“Top Model” goes bi-racial…?
“America’s Next Top Model” made up asipring fashion models as people of mixed ethnicities this week, covering them in “brown face” from head to toe and calling them “hapa” (mixed) because they’re in Hawaii. Why? I don’t watch the show, so it’s hard for me to say what they’re trying to accomplish. From this YouTube video (above), I’d say that the “Top Model” producers’ hearts were in the right place but their heads were busy with other matters. They just didn’t seem to think through the deeper meaning of changing races and stereotyping.
What does it mean when host Tyra Banks says to a model done up as half-Tibetan, half-Egyptian, “Think about Egypt — the people, what they’ve been through!” Does Tyra mean to refer to what the Tibetans have been through in their independence struggle with China? Or is she really thinking of Egyptian current affairs, like the repression of bloggers or the economic crisis there? Do fashion models from different countries think of government repression more than “non-hapa” models (whatever that would mean)? What do American models think of while they pose for fashion shoots? GDP and the American education system?
I felt most sympathy for the “Greek-Mexican” model who had to express a sense of two grand cultures using only a plain wooden shepherd’s staff, hazel-colored contact lenses and a poncho. Couldn’t they have at least given the models a little background on their new homelands? Maybe a globe? I seriously think some of the women didn’t know where their countries are in the world, like Madagascar or Morocco.
Clearly, there was affection for “exotic” people among the models and producers. Representing anyone in the form of a fashion model is “Top Model”’s highest complement, I imagine. “See? A Malawi-Laotian can be beautiful, too!” So I’ll just say the exercise could have been executed more thoughtfully.
Tyra Banks gives the disclaimer that some of the outfits shown are not exactly as the people of these countries dress today — or ever dressed. She could have gone a step further and said, “This is a total fantasy of global blending.” Even better, she could have given the models time and support to learn about different cultures, develop back stories for themselves and design their own costumes and settings. That would require more thinking, shared editorial control and a whole lot of valuable commercial time. Now that’s a show I’d watch.
