America's Next Top Blog Post
Sometimes I go looking for stories; sometimes people send me stories; sometimes I stumble across stories as I go about my life. And last night I spotted a story in my referral logs: this site was getting a spike in traffic from people searching for "Tyra" and "fat" and finding this post. What happened, I wondered? Had Tyra put on another fat suit?
Here's what I've been able to piece together. Tabloids published pictures of Tyra Banks in a swimsuit. Gossip websites posted the pictures. Tyra Banks fought back.
"'I don't want to sit in front of you and be soap-boxy and fake and say, "I love myself, I'm beautiful, it's great,"' says Banks, who is 5 feet 10 inches tall. 'I still feel hot, but every day is different. It's when I put on the jeans that used to fit a year ago and don't fit now and give me the muffin top, that's when I say, "Damn!'" In other words, yes, she has put on weight, though not nearly as much as recent tabloid stories have suggested. 'I've made millions of dollars with the body I have, so where's the pain in that?' she says. 'If I was in pain, I would have dieted. The pain is not there - the pain is someone printing a picture of me and saying those (horrible) things.'"
So did her spokespeople.
"She's saying yeah, she's put on a little weight but she's at a healthy body weight and a healthy size and her big concern is young girls who look up to her, saying, "We think you are so beautiful and love that you are not a size 2"... What are they going to think if they see [her] picture being called these horrible things? Espinoza said that Banks knows she contributed to this image of perfection during her years modeling. Now she wants to be honest about all the work that goes into looking that good and what she really looks like. On "America's Top Model," Banks doesn't pick excessively thin women and deliberately chooses models of all body sizes... [she] acknowledges that she is not a model anymore and doesn't have to adhere to those standards."
She's also going to be on the cover of People Magazine (this fabulous blogger has posted a photo of the cover). And next week, Tyra will be talking about it on her show. And there you have it, my friends! If the people come here seeking answers, I will find them.
Here's what I've been able to piece together. Tabloids published pictures of Tyra Banks in a swimsuit. Gossip websites posted the pictures. Tyra Banks fought back.
"'I don't want to sit in front of you and be soap-boxy and fake and say, "I love myself, I'm beautiful, it's great,"' says Banks, who is 5 feet 10 inches tall. 'I still feel hot, but every day is different. It's when I put on the jeans that used to fit a year ago and don't fit now and give me the muffin top, that's when I say, "Damn!'" In other words, yes, she has put on weight, though not nearly as much as recent tabloid stories have suggested. 'I've made millions of dollars with the body I have, so where's the pain in that?' she says. 'If I was in pain, I would have dieted. The pain is not there - the pain is someone printing a picture of me and saying those (horrible) things.'"
So did her spokespeople.
"She's saying yeah, she's put on a little weight but she's at a healthy body weight and a healthy size and her big concern is young girls who look up to her, saying, "We think you are so beautiful and love that you are not a size 2"... What are they going to think if they see [her] picture being called these horrible things? Espinoza said that Banks knows she contributed to this image of perfection during her years modeling. Now she wants to be honest about all the work that goes into looking that good and what she really looks like. On "America's Top Model," Banks doesn't pick excessively thin women and deliberately chooses models of all body sizes... [she] acknowledges that she is not a model anymore and doesn't have to adhere to those standards."
She's also going to be on the cover of People Magazine (this fabulous blogger has posted a photo of the cover). And next week, Tyra will be talking about it on her show. And there you have it, my friends! If the people come here seeking answers, I will find them.
17 Comments:
I saw this this morning and immediately thought, I have to tell BFD!!! Sorry fore the Fox news link, but it's the only one I've found...
Man, I'm an inch shorter than Tyra and 160 is my goal weight. It's so weird that some people consider that fat.
Oh, girl, when I was in high school I weighed 130-135 and I got called fat. And then I believed it.
It's a sad fact of this society that we live in that someone with a healthy body and a few feminine curves is considered fat. As someone who actualyl IS fat, I would trade bodies with them in a heartbeat.
I am still unable to figure out where the whole "skinny is better" mentality is coming from. I have never ever heard a man say that they prefer a Kate Moss to a Catherine Zeta Jones or a JLo. They may not want a Rosie, but they certainly prefer curvey over skeletal any day.
HAH!
Heather, for a trippy moment I thought you meant me. I go by Rosie in real life...I was thinking "what? she can see me?" The I Realized you mean Rosie O'Donnell. D'oh!
Tyra's BMI is 23, well within the standards of "normal weight". Unfortunately, the industries that made Tyra a success -- fashion and entertainment -- have so distorted our concept of what a healthy woman looks like, that she takes flak from cranky critics. Should she be surprised? No, in a way she's partly responsible. But beyond wearing a fat-suit for her talk show, at least Tyra had the grace to speak up early in her career about the difficulties of being a model and maintaining a healthy head and body. The woman is ahead of the curve in so many ways.
Rosemary Grace- :-)
I WAS refering to Rosie O'Donnel but after I posted it, I realize that her personality is the most ugly part of her....much more so than weight. Unfortunately, when people start to bash her about her narrow minded views or lack of cooth (is that spelled right?!), the terms "fat" and "slob" usually come up as well. It's amazing how people link fat to negativity.....even I fall prey to the trap!
BoycottTheBag:
I am so-so about Tyra. On one hand, she is showing that people can be beautiful w/o being a size 0. And her fat-suit episode was (IMO) done to try to show people out there that you shouldn't judge on looks alone.
Where I have an issue with her is during one of the episodes of ANTM (can't remember which season since I watch sporatically), there was a beautiful yong woman competing and all she got was FLAK for being "chunky". Even Tyra sat down and talked to her about it. Tyra acknowledged that she (meaninging Tyra) had decided that trying to stay at a illogically low weight for her body size was not healthy, and she didn't do it anymore. In the same breath, Tyra told the girl that she needed to find a way to get these extra lbs off if she had any chance to stay in the competition. I thought it extremely hypocritical.
I still think Tyra's beautiful and that the negative comments directed at her are completely uneccessary. However, they may be a tad bit karmic in nature.
I don't think you can blame Tyra for setting a model straight about what the modeling business is about. That's what a good mentor does is tell you what it's like in the real world.
As for fat suits? Blech. There are actual fat people who are willing to fill you in on what it's like to be fat in America.
I wonder what would the reaction be if I went out in blackface and tried to get on Tyra's show so that I could give my insights into what it's like to be African-American? I'm guessing I'd get shown the door.
I think Tyra Banks is beautiful, But i also think that she is hypicrital (spellcheck). She says healthy curvy woman are beautiful, right. Then why did she make it such a public matter, that she wasn't big. If she thinks or thought big woman were beautiful, then she would have held her head high, and not went on Larry King, or went public with it. I know she made it big as a model, but now that she isnt why does it hurt her if someone calls her fat. I think Tyra is beautiful, and i dream of having that body. But she has to think something other then what she is saying, cause if she didn't she wouldn't have made it such public cause some stupid tabloid said she was fat. So what. And I know from experience, I myself am a fat teenager. I am almost 18 and weight 190. And I hate it when someone says oh your not fat. Cause I'm proud as hell to be big. And I will stand firm ground, with someone saying big isnt beautiful. Cause every inch of my round body is beautiful and so is Tyra's but going public with not being fat, just made me think that she doesn't like being curvy or big. But i still love me some Tyra.
Tyra is sooooooooo cool i cried when she said to all those people who have been mean to larger people.I`m always getting called fat and ugly but when Tyra said I said to my self Tyra can be over wieght and she can still do a million things so why not me! You go Tyra! Oh and you should look at Jesse McCartney he is Hot and SEXY!
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WOOWOOW! tyra banks is DEFFINALEY not fat! whoever of you idiots believes those ads at the top of the computer asking if tyra banks is fat and you can get a free ipod. well bull crap!! if you said yes your not winning anything because your wrong. does anyone here watch the tyra show?? hello! the one show where she tried on the exact same bathing suit from that ad and said " does it look like im fat?" and it was nothing like the picture so screw you all.Anyways..I am trying out for americas next top model when i turn 18. I have always wanted to be a model since i was a little girl.
Okay, Amber, we didn't need eight comments saying the same thing! None of us thinks Tyra is fat. That's the entire point of this website.
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