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Blog > Thoughts > Sean's Thoughts > Missing Britain Top Model – My early take

Missing Britain Top Model – My early take

Written by Sean on Sunday, July 27, 2008

I’ve now watched two episodes of Britain Missing Top Model (BMTM). There’s a couple more available on YouTube, and I’ll catch up soon. Before saying anything else, I must fess up – I follow America’s Next Top Model (ANTM). Not religiously, but our Tivo catches every episode and we watch it. And it is hard to watch one modeling competition without comparing it to ANTM.

Something was nagging me when I watched the first episode. During the second episode, I think I realised what it was. The "girls" in BMTM don’t appear to deliver the same standard of "top model" than the ones in ANTM. Even in the early episode of a season of ANTM, there appears to be more "model competence". Now, this might be due to a number of things, including the level of training and coaching and length of time before the episodes are shot. I don’t know. It’s just something that came through.

I am left wondering what the purpose of the show is. Jonathan, the main "mentor", said to Sophie, a participant who uses a wheelchair, that it was to find a model first and foremost. He made the point to her that they couldn’t hold a show just for paraplegic, just for Deafies, etc. Point taken. He further said that it was not about making a political statement. Point further taken. So we focus on modeling ability, solely.

But that gets me back to "what is the point"? If it is purely to find a model, why not pit the girls with disabilities against any other aspiring model, disabled or not?

When I worked in the disability rights field, we had a bit of a struggle. The ongoing question was whether or not the director of Independent Living Centres should have a visible disability? If the disability was not visible, the implied message was that the ILC was directed by someone without a disability, and that meant "Abled Bodied" telling people with disabilities what to do. It isn’t the case, obviously. But that was the message most people would take out of it, consciously or not. Of course then the next question is, do you hire someone with a visible disability that is not as competent as someone with a non-visible disability that is more competent?

This is, in part, the struggle I see with the show. Obviously, if they want a model, they need to pick the best model, regardless of how visible her disability is. Competence first. But if that was the point of the show, again, why not make it a "real world" challenge?

I am NOT dismissing the difficulties and barriers faced by those who have an invisible disability. Heck, I live with one. But it seems to me not to be what the show is (or should be) about.

So on this, I tend to agree with Sophie’s feelings (the Sophie on BMTM, not the one who is active on this site). Of course, Sophie might have issues with someone with BIID to start with, so maybe my agreeing with her won’t change anything. I don’t know. In any case, Sophie, you’ve got a supporter here. But to be fair, purely from a "model competence" point of view, you’re not up there yet! Focus girl, focus and grab the prize (this said hoping you haven’t been eliminated yet!).

Interviewing the girls who leave

I was offered by the show’s PR agency the opportunity to ask the departing girls some questions. This is cool (and maybe they’ll direct Sophie to this blog…). Anyway, if you have questions you’d like to ask, please send them to me and I’ll pass them on to the PR wonks :)

This PR person also informs me that: “You might also be interested to know that you can download Disability Bitch onto your desktop in the form of a desktop buddy. This feisty character will be appearing on the Britain’s Missing Top Model site throughout the TV series, providing regular updates on the progress of the series, facts about disability and conducting video interviews with each evicted model in her own unique, no-nonsense style. After the series, this desktop buddy will update users on when the latest Disability Bitch column is available on Ouch.”

Tags: BIID, BMTM, Britain's Missing Top Model, Disability, Wheelchair

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