Next Top Model wasn't actually too bad. I had dreadful premonitions of kiwis self-consciously imitating the over-the-top egotism of Tyra and her cronies. Instead, I was greeted with something kind of quaint. I loved when the girls were asked to find jandals with their names on - haute couture! And the judges' comments were pleasantly free of the nasty belittlement that their US counterparts fling about.
Even though I didn't feel the cultural cringe I expected, I did get the creepy jailbait vibe. Somehow, when I see young NZ women strutting their stuff, they seem scrawnier, more awkward, a little vulnerable. It's hard to imagine any of the kiwi models developing the brash self-confidence that makes ANTM contestants so cringingly entertaining. I guess if New Zealand must blatantly pillage foreign cultural products, best we do it with good manners, a bit of self-effacement and jandals...
4 comments:
Sadly I am going to be out of this loop, as the Mister vastly prefers to watch Coro St on One at the same time. What happened on Friday? Is anyone standing out as the b*tch of the season yet?
One thing I noticed was that unlike the American version, there weren't any token minorities. No 'plus size' model, no Asians, nor Maori/PI women made it to the final 13. There is one Sudanese woman but she was modelling beforehand.
Awful doesn't even cover it. Where are the beautiful Maori girls? Why are the models so young?
The judges are the worst part for sure, i actually felt embarrassed for them, during this week's episode. They are like an awfully crass cliche of the american version. And btw who the hell is Sarah Tetro?
No idea what this 'show' is like but I can guess.
The people in the world that you see once and never forget their faces are not the plastified dollies who fit the mould for these 'shows'.
I'll never forget the most exquisitely beautiful face I saw in NZ when I visited last year and that was of a Maori girl just playing on the swings at a farmers market.
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