Reality TV - America's Next Top Model by Graham Stanley

America’s Next Top Model, a televised modeling competition created by Tyra Banks in 2003, is not all the it claims to be. Tyra herself preaches about accepting all types of beauty and using ones sexuality as a source of strength, not as a way to appeal to men.
The linked blog post highlights the many ways in which Top Model contradicts itself. For example, is discusses a final runway show in which the models slide down the runway covered in mud and oil in skimpy bathing suits. This is an extremely sexual act that does not put across Tyra’s ideal of strength.
She also promotes accepting “different types of beauty” by accepting applicants on the show like Thalia Brookins, a girl whose body is scarred from burns, or Isis King, a male to female transexual. There is very minimal chances for either of these girls to make it into the modeling world whether or not they are on the show. By having these contestants, Tyra appears to be a humanitarian of sorts, while still crowning the types of people who are commercially viable to be “America’s Next Top Model”.
Another modeling archetype is the plus size, or, as Tyra calls them, “Fiercely Real” models. This title not only implies that women who are not this size are less real than plus size women, but it also has extreme limitations. Contestants like Laura James  are lauded for representing healthy or curvy women who aren’t stick thin, while her ribs and collarbones are in plain sight. Most models who are deemed as being “plus size” are actually normal sized women by society’s standards. By giving them the title of being plus sized, regular women who watch the show will see themselves in that light which does not promote body confidence and acceptance that Tyra claims to put across.

http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/32600000/ANTM-college-edition_episode-10_challenge-posing-with-dolphins-americas-next-top-model-32687214-593-354.jpg (Laura James, representing a “healthy” and “curvy” model that is considered large for the industry)

http://antm411.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/005689404fa.jpg
 (Alexandra Underwood, Plus Size model)

While Tyra preaches that women should be strong in themselves and independent, she also states on her show that models are supposed to be a canvas for the photographer, designer, or client. These conflicting messages get to thousands of young girls who watch the show. These girls will link the two together, believing that being a strong person in the modeling world means by being shaped by others.
America’s Next Top Model also shapes and pushes masculine appearances. The male models that appear as guests on the show are stereotypically masculine and extremely physically fit. On the other side of the spectrum, the contestant’s male mentors, like J Alexander or Jay Manuel, are very stereotypically homosexual. Either way, young males watching the show will be subjected to only two types of masculinity and be influenced in that regard.