Surviving Tyra Banks.

I learned some years ago that Tyra is a “mean girl” and now that there is a documentary on America’s Next Top Model I’ve been sceptical about diving in because “would I be chasing confirmation bias?” Or am I actually scared of finding details that back up the claim?

Someone just called “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model” Surviving Tyra Banks. I captured some of the things that left me shocked

1. Those first extensions they put on the girls made them oooooold.

Shanon made me sad

2. Tyra telling a black woman, the only black woman in the show, that her skin is hard to work with… is maaaad

3. Don’t tell me a model got groped on and it was published on TV 😲.

And went on to record her in her brokenness talking to her boyfriend “confessing” to cheating

4. Would you please tell me why this show accepted girls only to tell them that they’re ugly and should undergo cosmetic surgeries?

5. Doing a gun violence photoshoot right after she shares that her mother was shot is maaaad.

Seeing Jay Manuel also speaking of how his triggers were disregarded, makes me wonder what Tyra’s emotional intelligence score is.

6. Clapping back at her fat-shamers while fat-shaming girls smaller than her is mind boggling

Calling a size 6 plus size is madddd 😂😂😂

7. It’s actually scary how you’d call for help when someone is groping you on set and everyone looks at you like you’re crazy and at the end of it all, their best selected picture is indeed the part where the guy is touching you.

Bantu mwe! 🥺

8. How did Tyra take part in her own smear campaign?

9. Could it be true that she’s using the “bad publicity is still publicity” mantra for Cycle 25 that she announced?

10. I’m holding such a strong side eye on Ken Monk. I don’t know but how is he a producer of two abusive shows – “Making the Band” & “America’s Next Top Model” – and he is presented innocent?

***

So somewhere when they talked about their journey of pitching their idea, I sympathised with Tyra. She had a dream. She approached partners she believed would have the idea executed. They adopted the idea and started deciding who had to stay and who had to go.

I also saw an overpowered black woman with a dream, cornered to play by the standards of the white dominated industry – to make sure that her dream doesn’t die. It however scares me if someone is ready to trample on anyone and everyone just to keep their dream alive.

Her relationship with J. Alexander and Jay Manuel makes me think of the kinds of people that will only keep you close for their benefit but don’t really like you. For a team that he started with to bring this idea to life, even if she wasn’t able to protect them from being fired, she owed them a sense of dignity but then again, on the other hand I do not feel sorry for them because when you lay in bed with a snake that’s biting everyone, without you doing anything stop it, it eventually it will bite you.

Tyra’s is also presented as someone who doesn’t like anything that opposes her idea of life. It’s either her way or the highway. Again, said she cared for the friendship she had, Jay Manuel did not have to be treated like an outcast just because he asked to leave the business.

And I’ll ask again, what kinds of terms did this woman sign? Could it be that she sold the show to the media house and that lacking its ownership was too embarrassing to admit?

Someone argued that Tyra’s behavior is just a reflection of the time. One of the former models said the same but even then, it doesn’t make anything right.

That exchange with Tiffany Richardson left me conflicted. I felt like Mother Tyra was just being the African mother to Tiffany but I also like the fact that Tiffany stood up for herself. I could almost understand that Tyra got to love this girl that did not hesitate to back out at the sight of a challenge but she went overboard and Tiffany swears much of what Tyra said was edited out. Tyra’s emotional intelligence score is low. It’s in her lack of emotional regulation and poor interpersonal relationships.

This woman, instead of apologizing, she decided to give us a TEDtalk about how calling out someone is how people change. 😂 Mad! And then went on to announce the return of the show. 😂 That’s a scary person.

So the 3-episode documentary wasn’t enough for us to know that Tyra is indeed a “bad” person, Nigel and the Jays have to do media tours to re-emphasize it?

These people were part and parcel of the very system that broke these ladies that came out to speak. They saw these things but never spoke up. Yes, Jay Manuel said he wanted out but Tyra chose to go ice-cold on him. This was most likely because he suffered his own share of abuse from Tyra but it doesn’t take away the fact that he overlooked and supported most of the things the models complained about.

So apart from being thrown out without notice, what does Nigel and J. Alexander have to say?

Eva Marcille swearing that she had no idea that all this was happening in ANTM is actually possible for people that are just taken up by other things but one thing is for sure, there are some things you cannot miss if at all you care about your environment.

Also these girls went through all this torture for nothing? Brands swore they couldn’t risk taking them on as models because customers would be more focused on them and not the brands.

Photo: CNN

Written by

Nabuguzi. Kiwanuka

Lawyer. Founder, Director, CEO at Equate Foundation. Podcaster - Hash Time with Nabuguzi Kiwanuka. Drawer. Dance lover. Music lover. Risk-taker. Daily learner.

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