Watched the Reality Check ANTM Doc
Feb. 22nd, 2026 11:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
merydianI don't really know where else to talk about it, lol, so just dumping my thoughts here. Basically, the docuseries was necessary and understandably could only do so much, but I don't feel that it brought a ton of new information to light or made the most of the opportunity.
I grew up watching America's Next Top Model and I've kept up with a lot of the retrospective controversies that have come out over the past few years. I was quite young when the show was at its height so it has been really interesting to see how fucked up it all was in ways I wasn't able to recognize then. At the same time... I distinctly remember a lot of unethical stuff that still hasn't been given proper attention both from watching it as a child and from seeing clips pop back up on YouTube, which has made the distribution of time in the doc kind of bizarre.
For one, more attention should have gone to telling the models' stories. It was really good to hear from the subjects of so many of the resurfaced controversies (Danielle who they forced to close a gap in her front teeth, Keenya who they bodyshamed constantly...), but so much was still left unsaid. I distinctly remember an episode where they made a legally blind model walk an uneven staircase in the dark while wearing high heels, for example. And while I know logically they could only bring in so many examples, knowing everything that was neglected makes the amount of time they spent talking about drama between the judges feel really bad, lol.
I feel... conflicted about people in those positions; different people had different amounts of power, but it didn't seem like anyone took proper accountability for what they could control. I do understand the legal and PR issues of being fully honest, but... even the doc's own framing was kinda bad at times. Clearly, it was people like Tyra, Miss J., Jay, and Nigel who gave the show its heart. There's also the behind the scenes producers and network execs who, because they were not the faces of the show, are given a lot less blame for choices they made. It is important to know how these roles all differ, but it just felt bad that the docuseries tried to bring so much nuance to these dynamics that it came at the expense of the models' stories? Why did they devote so much time to the fact that Miss J had a stroke and Tyra didn't visit him in the hospital? It IS interesting to know that the guys were unfairly let go in such a messy way. It does give a better idea of how their authority compared to that of people like Tyra. But. I feel like in the docuseries and in interviews, they band together to professionally shift disproportionate blame to Tyra and, while she ABSOLUTELY DID SO MUCH WRONG OH MY GOD, I think the fact that she is a black woman makes people more likely to accept the guys' Sainthood at face value. ANYWAY.
With the production of the docuseries, I appreciate that it seems no one from the show had any actual power over it so it was able to be authentic, BUT I have heard that many of the models were not paid for their appearances and I feel icky about how many influencer videos they tossed in there without permission or compensation. There are some people who have outright said as much (like Jessica Kobessi, whose ANTM retrospectives really helped bring a lot of the issues to light over the past few years AND WHO HAS A TON OF REALLY INTERESTING INTERVIEWS WITH FORMER CONTESTANTS THAT I GOT MORE OUT OF THAN THE DOC JLK;lkj;ljas). I understand that the public response to all of this resurfacing IS an important piece; it is integral to understanding why we are outraged about these things now and how it is reflective of societal changes. But... is it ethical to lift clips of TikToks where people who probably only have 46 subscribers are talking about the show giving them an eating disorder, and immortalizing that to millions of Netflix viewers? Their usernames were also not in the displayed footage, but maybe they were in the credits for the tiniest bit of exposure for the people who want it I guess, who knows.
I did learn a few new things, particularly the new context to the horrific situation with Shandi and hearing more from former contestants about, for example, 15 years after winning having a conversation with Tyra where she admits she knew the show would tank their chances of an actual career in the modeling industry and DID NOTHING ABOUT IT. But there were a lot of other people it would have been good to have on and... since it seems like most of the models weren't fucking paid for their appearances... it easily could've been done, lol.
Just an overall conflicting experience, tbh. And I think that can be a good thing - this fucking show was an insane mix of opening doors with representation (Miss J. being so unapologetically queer! That trans woman model Isis! "Plus size" models proving their capabilities! All of which introduced me to a lot as a kid in a more positive manner than I would have gotten elsewhere at the time!) AND broadcasting vulnerable teens' assaults and dangling them off cliffs and tearing them down in every possible way because featuring a dark-skinned black model at all was already so progressive they had to be intensely racist toward her to balance it out. I also wish the doc had leaned so much more into how dangerous and unnecessary most of these photoshoots were than... drama between judges...
That is what ends up being unsatisfying to me beyond the objectively conflicting experience it was going to be regardless; everyone is complex and no one is pure evil but too much time went to parasocial sympathy for the people who profited from these girls' misery for two decades. I guess it has lifted ANTM's issues above Youtube/TikTok drama viewership and into more standard public consciousness, and maybe with those discussions people can get a fuller picture that feels more balanced, idk. It did fine, I guess. Not groundbreaking, but necessary and fine.
Will be back to normal fandom posting after this, lmao.
I grew up watching America's Next Top Model and I've kept up with a lot of the retrospective controversies that have come out over the past few years. I was quite young when the show was at its height so it has been really interesting to see how fucked up it all was in ways I wasn't able to recognize then. At the same time... I distinctly remember a lot of unethical stuff that still hasn't been given proper attention both from watching it as a child and from seeing clips pop back up on YouTube, which has made the distribution of time in the doc kind of bizarre.
For one, more attention should have gone to telling the models' stories. It was really good to hear from the subjects of so many of the resurfaced controversies (Danielle who they forced to close a gap in her front teeth, Keenya who they bodyshamed constantly...), but so much was still left unsaid. I distinctly remember an episode where they made a legally blind model walk an uneven staircase in the dark while wearing high heels, for example. And while I know logically they could only bring in so many examples, knowing everything that was neglected makes the amount of time they spent talking about drama between the judges feel really bad, lol.
I feel... conflicted about people in those positions; different people had different amounts of power, but it didn't seem like anyone took proper accountability for what they could control. I do understand the legal and PR issues of being fully honest, but... even the doc's own framing was kinda bad at times. Clearly, it was people like Tyra, Miss J., Jay, and Nigel who gave the show its heart. There's also the behind the scenes producers and network execs who, because they were not the faces of the show, are given a lot less blame for choices they made. It is important to know how these roles all differ, but it just felt bad that the docuseries tried to bring so much nuance to these dynamics that it came at the expense of the models' stories? Why did they devote so much time to the fact that Miss J had a stroke and Tyra didn't visit him in the hospital? It IS interesting to know that the guys were unfairly let go in such a messy way. It does give a better idea of how their authority compared to that of people like Tyra. But. I feel like in the docuseries and in interviews, they band together to professionally shift disproportionate blame to Tyra and, while she ABSOLUTELY DID SO MUCH WRONG OH MY GOD, I think the fact that she is a black woman makes people more likely to accept the guys' Sainthood at face value. ANYWAY.
With the production of the docuseries, I appreciate that it seems no one from the show had any actual power over it so it was able to be authentic, BUT I have heard that many of the models were not paid for their appearances and I feel icky about how many influencer videos they tossed in there without permission or compensation. There are some people who have outright said as much (like Jessica Kobessi, whose ANTM retrospectives really helped bring a lot of the issues to light over the past few years AND WHO HAS A TON OF REALLY INTERESTING INTERVIEWS WITH FORMER CONTESTANTS THAT I GOT MORE OUT OF THAN THE DOC JLK;lkj;ljas). I understand that the public response to all of this resurfacing IS an important piece; it is integral to understanding why we are outraged about these things now and how it is reflective of societal changes. But... is it ethical to lift clips of TikToks where people who probably only have 46 subscribers are talking about the show giving them an eating disorder, and immortalizing that to millions of Netflix viewers? Their usernames were also not in the displayed footage, but maybe they were in the credits for the tiniest bit of exposure for the people who want it I guess, who knows.
I did learn a few new things, particularly the new context to the horrific situation with Shandi and hearing more from former contestants about, for example, 15 years after winning having a conversation with Tyra where she admits she knew the show would tank their chances of an actual career in the modeling industry and DID NOTHING ABOUT IT. But there were a lot of other people it would have been good to have on and... since it seems like most of the models weren't fucking paid for their appearances... it easily could've been done, lol.
Just an overall conflicting experience, tbh. And I think that can be a good thing - this fucking show was an insane mix of opening doors with representation (Miss J. being so unapologetically queer! That trans woman model Isis! "Plus size" models proving their capabilities! All of which introduced me to a lot as a kid in a more positive manner than I would have gotten elsewhere at the time!) AND broadcasting vulnerable teens' assaults and dangling them off cliffs and tearing them down in every possible way because featuring a dark-skinned black model at all was already so progressive they had to be intensely racist toward her to balance it out. I also wish the doc had leaned so much more into how dangerous and unnecessary most of these photoshoots were than... drama between judges...
That is what ends up being unsatisfying to me beyond the objectively conflicting experience it was going to be regardless; everyone is complex and no one is pure evil but too much time went to parasocial sympathy for the people who profited from these girls' misery for two decades. I guess it has lifted ANTM's issues above Youtube/TikTok drama viewership and into more standard public consciousness, and maybe with those discussions people can get a fuller picture that feels more balanced, idk. It did fine, I guess. Not groundbreaking, but necessary and fine.
Will be back to normal fandom posting after this, lmao.
