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Home / Thoughts / Other's Thoughts / Gordo's Thoughts / Britain’s Missing Top Model: a review

Britain’s Missing Top Model: a review

Written by Gordo on Thursday, July 17, 2008

I was looking through some random stuff a few weeks ago, and came across an article about a show in the UK called "Britain’s Missing Top Model." The premiere was scheduled for July 1, and basically mirrors the format of "America’s Next Top Model," but with a catch — the models all have some sort of disability. The first thing I thought to myself was: "BBC — don’t screw this up."

I have never been a big fan of reality shows and generally loathe them to no end, but this one seems different somehow, and not just from a BIID perspective either. It is a big step forward in the disability movement, even if it’s just some reality show airing on BBC 3 in the UK. For that reason alone, I was compelled to watch.

It’s really refreshing to see a show like this come up. Ever since these modeling reality shows started airing, it’s always been about "beauty this, hotness that." These shows seem to comform to the notion that while personality is a plus, being beautiful is really the only thing that makes a woman attractive to men. As a male, I don’t really see how this works out in reality because (except for the really superficial guys) most of the males I know will not go for beauty without some sort of acceptable personality.

With that said, if this show went the opposite direction and portrayed butt-ugly girls who have great personalities, it’d seem awkward too. As one of the judges commented in an interview, before the show aired, I was really hoping it would not turn out to be some sort of "freak show" where you have 8 girls in wheelchairs doing really weird things.

Thankfully, I don’t think BBC screwed up that much. There were some parts that made me wonder a bit, but in general they pulled it off quite nicely. None of the girls are "butt-ugly." If the objective is to show that there are some beautiful girls out there who just happen to have disabilities, then they certainly succeeded.

One thing that pleasantly surprised me was the range of disabilities being represented. While I think there is an over-representation of amputees, they also included deafness, brain injury, a genetic disorder, paraplegia and so forth. They could have easily had 3 paraplegics and 4 deaf models, but they chose to dip a toe in each pool, which was a smart move. They even had a disability I’ve never even heard of, called hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies. It’s very educational in that sense.

Similarly, there was some mixture in their hometowns; the majority of the models were from Britain, but there was one from the Netherlands and one from the United States.

The main beef I have is with the judges. One of the judges has a disability herself (quadriplegia), but it was her attitude that rubbed me the wrong way. When it was time to eliminate one of the models, she wanted to eliminate some models due to their appearance. Basically, it is her opinion that to be a spokesmodel for the disability community, the disability has to be obvious in some way. With that in mind, she was tempted to vote out one of the deaf models.

While I’m just a guy with BIID, not a "real" disability, that struck a nerve with me. Are visible disabilities, such as amputation or paraplegia, somehow "more important" than those that might not be visible, such as deafness and traumatic brain injuries? Her attitude, especially considering that she has a disability herself, really ticked me off.

However, one of the other judges had the right idea — the fashion magazine publisher. She looked at the result of the models’ first photo shoot without this "how are they displaying their disability?" attitude, and instead looked at the models at how well they did their job. At one point, she looked at one of the models’ photos and said something like, "I’d be proud to publish this photo in my magazine any day of the week." She said it not because the model was displaying her disability or anything similar to that, but because the model DID A GOOD JOB. The model’s pose was elegant, her facial expression was appropriate, and the photograph was oozing with personality. THAT is how the winner should be determined.

Only one episode has aired so far, but it was a very strong premiere. Unfortunately, it takes some time for me, in Canada, to get a hold of an episode (since it airs in the UK), but I highly recommend it. For those who live in the UK, it’s on BBC 3, Tuesdays at 9pm UTC.

(I’m cheering for Jessica.)

Tags: bbc, BIID, Britain's Missing Top Model, Disability, disability movement, television, tv, UK