Tyra Banks A Hypocrite?

I'm sitting her right now, I just took a sip of mud water (caffeine free diet coke) and cracked my knuckles feeling the old feeling of myself being on the cusp of a good rant. It won't be backed up with any real data as most rants aren't and it'll probably end up being wrong, narrow-minded, or just piggish, but that's what rants are, right? I'll probably even contradict MYSELF by the end of it, just wait and see.

I'm glad you're here for the ride.

Watching an episode of America's Next Top Model from this most current season I felt kind of sick. Kim loves that show, and it's fun to watch the models (whoo, they're picks of the litter, they are) and their valued opinions on topics that vary WIDELY. On the episode I saw today Jay Alexander, one of the... choreographers - for lack of a better term - told one contestant she was being too "hoochy."

Slutty, sexy, alluring, seductive, enticing, beckoning, etc. etc.

She was all this and too much so.

Pull it back he kept saying and she mentioned that yes, she's very sexual BUT she never considered herself too hoochy.

Later, when being judged Tyra went out of her way to make sure she knew that high modeling is NOT "hoochy" but "jeans and a tee shirt."

Whoa, whoa, whoa, Tyra. Let me think here for a second. You've got me all out of breath.

Didn't YOU become a household name in America by posing in your underwear? I don't even think I paid attention to her in a swimsuit (since swimsuits are less sexual to me than underwear since you wear swimsuits deliberately for wide audiences to see but underwear for significantly smaller audiences (maybe)) but always in her underwear.

Maybe I don't pay enough attention to high fashion. I know I don't. One of the judges asked a girl who her favorite photographer was and I was reaching for an answer myself. Even if I widen the spectrum to, oh, just about everything, I can't nail down ANY photographer's name (no offense to photographers) so I'm obviously not part of this "high fashion" world she speaks of, BUT I did look at the Victoria's Secret catalogs as a kid and I know why Tyra Banks' name is known to me (even before TV execs went nuts and gave her the reins to just about everything). It was because she was almost naked. It was because she was all the sexy words I posted earlier.

She was "hoochy."

What I think this is, is that she knows it and she's trying to outgrow that, like a band who is known for one song that will try their hardest to drop it from the set list only to have the crowd chant it as they leave the stage, demanding an encore.

It won't go away. Ever.

That's what I think is happening anyway. Maybe over time her attitude toward that kind of modeling has changed (she certainly has the right to change her mind) but standing there and telling a girl not to do something SHE DID and that made her so much money, paving her way to a household name, several TV shows, and basically anything she wants, that's a little messed up. I know if I was that girl I'd probably question her motives. If all I had to do was pose seductively for X years to get all this STUFF, well, shouldn't it be up to me whether or not I should do it? Is the opinion of those stuffy people in "high fashion" going to have any say as to what I'm going to do with my money?

I mean, there's posing in your underwear and there's posing in Hustler. There IS a difference and honestly, I don't see too much difference between VS and whatever the heck is a good example of high fashion. Most of the time high fashion is confusing and boring (you read it here first folks: chicks crying NEVER makes for good pictures, I don't care how "artfully" it's done) so don't feel bad about stripping down so long as your morals are in check.

And I am all about YOU choosing what YOUR morals are. Do whatever you feel comfortable with.

But Tyra, shame on you, for flaunting everything taking your clothes off gave you and telling some chick she shouldn't do the same. "Do as I say, not as I do," is a HORRIBLE motto for life.