'America's Next Top Model': Goodbye L.A., aloha controversy

Before I get into the details of the show, what kind of Show Tracker would I be if I didn’t address the controversy that has been brewing around this week’s “America’s Next Top Model”? In the final photo challenge, Tyra transformed each contestant into some combination of two nationalities and the media have called foul. I know. It’s not even sweeps week, Tyra!

All kidding aside, the media have been buzzing over this all week. From the looks of some of the articles, they hadn’t even seen the show and jumped to calling the shoot “blackface.” What a loaded term!

Unlike our culture here in the States, which still obviously shows major discomfort when it comes to race, even as we currently have a mixed-race president, some cultures actually celebrate the beauty of difference. I’m quite familiar with the term “hapa,” which Tyra used as her inspiration for this week’s final photo shoot. My mother is half Italian American and half Filipino while my father is from Guam, a Pacific Island and American territory.  We actually lived for some years in Hawaii where the term, as Ms. Tyra explained, is used frequently to describe people of mixed race. In the Pacific Islands, the term doesn’t carry anywhere near the kind of baggage that “blackface” does in the continental U.S.

On the other hand, I’m not naïve enough to think that Tyra’s transformation of the contestants’ skin color in a TV show doesn’t contain some similarities to the idea of performing in “blackface." I just choose to believe that by styling the ladies as they did in this photo shoot, Tyra and the producers sought to celebrate the beauty of mixed-race people, not to stir up the obvious racial prejudices that some of my media colleagues were so quick to invoke this week.

What do you think? Sound off below with your thoughts. With that out of the way, let's get back to the show.

Even though Rae left us last week, her influence in the house has remained. The women seem to be finally getting along, except for Brittany. She just can’t seem to loosen up like the other girls have. That will come back to haunt her.

As the girls arrived home after last week’s elimination...

They were welcomed by hazard tape and men in hazmat suits. Inside the house stood Tyra amid the mess that the girls called their home. Though Tyra has a penchant for overdramatization, she was definitely justified in condemning that place. It made frat houses look like five-star hotels. After announcing that the girls would have to move, she revealed that their backyard had been transformed into a Hawaiian wonderland. Guess where the girls are going?

In Hawaii, the contestants met up with petite model/surfer Sofia Beschen and former Tommy Hilfiger model/surfer Buzzy Kerbox for surfing lessons. What a surprise when Jay Manuel showed up with their challenge: modeling while surfing. I have to say that it was pretty impressive that the ladies could even stand up on their boards let alone strike a pose for the camera. All of them looked awkward, but the contest came down to Brittany’s ability to stand up straight and Erin, who actually found a way to stay on the board while posing with angles. Erin won a helicopter ride around the island and surprisingly took Brittany and Nicole, who I think were just the first two she saw when she turned around. After the trip, 18-year-old Erin complained, “It wasn’t like winning a tangible prize like dinner or jewelry.…” Someone should tell her how much a helicopter ride costs.

The next day, the women met Jay standing in a sugar-cane field for the infamous “hapa” photo challenge. Just as he was going to introduce the photographer, Tyra came out of the stalks carrying a stalk that looked like she hacked it off with the sheer power of “smize.” As she and Jay explained the race-crossing challenge, she annoyingly chewed on bits of sugar cane. Dang, girl, couldn’t you have waited until the cameras stopped rolling?

Now, I know the controversy this week was all about the race-bending. I was more baffled by Tyra’s random choice of nationalities in which the girls would portray. It was almost like she was just making it up on the spot. “Erin, you’re going to be Tibetan like the Dalai Lama and [pause, then crazy arms] Egyptian!” Okay, so I was kind of  offended by this week’s styling. Tyra, you did not just give Mrs. Roper’s muumuu to Moroccan/Russian Sundai! But Tyra did explain: “Every outfit is not necessarily what people of that culture are wearing now. It may not even be something they wore in the past. It’s a fashion interpretation.” OK, totally makes sense now.

During the shoot, most of the girls took a while to get used to all the inappropriate clothing and head-to-toe makeup. Nicole, though, seemed to wear her Japanese/Malagasy character like a second skin. I’ve come to believe that Nicole is sort of like a chameleon with her ability to adapt easily to each photo shoot. Brittany looked stiff, though, in her Native American headdress, and Erin just seemed scared of Tyra the entire time.

Supermodel Kirsty Hume joined the judging panel this week and helped name Nicole the challenge winner. Erin and Brittany made up the bottom two. I think that even though Erin should have mastered her “smize” by now, Brittany finally bored the judges enough to send her home.

Erin seems to be skating by on winning the earlier challenges. What do you think her chances will be next week when the models are schooled in the art of bikini modeling?

-- Jethro Nededog (Follow me on Twitter @TheRealJethro)

Related:

‘America’s Next Top Model’: The contestants have to come up with personalities

‘America’s Next Top Model’: The contestants fight to stay on top

Complete ‘America’s Next Top Model' coverage on Show Tracker

Photos, from top: The contestants move to Hawaii on "America's Next Top Model." Credit: Ryan Goble / The CW; Yep, that's really Nicole in her winning photo on "America's Next Top Model." Credit: Tyra Banks / Pottle Productions Inc

Comments

[Janet Lynn Davis]

Absolutely, I felt this was the case:
"I just choose to believe that by styling the ladies as they did in this photo shoot, Tyra and the producers sought to celebrate the beauty of mixed-race people, not to stir up..."

[Jen]

Hi!

Just a quick sound off about the hapa challenge. I am hapa (Chinese/Black) and I quite liked the idea of celebrating a cross section of cultures. She was in no way using the idea of black face in a literal degrading term. People forget that the use of Black face in our history was beyond painting a face black, the real issue was infusing the make up with stereotype behavior gesticulations that were degrading and demoralizing. It was about imbuing the actor with negative attributes rather than celebrating. She didn't have the girls jumping up and won acting like fools or doing any stereotypical things people may associate with certain cultures. I do have one issue. I don't know why they didn't paint Sundai white.

[joyce]

great show tyra!

[lucy]

Wow. This is ridiculous. This is NOT an issue. I love how America finds unimportant topics like this to post in the news when we need to be talking about "world issues" not what ridiculous things Tyra Banks has going on. How embarrassing. Also this photo shoot was beautiful, nothing wrong with it at all.

[linda]

i think this should be like the tv show with the jacksons. it not fair to be all mean to that show and not this show. tip for people dont cover your face black if your white.

[erica stephens]

Who watches this show? Non discriminating young girls? Look at the line up,find a black girl,preferrably ugly(translated,an interesting face)who barely speaks in sentences and thats your winner.

[Connie Machuca]

I agree with what you say here. I do not believe that making a huge deal out of the ethnic combinations. I did not see the show, but I am very curious now to see how they made the mix. And even though people get "ofended" that the first thing they change is the skin tone, they have to admit that is one huge differences that white americans have with some of the other countries in the world. and modeling is also a branch of art, so we cannot expect them to dress models exactly the way that they would in the countries mentioned. I mean, in one way or the other, they would have needed to include their own interpretation.
And also, there are some people out there that are just so comfortable with their ethnicity that they do not see things like this as "ofending" like the rest of the world who cannot handle putting two different countires together. Geez!

[Ness]

What is wrong with America and the obsession with colour? If you are all so offended by someones skin tone then why do you have spray tanning? Isn't that another version of darkening skin colour? Are you offended by this too?