Disturbing: America’s Next Top Model crowns skin and bones teen as “winner”

CBS News reports that the “reality” show America’s Next Top Model has chosen dangerously thin Dallas teenager Ann Ward as the winner of this season’s contest, and that the show’s creator and host – former model Tyra Banks – is unapologetic about the ANTM panels’ selection:

(CBS) Tyra Banks has said she wants her hit show “America’s Next Top Model” to respect all types of beauty. Wednesday, the program held true to that philosophy by crowning 19-year-old Ann Ward, a strikingly thin, 6’2″ model, it’s winner.

Images of Ward’s unusually tiny waist – small enough for a man to fit his hands around – shocked fans of the show earlier this year.

[…]

Whether or not Ward is naturally thin, some eating disorder experts worry when bodies like hers are held up as a paragon of beauty.

“I don’t know what this model is doing, but some of my clients are as skinny as these girls,” says Marisa Sherry, a New York-based nutritionist specializing in eating disorders. “My clients are restricting or purging in order to get their bodies that way.”

Sherry says unrealistic fashion images on television, magazines and the Internet are having a negative effect on her clients. She did not single out America’s Next Top Model.

As many as 10 million Americans are now struggling with eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, according to the National Eating Disorder Association.

In the past, America’s Next Top Model has elevated plus-sized models like Tocara and Whitney Thompson. Tyra Banks herself has been ridiculed for being both too thin (as a child) and too heavy (as a talk show host).

Here’s the picture of Ward that started the controversy over whether or not she was too thin:

Ann Ward
ANTM winner Ann Ward. Photo courtesy of ANTM.

You can view more photos of Ward here. Judging by those as well as the above photo, I seriously doubt she is that ‘naturally skinny.”

I’m sorry – Ward’s figure is grotesque. There is no debate. This girl is dangerously thin, and Tyra and Company ought to be ashamed for promoting the image that a stick figure is an acceptable body type for any woman, let alone extremely impressionable teenage girls.

Here was Banks’ ludicrous full statement:

“I am committed to expanding the definition of beauty which includes ALL shapes, sizes and proportions, from skinny to curvy and everything in between,” Banks continued. “During this season of ‘Top Model,’ you will see that Ann provided another opportunity for me to support a young woman struggling with her own body image issues (she’s 6’2?; and is the receiver of countless stares and ridicule). Helping young ladies, like Ann and countless others that have confided in me, furthers and supports my core mission.”

“Core mission”? What – to promote even the look of anorexia? If that’s the case, congrats, Tyra. Mission accomplished. What a disappointment, considering Banks has battled weight issues herself and has lashed out more than once at pop culture’s obsession with uber-thinness over a more healthy look.

As I’ve written before, Hollywood plays a big role in our culture and is extremely influential – too much so – with a lot of young people today. How stars look, dress, talk, and act is oftentimes reflected in many an impressionable teenage guy or gal, and sometimes the images some of those young people project as a result are unhealthy either physically or emotionally – or both. Of course, Banks and her panel of “judges” on TV ratings winner ANTM can pick whoever they want, but they should use their positions as arbiters of “beauty” both wisely and responsibly. With this pick, they’ve demonstrated that they are neither wise nor responsible, and that they’ve embraced the status quo of stick thin models that is so prevalent in modeling and Hollywood today, the exact image that our young women should emphatically reject.

Flashback:

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