Australia’s Next Top Model
(image from Throng)
I have a confession to make.
I’m a little embarrassed about it.
I, Sonya, watch …
Australia’s Next Top Model.
I have ever since it first started airing. My sister and I would have the tradition of every week it was on; we would race outside to the lounge room, crank up the volume and sit in silence for the hour. Except for commercial times, when we would let our critiques fly.
Looking back, these critiques weren’t especially nice. They were critical critiques. Tearing the girls down from the comfort of our armchairs. Never even realising or recognising that there was a person, not a character on the television screen in front of us.
When I discovered fat acceptance and health at every size, I had major discomfort with watching the show. I had major discomfort with critiquing the wannabe models. So, I stopped watching for a bit, feeling it was hypocritical for me to continue watching a show that conflicted with my ideals.
Until I came crawling back. Feeling like, what I probably am, a hypocrite.
It was the “controversy” this year that did it. The uproar over the “fat” model and the critiques many people have voiced about the show. I had to see what the fuss was about.
And, like most “controversies” on reality television, it was built up into a huge thing. A wannabe model was told she didn’t fit in the sample sizes, despite her being, at most, an Australian size 10, and then was eliminated last night anyway.
Except … this IS a huge thing. A sixteen year old girl, whose body, while still model-thin, is told she is too curvy for the clothing and it is somehow her fault? But, just to show we’re diverse, we’ll have the judges worry about whether one of the girls who got through is too slim.
No. No, no no no no no no. And no.
However, like the hypocrite I am, I will probably continue to watch the show. I do think, though, if I want to critique it, I want to know what I’m talking about when I do.
But speaking of inner conflict, are there any things (shows, magazines, clothes, people) you enjoy that cause you to feel like a hypocrite? Confess! Let it all out.
This is great!
I too loved watching this show, not regularly, but when I was there and it was there I enjoyed sitting down and letting my brain waste away at the television screen. I mainly liked seeing the awesome things they got to do; the dressing up in costumes and sets, the challenges of fulfilling other characters in just one snap shot; the variety of tasks they were given.
I think this is the time to admit that not that I’d ever buy any womans day, new weekly or anything similar, I actually quite enjoy flicking through the pages in a doctors surgery or waiting room to look at accessories, clothes, hairstyles and business of what’s going on in the celebrity world. I don’t think it’s necessarily out of care for who they are or what they’re doing, but just a general interest to what’s new without feeling pressure to need to be like that to be hip.
Siobhan
Don’t feel so bad! Very few people live to their ideals all the time, it’s fine to slip up, and its admirable that you’re aware of it. It’s okay to be a hypocrite.
My reasoning is that I watch those trashy shows ‘ironically’, but truth be known, I watch them because I enjoy them! (Hopefully) we’re still above the trash, we don’t have to sit like sponges and take it all in at face value, and we can be critical (maybe more of the show than the girls though). Watching a TV show (again, hopefully) doesn’t make you suddenly immoral or a horrible person.
Hah, thanks for the validation, guys! 😉
Siobhan, I think your mag reading also explains part of the reason I still post and read the Australian Vogue Forums. That, and I have met some wonderful and intelligent people on there. I don’t just fangirl over True Blood (cough).
Erin, I agree! I think it’s ok to let yourself be a sponge sometimes and it’s ok to watch things to “switch off”. But it’s also important to apply critical thinking to shows that you watch, especially reality tv or current affairs programs.