Dear Tyra, We're Gonna Need That Scrap Fabric

Consider this an open letter to Tyra Banks, current Queen and Overlord of the America’s Next Top Model (ANTM) regime.

You’re show is awesome, and I mean truly.  You pick twenty tall, skinny girls, and make them compete for your love through a series of challenges and photo shoots.  And, we get to see them claw at each other, and generally make fools out of themselves on a weekly basis, all on national television!

 I know you guys know that your audience is full of pre-teen girls (and brown up girls too) who think that all of the clothes and makeup, living in the giant mansion and hobnobbing with celebrities is kind of glamorous.

You know how easily influenced they are.  For example, Ms. Banks, you made the models give up smoking on the most recent cycle of ANTM.  Kudos to you!  It’s totally unhealthy, and we totally don’t need to see any more of that on TV.

You know what else is really unhealthy that we totally don’t need to see any more of?  Very skinny, almost dangerously thin models.  Once again, Tyra, I know that you are all about booty.  You love yours.  You want everyone else to love their own.  And I know you always try to get a plus size girl or two in the top twelve.  But, can one or two curvy girls actually balance out all the protruding collarbones and shoulderblades?

My proposal is to follow suit with the organizers of Madrid’s fashion week who, two years ago, made a deal with the Spanish government that required all models who wanted to walk the catwalk to have a body mass index (BMI) of 18 or higher.  BMI is a calculation based on height and weight, any number below 18.5 or above 24.9 is considered unhealthy by the World Health Organization.  Apparently the Spanish fashion industry negotiated some leeway to get it bumped down to 18.

It’s a sensible and logical solution.  The measurement is tied directly to health, and it’s not designed to punish girls who are naturally thin (as much as we love to hate them), but those who are really and truly too skinny and unhealthy. 

If you’re thinking that a BMI of 18 might leave the runways deserted, Madrid only turned away 5 out of 68 girls in 2006.  However, it is possible that models who knew they were too thin stayed away from the show all together.

I’ve heard several explanations over the years for the fashion industry’s obsession with thinness.  Years ago, I ran across a magazine article that suggested it’s just easier to design clothes for skinny women.  The fewer curves you have the fewer variables the designers have to calculate in.  This summer, Nolé Marin, fashion director of Canada’s Next Top Model, suggested that it’s the personal tastes of Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour that dictate the industry standard.

Marin’s argument isn’t without merit.  Wintour, and her iron grip on the industry, is such an icon that she’s often parodied in movies, such as The Devil Wears Prada, and TV shows, such as Ugly Betty.   Whatever the case, there are some deeply entrenched attitudes in need of an adjustment.

Personally Tyra, I think you can one-up Madrid and Anna Wintour.  Institute a mandatory BMI of 18.5 for all contestants of the next cycle of America’s Next Top Model.  Sure, you’ll lose a couple of potentials, but there are scores of girls cueing up to take their place. And just think of what it will do for the ratings.  As a former Vogue cover model who’s had her own battle with the media over her weight, you are the perfect person to deliver this message.
 
Further Reading:

“Spanish fashion show carries out threat to ban too-thin models” http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/09/16/fashion.html

“Short Models Need Not Apply”
http://www.hfxnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=37281&sc=95

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