Hegemony and Modeling

With the 20+ cycles of America’s Next Top Model promoting different and culturally inappropriate bodies through the scope of super modeling, the idea of cultural hegemony is prevalent within the culture of modeling. Today’s models are almost always white, thin, and generally under 30. The public’s call to change these statistics is barely acknowledged, with hopes for a better future In Fall 2016, less than 25% of all models attending Fashion Week were people of color. There were designers that didn’t even feature any models of color at all. Body diversity was even rarer at Fashion Week. Out of all of the shows in New York, Paris, Milan, and London, there were only six plus models in Fall 2016. Moreover, of the six plus sized models, not one was over a size 12. As far as age, only eleven models were maturely aged, meaning they were over 40 years old.

To battle these kinds of facts, Tyra Banks and America’s Next Top Model have had cycles where they opened casting to plus sized models and waived the age restriction (which was 27 years old) to be more diverse and open. The show has produced 9 non-white winners out of 22 cycles. None of which that are plus sized or over 40. But there was a white, plus sized winner and a single contestant that was 42, who placed 6th overall.

Taking all of that into consideration. The show’s success and diversity have had some type of impact on the fashion model industry. But only minimally. Many of the designers at Fashion Week that chose to be inclusive, did it minimally, which doesn’t necessarily do anything about the bigger picture of people of color, plus sized, and older being underrepresented in the fashion world. Since opening the castings in cycle 3, there have only been 6 plus size models on the show. So with insignificant attempts on a show that is supposed to promote diversity in the modeling world, the fashion world has responded with a slight nod, not really changing anything.

http://www.thefashionspot.com/runway-news/685109-runway-diversity-report-fall-2016/

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/fashion/americas-next-top-model-deconstructed.html

Photo: https://www.buzzfeed.com/norawhelan/theres-more-than-one-plus-size-model?utm_term=.qb6VzgyA79#.eflr1z3GDW