On the one hand, this is a modeling show. The unrealistic ideal of the female body, and being judged on that ideal, is the entire point of the show. Even though Tyra Banks is supposedly so enlightened. But London, the contestant who got eliminated, used to suffer from an eating disorder. And so the lecturing and the cruelty (“there is something unique about her… all that extra weight”) seemed extraordinarily ill-advised.

In an interview, London talked about the elimination:

“When I went to the competition, I was recovering from an eating disorder, so my self-confidence was already kind of shaky because of my experience with my problem beforehand,” London tells us exclusively. “And, I’m pretty sure it did show in my photo shoots.”

On why she was eliminated instead of Aminat, who was in the bottom two with her, London says, “If you looked at the two of us, here you have someone who’s 5 feet 9 inches and who had gained, like, 15 pounds, and then you have someone [Aminat] who’s six feet and about 110 pounds,” continues London. “So in my personal opinion, it was just kind of obvious to the judges who would move on just by photographs.”

London says she has suffered from eating disorders from junior high through shortly before America’s Next Top Model started. “I never realized how long I’d had it until I talked to someone professionally,” she says. “But it never got supersevere until my senior year in high school, which was actually just this past year. This past year up until right before I went on to the show is when it got most severe.”

So you put a girl who has BARELY RECOVERED FROM AN EATING DISORDER on a modeling show? Obviously, it was London’s decision to try out and get on the show in the first place. But the eating disorder wasn’t mentioned at all, as opposed to the “challenges” of the other contestants, such as Tahlia with her burn scars and what’s-her-name with her epilepsy, which were treated in patented Tyra Banks “inspirational” fashion. So the fact that she is recovering from ED was never even mentioned, and then over the course of the show, London gained some weight. And then this happened:

Clearly, judge Jay Manuel wasn’t aware of London’s issues. On last night’s episode, during a photo shoot, Jay pulled London aside to talk about her obvious weight gain. “Where I’m really shocked, it’s not just the fact that she’s gained weight, it’s the fact that as a model you’re expected to treat your body like a temple,” he said.

“It’s a sensitive thing,” he continued, “but it’s something I have to talk about. It just really shocked me today seeing such a huge change physically. When you’re in a competition I understand there’s stress and people react to stress differently; it’s just clear that you’re not taking care of your body in a short period of time, and if this is tough, how are you going to deal with it in the modeling world?”

London’s response: “My body just keeps gaining weight, and it really is freaking me out because I don’t feel comfortable at this weight. Coming into this, I felt a lot more confident, a lot more beautiful, and I just need to lose weight in a healthy way.”

So a girl recovering from anorexia and bulimia is “freaking out” about gaining 10 or 15 pounds, which might be a natural weight for her body. And the answer is… tell her to lose weight! Kick her off the show! Shame her! What a great message.

On a related note, I made the mistake of reading one of the “editorial” articles on TWoP, which suck these days, because they are written by bad writers like Angel Cohn, who says one of her “reality pet peeves” is:

7. Models Gaining Weight
Nearly every season of Top Model or Make Me a Supermodel there’s a wannabe model who over indulges, puts on pounds, has trouble with their self esteem and cries a lot that they aren’t as skinny as all the other contestants. This is a modeling show, where entire careers are based on how well you can fit into sample-size clothing, so put down the donuts and hit the treadmill.

Yeah, fuck you, London. Put down the donut. Start binging and purging again. Clearly, that’s the only way.

Yes, we have our first plus-size winner! Whitney beat out Anya in the finale. I haven’t seen it yet, but the good folks at TWoP say:

Anya looks a bit stilted as she walks, in part because of an extremely tight ankle-length dress that restricts her movement while Whitney flounces and bounces in a pink “First Plus-Sized America’s Next Top Model Barbie” dress. And indeed, Whitney wins! It’s a victory for every girl out there who’s ever savored a good ham sandwich.

Thanks to Shawn, I also read this article, which suggests that Whitney was recruited at a size four and told to gain weight. She was also told Tyra wanted a plus-size model to be successful on the show, and they promised her a spot in the final three. (There are pictures of a slimmer Whitney at that link.)

The claim is that Whitney did not try out for top model but was approached on a plane by someone from the show. She was already doing modeling as a size 2 or 4 but because she was closer to a 4 she was a little too big for the show as a regular model. They told her that if she went and gained 10-20 pounds they would definitely put her on the show as “the plus-size model”. She’s about a 6 or 8 on the show.

I saw a couple of episodes at my sister’s house, and Whitney certainly went on and on and on about being a plus model. She also seemed really pageanty and fake. Now I’m wondering if she wasn’t told to play it up, for the benefit of her story arc and the cameras. CONSPIRACY!

Vicodin, of course, is…a drug better appreciated in the fashion business for its appetite-suppressing powers than for the truly unappetizing truth that it is only slightly less addictive than heroin. Clenbuterol is a steroid used by athletes, horse trainers and models to reduce body fat (one study of clenbuterol in horses showed significant weight reduction in a matter of weeks). “A lot of girls are using it now to keep their weight down…”

The one thing you will never hear anyone utter a peep of concern about when it comes to models is smoking. Yet it’s pretty common knowledge that they smoke more than long-haul truckers, road workers or Sylvia Sidney in “Beetlejuice.” The blue-collar reference here is intentional since, despite its putative glamour, a modeling gig is more like that of a supermarket checker than one would imagine. Both draw on a work force that tends to be uneducated and young.

Of course this in turn reminds me immediately of America’s Next Top Model. Here’s what Tyra had to say on the last episode:

During my modeling career, 98 percent of models smoked or had smoked before. So we’re taking a stand on America’s Next Top Model. This is a No. Smoking. Cycle. So many young girls are fans of America’s Next Top Model and right now, so many young girls are fans of you. So if they see their idol puffing and smoking a cigarette, what does that make them think? ‘Wow, she’s smoking? That’s cool.’ So that’s why smoking will be banned as of tomorrow. So if you want to smoke tonight, get your last puffs. And then it’s over.

I didn’t actually see this episode, nor do I know if they have their usual one token “plus-size” model this season. This is what happens when I forget to set the TiVO! Horrible oversight. When is the next episode on?

This post just veered off on a tangent, didn’t it? Well, it’s been a long day!