Tyra mail!

I know y'all are looking at your monitors sideways, all, "Ramps are on slants. Are they taking us to a skate park?" Or, "Slants? Asymmetrical haircuts? Are we getting new makeovers?" The answer to both is: no! But I am giving you a reading assignment.

Every once in a while, someone gets all high-brow on the low-brow and attempts to intellectualize ANTM -- there was a humorous piece that ran in BUST last year and a far less humorous, less insightful one that ran (I think) in The New Yorker at the start of the fourth cycle. Neither of those could have predicted brilliance that is my buddy Ed Gonzalez's take on it over at Slant. Creating coherence out of a show that, to a lesser eye, would appear to be campy nonsense, Ed points his gaze where so few have glared. He makes a case for Tyra's drama baiting, illustrates the show's potentially positive subversion of the American standard of beauty and gracefully proves exactly why "Go back to Africa!" was a fucked up thing for Brooke to say ("Nnenna isn't from Africa but from Texas (where she was born), and no one has told Jade to go back to Philadelphia just yet," he writes).

Earlier this year, Ed became my No. 1, can't-miss film critic, the guy whose opinion I regularly disagree with but nonetheless am addicted to (Roger Ebert filled this role until he made me feel bad about myself). I realize that as a friend, my praise carries little weight (I'm not saying all this because I'm mentioned in the review, swear!). But as a fan, it really means something when I say that this time, Ed has outdone himself.

(It's here in case you somehow missed the link above.)

Comments

[spazmo]

Sweet! Slant has been near the top of my favorites folder for years. Just a couple below FourFour, actually.

I never agree with Ed Gonzalez. Ever.
That's why I love those guys. The go out of their way to be contrary.
Actually, one exception: the "Masters of Horror" reviews are dead-on.

You so famous Rich. And hot.
Don't exercise. With arms like those, who needs a six-pack?

[FingerBang Joe]

Kinda long but I'll finish it later I promise.

[Jude]

The Gonzales article was a good read. I particularly agree with him about Tyra's determination to at least try to push a nonconventional, ethnic beauty--even if the challenges seem sometimes a little too obviously rigged to make her points.

Gonzales, however, made no mention of Tyra's vagina arms. For that and for so many other reasons, you are the true ANTM authoritah.

[Lauren]

Interesting article. By the way, I felt just like a giddy ANTM contestant when I clicked on your page and was greeted by unexpected TYRAAA MAIIIIIIIIIL!

[Brandon]

Tyra mizzle.

I think Jade really is my favorite ANTM character of all time - other than Tyra, Janice, and Miss J of course.

[pepper]

Rich, I love you baby and don't want to dis your friend, but your recaps have more perceptive analysis in just about any given paragraph/gif/sentence than that whole piece.

[svrb]

I think the difference between Nnenna and Jade (or any other girl on the show) is that the show itself isn't constantly playing up Jade's "Philadelphian-ness(ness, in Jade's case)", calling her a "Philadelphian queen," or putting her in photo shoots involving Philadelphia. According to Brooke (and maybe she's a liar, I dunno), in addition to all the emphasis already put on Nnenna's African background, Nnenna talked constantly about Africa and how great it is. I'm not excusing her comment at all, because the girl certainly should have known better than to say something that sounded so ignorant and inflammatory, but I don't think it's as simple as the Jade comparison makes it out to be.

Definitely a good read, though.

[juliet]

Juzwiak, really?

[Ed Gonzalez]

Thanks, Rich, for the shot-out (and for the pictures I swiped). I didn't know if I had the will to write the review over the weekend but your comment "It's all fun and games until someone says 'Go back to Africa'" proved to be some kind of incentive (a validation of my feelings, which I'm so used to people chalking up to contrarianism its no longer hurtful or insulting): Another person who loves the show but isn't afraid to look beneath its surface! I might forgive you know for being so "strange" after "Strangers With Candy." ;)

[Carl!]

One thing about the Brooke/Nnenna comment, though: Brooke said, "She should go back to Africa *if it's so great.*" That last part changes the whole tone of Brooke's comment. There's some racial context there, sure, but there always is in America; you can't escape it. On a personal level, though, it was just Brooke acting like a petulant kid who's jus' jellus.

Also, she didn't say it to Nnenna, she grumbled it at ... Leslie? I think? Remember her?

Besides, I don't see Nnenna winning this at all. The real competition is between Danielle (if she get the gap closed permanently, though I hope she goes for a removable appliance) and Joanie, with a possible upset by Furonda.

And Danielle is definitely the kindest girl in the house. If you'll notice, she's always the first one the eliminated hamster goes to hug.

Yeah, I've gotta say I don't agree with anything Ed said, either.

[buzz]

i'm still not sold on the "CRASH moment" potency of brooke's comment, either. even ed's article itself blows a hole in the argument by quoting brooke early on, and then later noting, "Nnenna, a chemist who lived in Nigeria most of her life, has been compared to Iman by Tyra, and when asked what she would do for a living besides modeling, Nnenna said that she would like to go back to Africa". so... what was wrong with brooke agreeing with her, exactly? had that particular episode not been incredibly race-focused as it was (PARIS IS BURNING meets RIZE, with jay manuel telling the black girls that they had better win the challenge or shame their race FOREVER!), i wonder if brooke's comment would have been received with such suspicion?

[jenn]

ok, agree with what he said except his part about Jade's beauty!! Hello she looks like she's a forty year old heavy smoker with acne scars and fried hair! Am I the only one who sees this?????

[rod]

wait ... Enema's from Africa?

[summer]

i could just be a pessimist as a result of my southern background, but i cannot believe that the phrase "go back to africa" can be uttered without racist undertones.

also, if i may piggyback on buzz's comment - what was up with Mr. Jay's blatant stereotyping? I wanted to choke his orange ass if he made one more black girl dancing comment.

[catswym]

summer--i agree with you and i'm definitely not southern.

when brooke said that my first thought was: where is this girl from where it is okay to tell a black person to "go back to africa"?

and i also agree that i don't think nnenna is the person who will win this cycle. imo, the best contestant is NEVER the winner.

[pphillihpp]

summer - exactly. and did you notice from other cycles, that whenever they're doing the makeover/"personal style" section, at least ONE of the black girls gets dubbed "ghetto" something - "ghetto chic," "ghetto fabulous," etc.? ick.

but i have to say, i think all of this furor over brooke's comment points out something even more disturbing. as one of the posters pointed out, the comment was followed by an allusion to the fact that nnenna is apparently regularly telling everyone how great africa is - and she DID live there for a long time, and there ARE constant references to her "african-ness." it's like in cycle five when cassandra was constantly talking about how she luuuuuurved being a texas beauty queen - and you could just imagine someone sayine, "fine, then go back to texas and your moronic pagaents!"

so what's disturbing here - in part - is that while on the one hand we say we're looking for the subtlety of the comment, we're ignoring the subtlety that seems to belie what we're trying to "prove." and trying to construct weak arguments from misreadings is never a good way to win a point - especially about something as important as race. it trvializes the real instances of racism.

[summer]

catswym - exactly. there are just some things you don't say to certain people. and telling a black person to go back to africa is one of them.

pphillihpp - i don't think it was overt racism. however, i do think it has racist undertones. now if she had instead said, go back to nigeria, i could buy the whole "go back there if it's so great" thing. but that term "go back to africa" just carries too many connotations with it.

dissing another person's race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, skin color is an easy cop-out insult that we sometimes fall back on when too lazy or frustrated to reach any deeper.

even if brooke were black, the comment "go back to africa" would still be a jab at nnenna's heritage and would still have racist undertones.

[Y]

I am ashamed to admit that I do not know who "Ed" is, but I DO know who Roger Ebert is and I think I need to kick his ass for making you feel bad about yourself.

[pphillihpp]

"but that term "go back to africa" just carries too many connotations with it"

summer, you might be right. i just thought it was a bit more slippery than what it was made out to be.

[Kayla]

I don't think Brooke meant anything racial with her comment "go back to africa"... yes it wasn't the best thing that she could have said but i mean who hasn't said "go back where you came from"... when what the person really means is just leave me alone.

[Kayla]

if someone said "go back to europe" would that be racist?

[pphillihpp]

"if someone said "go back to europe" would that be racist?"

no, but as summer pointed out, the phrase "go to africa" is very, very loaded. but i still think brooke's comment is being manipulated to serve a purpose for which it's not suited.

[pphillihpp]

btw, ebert is a homo, right?

[Abby]

Nice TyraMail impersonation. For a moment I was like, "What? Where did he get that? Was that on the show?"

Ah, but I'm a moron, so that isn't saying much.

~Abby

[Erica]

This post, and the one that you link to after that Roger Ebert comment, lead me to reflect on one of the reasons I keep coming back to read your recaps of ANTM, and the other antics you post about.
As a university student, I am constantly required to critically analyze various documents; to read between the lines, detect currents and explore implications. When I come online to read the various blogs that populate my favourites list, I'm looking for light-hearted, don't-take-this-too-seriously fare. That's why I love your ANTM recaps. Silly, hilarious fun. And even when you do fairly "serious" posts, like that Wolf Creek review, you are able to evaluate things for what they are. "Sometimes a screaming girl covered in blood is just a screaming girl covered in blood" you wrote, a statement with which I mostly agree. I've been in way to many classes (especially film classes), that analyze everything to death. And while there's a place for that, there's also a place where a person can come and just NOT have to think about the cultural and social implications of Brooke's "Africa" comment, or tease out the ways in which the editors of ANTM manipulate the viewers.... and that place is fourfour. And that's the way I like it.