Everyone’s so performatively woke about the new Netflix America’s Next Top Model documentary… you won’t hear anyone say THIS

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If beauty is pain, America’s Next Top Model was torture.

Netflix’s new three-part documentary, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, currently the platform’s most popular show, reveals the harsh realities behind the scenes of the famous competition. The series puts creator and host Tyra Banks under scrutiny, exploring the show’s impact and controversies.

The main issue is that Banks refuses to apologize. She’s resisting pressure from those promoting progressive viewpoints and is instead reinforcing her original stance.

Hallelujah.

This document has attracted widespread attention, with even major news sources like NPR, Forbes, and The New York Times reporting on it.

The UK Telegraph: ‘The shocking story behind what was once the best reality contest on TV.’

HuffPost: ‘Inside America’s Next Top Model Isn’t the Reckoning We’ve Been Waiting For.’

The Cut: ‘Tyra Banks Isn’t Sorry Enough.’

Sorry for what?

For fifteen years, starting with its debut in May 2003, the show quickly became popular and offered young women from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to pursue careers as models – and even become famous supermodels.

According to former contestants, they were stunned to discover the pressure to be extremely thin, potentially get cosmetic surgery, and have their appearances constantly judged and criticized.

To say nothing of their apparent incredulity at how ruthless reality television could get.

According to Ken Mok, an executive producer on America’s Next Top Model, the worst possible situations often create the most compelling television. He explains that seeing contestants severely ill – with high fevers, vomiting, and needing IVs – is actually ‘the best news’ from a production standpoint.

At least he’s upfront about things. Some people, like Andy Cohen, present exploiting reality TV stars as if they’re actually helping them, even claiming it’s freeing, but it’s not genuine.

In a 2024 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Andy Cohen described his Real Housewives series as fundamentally feminist, explaining that it often portrays women gaining confidence, exploring their identities, and embracing their sexuality.

If Cohen defines ‘feminism’ as publicly shaming women when they’re vulnerable – like during drunken arguments, arrests, struggles with addiction, divorces, or when exposing others’ private issues with drugs, money, or relationships – then, yes, you could call it that.

The biggest criticism of America’s Next Top Model is that Tyra Banks originally presented the show as a way to challenge the fashion industry’s narrow definition of beauty – one that historically favored thin, white models. Essentially, she used this message to attract contestants.

But once the show took hold, everyone knew what they were really signing up for.

Whitney Thompson, a contestant on Cycle 10, recalls being a size 6, 5’10” and 115 pounds when filming began. She initially felt good about her appearance, but seeing herself on television made her reconsider, saying, “Oh wow, maybe not.”

Switching to the fashion world was a harsh change. I experienced a lot of hurtful body shaming, with people making cruel comments about my weight, and it was really upsetting.

Thompson was already quite slender, considering her height. However, the high fashion industry demanded even thinner models, and unfortunately, achieving that often involved unhealthy methods like eating disorders, drug use, smoking, and relying on Diet Coke to suppress appetite.

Is that completely effed up? Yes, of course.

Then again, Ozempic wasn’t available yet.

Is it fair to single out Tyra Banks for problems that are deeply rooted in the fashion industry and the nature of competitive reality television – both of which have a history of negatively impacting people involved?

Reality TV offers a unique deal: if you’re not naturally gifted, well-connected, or privileged, but desperately crave fame, it can be your opportunity.

In return, you agree to be ritually humiliated, degraded and bullied. That’s it. That’s the deal.

One contestant willingly sat through hours in a dentist’s chair to have four teeth pulled, all in an attempt to improve her smile. Meanwhile, Dani Evans, who won Cycle 6, didn’t want to close the gap between her front teeth. She didn’t know about the ’70s supermodel Lauren Hutton, who was famous for having a gap tooth, and couldn’t use that as a reason when Tyra Banks pressured her – so she eventually agreed to the procedure.

Everything has a cost, but some former contestants on America’s Next Top Model seem to think the show was meant to be a place for personal development, rather than a competition.

Trying to re-examine old cultural moments with today’s values is often a waste of time. Everything should be understood within the context of when it was created. This documentary asks us to be upset about challenges from the past where contestants were asked to portray different races – white models wearing blackface, and Black models made to look Asian.

But guess what? Every contestant went along with it.

What I find most troubling is former contestant Shandi Sullivan accusing the show’s producers of not stopping her after she became heavily intoxicated—she claims she “blacked out”—and ended up having sex with a male model while cameras were rolling.

Instead of simply a regrettable mistake that upset her due to fears of losing her boyfriend, the situation is now being presented as a potential sexual assault.

It would have been best if someone had stepped in, much like they did on a 2023 episode of Below Deck when a very intoxicated crew member seemed to be on the verge of being attacked by another cast member.

But reality TV will always go as far as it can, and as far as network lawyers will allow.

Is producer Mok remorseful? Not here.

‘We treated Top Model as a documentary’, he says.

Tyra Banks isn’t backing down from any criticism and is already planning a new season of America’s Next Top Model.

‘You have no idea,’ she says, ‘what we have planned for Cycle 25.’

Whether this documentary helps or hurts, plenty of people will still want to participate.

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2026-02-19 21:20