America's Next Top Plus-Size Model?
This year on ANTM, a “plus-size” model named Whitney made it to the final two. If you don’t want to know who wins, stop reading!
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!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: ANTM, Celebrities, TV
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Actually, I went to high school with Whitney. Pageanty and fake, indeed. I can’t believe she actually won. I think the whole thing has turned me off of ANTM. I love Tyra, but seriously? Whitney? Of all people. I just can’t believe it.
I am greatly discouraged (DEPRESSED) that she was a little “too big” for a regular model since she was closer to a size 4. If 8 is plus size, then I am super jumbo max plus plus plus size. :D
Wait, for real? A 6 or an 8 is considered plus size? Why didn’t I know that? And how fucked up is that?
I missed this season, which is very tragic, but I’ve been following the talk ever since I heard a plus size girl (6 or 8? seriously? god) was in serious contention. My feeling is that the younger girls who watch the show are probably not going to run into talk about the controversy–they’re going to just see that a curvier girl won, and the idea that Whitney’s win could simply be a really positive message For the Youth makes me really happy.
I’m happy that she won, but this whole thing about her being told to gain weight just cheeses me off. There are so many beautiful, talented ACTUAL plus-size women (some of whom have been on previous seasons), and they have to fake it this way? Ugh.
She will probably have a career, and even do things for Elena Miro and Marina Rinaldi (a couple of Italian plus lines that have pretty good stuff). Most “plus” models are actually statistically average: in the 12-14 range.
I’m glad a plus sized girl won, even though she isn’t actually fat. I’m a little upset though that it had to happen through consipiracy – what kind of message does *that* send? And I’m not even referring to the “gain X pounds and you’re guaranteed a spot” thing, but just that Anya was obviously the better model, and Tyra apparently just wantd to cross “have plus-sized girl win ANTM” off her checklist.
I do think that sort of thing will go over the heads of younger viewers, though, so this is good in that respect.
Fat comment on national TV by stylist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwgHxIzULXM
The only time I watched any of this cycle was during a marathon that MTV ran over this past weekend, but I believe it was mentioned in the episode where they went on the go-sees that Whitney was a size 10.
Still not exactly plus sized in the real world (at least to me, anyway) and it is pretty sad and sorry that it is considered to be so in the modeling world. Then again, so much about that business is sad and sorry, but that is a whole different discussion.
well the last girl that one salesha or whatever was marred in controversy too b/c she had worked for tyra before and modeled before and it says in the contract for antm that you cant do that so to whole show is pure fakery
she is far from being plus sized. i will agree that she is bigger than most models that win that show, but she is fat. she is just tall and not as anorexic as the others.
She is plus sized for a runway model. The terminology is different; it doesn’t mean the same thing on the runway that it means in a retail clothing store. I find it annoying that tv shows exploit that without explanation, so everyone starts saying “OMG size 6 is not huge!!!” It just seems like another way to make people feel weird about size.
I say this as a size 14 person, who used to be size 22, and works in fashion. I am not a model, and so my size has never, ever been an issue in any way.
I enjoyed people saying she’s a juicy booty model because she is. I do find it morbidly amusing that people are still surprised that a size 8 is called plus size in the high fashion modeling world. Of course it is. Given that the sample sizes are 0-2 an 8 is plus size/big/fuller figured quite literally.
Is it dumb? Yes but not surprising to me.
All that aside I was glad she won. I don’t really believe that it’s not set up but I’m not really bothered by it either.
I think Tyra banks is bullshit.
I think she’s fake and her shows are absolute rubbish. And if the conspiracy side of Whitney’s win is true, I am actually appalled.
But, I didn’t watch this cycle. Last year was enough for me.
Now, I’m not a good guess of sizes, but on Whitney’s Wikipedia page, she’s listed as a size 10 shoe and a size 12 dress. I don’t think so! She looks much thinner than that! And what she said at the end after her win about being called all sorts of names and being mistreated by her peers, I could relate to that even if I see no reason that she was on the receiving end of that poor treatment.
Plus size keeps getting smaller, and old keeps getting younger.
I’m assuming that someday soon we’ll be looking at size zero and 15 years old as EWPLUSSIZECRONEZOMG1!ELEVENTYONE so someone remind me again why I should care?
Proof that the modeling world is completely alienated from the rest of the world…. no matter what size she actually is, people are easily able to believe that someone size 6-8 could be a plus sized model
I think Tyra Banks is such a hypocrite. On the past episodes of ANTM she would pick apart the girls photos, telling them they needed to elongate their bodies to hide their natural rolls. I specifically remember one girl who gained a little weight on the show and Tyra kept commenting on how much they had to photoshop the fat out of her pictures and that she needed to stop gaining weight because she wasn’t a popular enough model to where she could get away with being fat enough to need to be photoshopped. Thens he turned around and ripped Janice Dickenson a new one for saying a girl was too big to model (during the vote-off, not in front of her), and said something about people like [Janice] are the reason girls suffer from ED’s.
I also despise her attitude towards strippers/prostitutes. She likes to talk about how their jobs objectify women and how she just doesn’t see how they lack self respect, yet she doesn’t think that her modeling in thongs and swimsuits for Sports Illustrated and Victoria’s Secret is objectifying women.
Is it at all possible that Whitney, like other models before her, was living on a starvation diet in order to maintain that size 4 and is now closer to her “true” size? I haven’t followed the show at all this season, and I certainly can’t discount the conspiracy theories, but this was the first explanation that popped into my head.
Plus size?! PLUS SIZE?! Give me a freakin’ break! *I* am plus size at a size 22! A size 8, 10, 12 … that’s not plus size in the least! I was a size 12 in high school in 1993 because I literally starved myself and that was never ever considered fat back then! I was a skinny chick at a size 12 and no one batted an eye at my size or weight. WHAT HAPPENED?? I pity girls in high school now!! My god…the world has deffinately gone mad!! I’d have respect for ANTM if they had a size 22 or an even larger lady winning the contest. Now THAT would be a plus size model! I can’t even begin to imagine the damage that is going to be done to millions and millions of girls and women who will be duped into believing that a size 8, 10 or 12 is plus size!! I have absolutely nothing against being fat myself but the fact that we fat women are known as “plus size” sends a message that we are The Others, the Abnormally Sized Others and therefore not as good as the Normal Sized women… Why can’t we all just be Women without size designations??
“It’s a victory for every girl out there who’s ever savored a good ham sandwich.”
Maybe I am taking it out of context, but that’s kind of a dumb comment.
Interestingly enough, they called her a “real-sized” model quite often, and there was frequent acknowledgement, at least in the early episodes, that she’s actually too small for a plus-sized model (since there’s a very specific set of measurements used for designer samples). It makes me wonder if she’ll actually be able to get non-Tyra-enabled work in the real world at her current size, since it’s inbetween what the modelling world wants.
As many others have said, I’m glad someone outside the traditional stick size 0 won, but I wish they would have actual plus sized models (that win).
I’m mean, I know they had Toccara on there one season, but she didn’t win did she? I think she’s beautiful, much more so than most other women I’ve seen on there (or win). But I’ve only watched a few episodes of the show ever, so my basis for comparison is small.
The thing about Toccara, Liza, is that she has been so successful in other realms after Top Model. She was on a show on BET, and she did some commercials, she was on Celebrity Fit Club. And that’s just for stuff on TV!
I’ve always been confused because the winners for top model sound like they would be really activie in advertisement for Covergirl, but whenever I see Covergirl ads (except for that initial month when the winner is releases) Covergirl uses models from superstars like Drew Barrymore or Queen Latifa. So I wonder what other works do they do commercially to have a contract with them?
I know she has, but I’m still pretty sure she didn’t win ANTM. My point was really that I think she’s more attractive than most of the other women that have been on those modeling shows yet she is an exception. Yoanna House was pretty, too, and they hassled her about her weight because she had lost 50 lbs to be on the show and (gasp!) still had the occasional skin roll over her waistband or something.
(and careful mentioning CFC on here, I’m sure there are many people who see her participation in that as some sort of betrayal, much like Queen L’s Jenny Craig contract)