Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Tyra Banks off the island

I'm not anti-model or against the fashion industry, but it displeases me that Tyra Banks has a show featuring her opinions on people's lifestyles. I've only taken note of her shows when I've found out she's been disparaging people's lifestyle choices (ex: polyamory, elective surgery, being in the porn industry, etc). In the shows I've looked up, Tyra Banks will invite an interviewee, ask a few questions about their choices, make a rough and dubious assessment about the person, and then accuse the interviewee of lying when they deny her assessment. An example of this is when Tyra interviewed an Asian women who chose elective surgery for an eye lift. The interviewee said she chose the the surgery to reduce bags under her eyes. Tyra accused the interviewee of lying, on the basis that the woman was too young for an eye lift (according to Tyra). Tyra then leaped to the conclusion that the interviewee was a self-hating Asian, and that she elected for eye surgery to "look less Asian". Tyra compared this to herself in the modeling industry, when she wore hair weaves instead of styling her natural Afro-American hair. This to me, seems like a large leap of logic to assume that the interviewee was a self-hating Asian, or comparing elective surgery to hair styling. More importantly, who is anyone to judge a person's choice for cosmetic surgery? Elective surgery does not inherently make someone a bad or unhappy person. Tyra Banks has also had similar interviews with couples in open relationships, porn stars, and other alternative lifestyles.
Its not that I think Tyra Banks is the worst person in the world or anything, but I do think she is a bad influence on the media. She sets an example to people that they should be ignorant, judgemental, and biased. Instead of trying to understand other people's choices or lifestyles, its much easier to disparage something you're not familiar with. Tyra Banks is also making a bad rep for lesser understood groups of people.
It harmful to society to create prejudices instead of promoting understanding and education, and that is exactly what Tyra is doing on her show.

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