A Supermodel Going Natural Is "Brave?"
The usually be-wigged Tyra Banks kicked off the season of her horrific talk show by manufacturing a “Real Hair Day” and showing off her "real" tresses (albeit chemically colored and straightened) on the premiere episode.
A woman who has been paid because she is extraordinarily beautiful is telling us norms that we should embrace our natural selves? And we’re supposed to applaud her “bravery” during this ridiculous publicity stunt? Bite me, Ty-Ty, you egocentric monster.
I bet cancer patients would love to have access to the quality wigs you do, Ms. Tyra. I bet poor women would love to have the nutritionist, stylists, hairdressers, makeup artists, personal trainers, etc. that you have. But Ms. Sensitive didn’t think of that when she was telling us to “love ourselves.”
Thank God we have Tyra Banks to show us that we should ignore all of her ads, catalogs, and runway shows that made us feel crappy about our looks in the first place. Thank you, Tyra, for making money on the backs of our misery and then turning around and lecturing us about “inner beauty.” And thank you for not realizing that it’s easy to talk about loving your beauty when you are a 5′10″ supermodel.
(After all, remember that Tyra has flaws, too! Why, sometimes she has bad breath in the morning!)
Oh Tyra, you truly are a gift. An arrogant, condescending, self-important gift.
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11 Comments
Wow. What a negative post. I also don't understand how anyone can hate someone that they have never met and don't even know.
I like the idea of a "real hair day" and find that life is a lot nicer when I don't compare celebrities lives to my own.
Thu, 2009-09-17 01:54
I'm glad to see your response, Alice. Now if we could just hear from Christine...
Wed, 2009-09-16 20:32
In terms of what I write, I only represent myself, not the panelists, not Momversation. I don't agree with everything the panelists say or write about, nor do I expect them to agree with me or even like my blunt style.
And not everyone is going to like or relate to every Momversation; that's simply the nature of the beast with the mixture of people we have.
Fri, 2009-09-18 14:09
I've got to tell you, Christine, I don't want this to be the kind of content Momversation puts out there. This just made me recoil.
Let's have a conversation, not a diatribe against another human being.
You HATE her? Really? That doesn't seem too strongly worded to you? If she were dying, would you rejoice? Has she killed anyone you love?
I'm not surprised Sunny responded with the same level of vitriol against us, because that's what happens. You get back what you put out there. I would suggest, Sunny, that you don't have enough information to judge, but it's a little hard to act high and mighty when this kind of content is used on the site that supposedly speaks for us.
Let's not do this. Please.
Wed, 2009-09-16 17:42
I hear ya, Sunny. I have to say - still a fan of this site. Maybe it's because I'm still the loser sitting at the back of chemistry class, hoping the cool girls will talk to me...talk to me cool girls! I'll help you with your homework!!
I am 'working class'. Actually, I aspire to one day be working class...now I just have no class. I'm raising four sons on my own and could fill your head with awful pathetic sob stories about our life, but I won't.
Some friends of mine and I have started a website, http://smalltownmoms.com, to celebrate the working class lifestyle. Shift work, school barbeques, being a renter (gasp!), volunteering in your kid's class in between your monring job and evening gig. Check us out.
Cool girls - check us out too!!
Wed, 2009-09-16 06:47
I do not watch this show, thank god after what I just read. But looking at early photos of tyra, pre-surgery, pre-fancyrichshit you see the beauty in the woman. Although it is very very easy for her to outwardly embrace her beauty and flaunt it (and face it, who wouldn't?) It is not easy being an attractive person. Just like being handicapped or deformed or considered abnormal in any sense beings hardships, so does being exceptionally attractive. That sounds ridiculous but I consider myself very blessed in the looks and build. Before pregnancy I was 5'8 and a size zero but incredibly shapely, I guess you would call it. Long legs a great ass, beautiful face, hair, skin, bone structure... everything. I consider you to be a very beautiful woman as well, please recognize that. I find women like you to be far more attractive than most of these models. I have struggled throughout my life with my appearance and the hardships that (surprisingly) come with being beautiful by societies standards. The eating, the not-eating, the high standards you feel you have to live by, the self mutilation when i had nothing else to control. i was basically a stereotype. I love your writing, despite what others think i find your "tone" to be very amusing and i live the bitch that you come off as. You should not assume it is easy for her. Yes, she is a shallow self absorbed c**t by all appearances but that could be a huge thing for her. I share all of your opinions. But not all women who have model beauty have it so easy. Being attractive makes a lot of things incredibly easy but it CAN come with devastating effects as well. Keep up the writing, i dig your stuff, lady!
Tue, 2009-09-15 17:04
By easy for her i mean the baring her hair.
and sharing your opinions of tyra. sorry, i dont know whats wrong with my writing today lol
Tue, 2009-09-15 17:06
OK...maybe now you can relate to how I feel about some of the episodes of Momversation. For example, it seems pretty damn silly and insulting to discuss whether or not you're willing to give up your gardener (!) in a recession or send your kid to summer camp when there are moms (and dads) out there who must choose between paying the light bill and buying milk. Talk about condescending and self-important.
Tue, 2009-09-15 14:03
Good memory, Sunny—that one has come back to bite me a few times. I suppose it's hard to convey why the recession is exactly why I have to keep the yard looking good: I have to be able to put it on the market in a heartbeat when I finally cannot hang onto it anymore. We choose between food and bills all the time. I have bills you would not believe for simple procedures going to collections because I don't have health insurance. I'm looking at the PG&E bill sitting unpaid on my desk, and have been for two weeks. My cell has been turned off twice for nonpayment - and this is a tool I need to be able to get work and for keeping up with clients. My kids are on the free lunch program, and according to the charts, our household of four is well below the poverty line, especially since my ex does not pay child or any other kid of support.
So, yeah, I guess I wish people would consider context and the benefit of the doubt before insulting our choices. I depend on Momversation for food and housing. I love doing videos for them. And I love the diversity of opinion. I just wish there was the same range of tolerance for those who may be in the same leaky life raft with others like you.
And I'll address the summer camp thing one last time: when you are the sole support of three little kids, and have to work to support the family, what do the kids do while I'm working? Not camp, because I can't afford it and my parents have gifted it for too many years so that I could work. This year I worked AND took care of them all summer, and now that they are in school, I have six hours to work and all the wee hours, too. Notice that it's 4:38 and I'm up, editing video and finishing up projects before I wake, feed, dress, and ferry the kids to school.
I resent the "condescending and self-important" comment. If you were to ask anyone—anyone at all—who knows me, those would be the two last words they would use to describe me. I don't normally engage negative comments, but this one came with stupendous timing: as I write, my ex may have to move because he can't afford the rent without reliable income, and unemployment in our area is twelve percent. We are STRUGGLING, people. What am I going to do when he moves and the kids have to change schools? How can I consider cutting my losses and selling my house when the kids' father is changing everything about their home with him? And how can I read a comment like yours without wanting to tear my hair out in frustration, when the choices I make are very, very carefully weighed against the greater good, for the greatest chance of survival for my family? You have no idea what it's like to be me, and I have no idea what it's like to be you. The difference is that I would never presume to insult you in public about something that is so incredibly important and runs to the core of what we do to protect and parent our children.
Wed, 2009-09-16 03:57
The words "condescending and self-important" come from Christine's original post. I was just pointing out the fact that the same "logic" Christine used to complain about Tyra Banks could also be applied to Momversation videos.
I don't have time to respond to the rest of your comment right now, as I work a 50 hour a week job outside the home, and I'm getting ready to leave for the day.
You see, some of us, when faced with bills we can't pay, seek employment other than creating websites or being freelance consultants or embarking on international travel bankrolled by corporate America so they can swim with plankton or whatever it is the majority of Momversation panelists do (yet another reason why I think these videos are out of touch with modern motherhood).
Can't Momversation find women who represent a more accurate cross-section of American motherhood? Right now it's mostly white-upper-middle-class. I don't care if your kids get free lunch, Mindy, you are still upper middle class in many respects.
Where are the women from different social, cultural, financial and educational backgrounds? Oh wait...those women probably don't have time to sit around mugging for the camera, discussing pressing issues like whether or not your child has your nose.
Wed, 2009-09-16 05:44
Sunny,
It's painful to have to explain things to you that you should be able to get on your own.
I left a job where I worked six days, twelve hours a day, supporting my entire family, including my ex. I never saw my kids. Since then, I have founded a nonprofit, have been an exec at two startups that failed for reasons beyond my control, was a product manager for a company that was bought and broken up, and have consulted for Fortune 500 companies. It just happens that there is a dip in employment coupled with my ex's refusal to pay support.
HOWEVER, my children are happy because I make time for them and love them, and they admire my ability to stay positive, keep a safe home, and be there when they need me.
You seem to have a real problem with empathy and an inability to think for a minute before you write. Are your kids in care? Are you doing the best you can? Then put a sock in it and stop tearing down other moms doing the best they can. You are welcome to seek entertainment at some other site.
I'm going to leave your comment hanging here, with no further attention. You are a piece of work.
Wed, 2009-09-16 07:33