<p>I’ve watched ANTM with my daughter for years. What we like about the show is the journey the girls take. Some of them really learn and grow. Others don’t. The message of empowerment has always been positive.</p>
<p>Until this year. </p>
<p>This year seems to be about mean girls. And they aren’t the young girls in the contest but the older ones. The girl who has been winning lately uses “*****es” as her normal way of describing the others. One of the others has gone out of her way to be nasty as hell, as a tactic to intimidate. Another girl - eliminated and who is the youngest in this cycle - would fly into rages of the type that called for anger management therapy. The one girl who is genuinely friendly is put down for being phony, apparently because being real means you have to be mean. There is no positive message in this. </p>
<p>I wish I were making this up but the reality camera interviews show the girls doing mean things. Two girls are shown making fun of the nice girl for being happy about how the day is beautiful. The meanest girl says bluntly to the camera that she’s out to upset other girls and then shows her going into those girls’ room and picking arguments or pointing out “that you aren’t doing well.” It’s like they’ve brought Survivor to ANTM.</p>
<p>To repeat, the show and Tyra Banks’ messages have been about empowering young women to be something, to take risks, to be “fierce,” to see themselves as capable and beautiful even when they’ve been gawky or unpopular. These messages have largely been dropped from this cycle, perhaps because the producers - meaning Tyra et al - realize they have a bunch of nasty people. Perhaps that also explains why they keep talking about how the nastiest girl can look “soft” because in the reality footage sections she’s always angry and often outright hostile. </p>
<p>My daughter said last night as we watched the latest episode that she’s losing her interest. She said that these girls are lousy human beings and she doesn’t want to watch them.</p>
<p>I feel the same way but I also have the reaction: what the hell are these girls thinking and why do the producers let them do it? There has never been a star made by this show. Never a real “top model.” Why in the name of God would someone hire a person who is shown on national TV acting like this? Why would Seventeen Magazine or CoverGirl or WalMart - big sponsors - want to associate with girls who treat each other badly, who call other girls names on national TV? That’s the exact opposite of the image they spend huge dollars to promote. Why would the producers jeopardize their franchise?</p>