Tyra Banks' beauty dictate: 'Gap your teeth'
By urging an "America's Next Top Model" contestant to get counter-intuitive dental surgery, has Banks undermined her supposed commitment to natural beauty?
The video: During a makeover segment on Tuesday's episode of "America's Next Top Model," host Tyra Banks recommended that a contestant have a slight gap between her teeth surgically widened so she'd resemble model/actress/'70s icon Lauren Hutton. Banks' young charge was more than amenable to the idea, exclaiming "Make it as big as you want it" — she had a dentist "shave off a quarter of a millimeter" of tooth to achieve the desired gap-toothed effect. As Gawker reports, the style world has recently embraced the gaping look for its supposed "authenticity."
The reaction: "Funny, isn't it," says StyleBistro, given that "Tyra preaches about positive body image and the importance of accepting one's natural look on this same show." Still, says Tracie Egan Morrissey at Jezebel, the seemingly contradictory move makes sense for a show "in which advice, instruction, and definitions of beauty are arbitrary, contrary, and totally confusing." Case in point: In a previous season, Banks advised a different model to make "the natural gap in her teeth less prominent." Watch Tyra change her tune:
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Will Gary Lineker's departure be an own goal for the BBC?
Today's Big Question Former star striker turned highest-paid presenter will leave Match of the Day after 25 years, with BBC head of sport reportedly declining to offer him a contract
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
The potential impact of Trump tariffs for the UK
UK goods exports to the US could be hit with tariffs of up to 20% seriously affecting the British economy
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Shoot to Kill: Terror on the Tube – a 'raw' and 'riveting' docuseries
The Week Recommends Channel 4's 'gripping' two-part show explores the Metropolitan police killing of an innocent man in the aftermath of 7/7
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published