A lot of people loved America’s Next Top Model. The competition, where 15 hopefuls cohabited as Tyra Banks helped them become the a supermodel, broke audience rating records over 21 seasons throughout the 2000s with its drama and chaos.
But looking back on the show in 2022 with the wonderful thing that is hindsight, it’s hard not to recoil at the insults and accusations hurled at the contestants. And in a new TikTok compilation currently going viral on Twitter, users have been rightfully horrified by the treatment of the show’s first supposedly plus-sized model: Robin Manning.
Robin was a UK size 10 when the show was filmed in 2003 and was torn to shreds by the judges Janice Dickinson and Beau Quillian for her body type. ‘Are we shooting for the large size category?’ Janice bellowed when Robin’s picture was put on the screen, before Tyra Banks interjected: ‘Yes, Robin would represent a plus size model. One problem that I do have is that on the top she's not plus sized, and on the bottom she is.’
From the footage, it seems Janice isn’t only not a fan of Robin herself but of the concept of a model larger than a size zero altogether: ‘Robin's out, as far as I'm concerned about being a supermodel,’ she says in the clip, before yelling, ‘The next America's Next Top Model is not a plus sized model, I'm sorry!’
‘She’s too old,’ added Beau in a subsequent clip, which caused Janice to erupt: ‘And fat! She’s huge! She’s not going to be a top model!’
After picking apart Robin’s body piece by piece, the judges are then confused as to why she suddenly has insecurities and doesn’t want to remove her sarong during a bikini shoot or pose for naked photos. ‘Why are you crying Robin?’ they asked, before adding: ‘Robin you were supposed to have a nude photo shoot, we don’t have a photo for you this week—why is that?’
Articulately explaining herself when many others would have dissolved into a furious crying breakdown, Robin said: ‘I didn’t want to be uncomfortable. My body is mine: I just didn’t think that is what I needed to do in order to get ahead.’
The judges said they were ‘disappointed’ and 'sad’ that Robin hadn’t used the opportunity to represent ‘women of a certain size’. ‘It’s clear that Robin doesn’t have the personality to be a top model,’ Janice claimed despite being the one to tear down Robin’s confidence. In the end, she left the show in fourth place.
‘Whole damn show was a hate crime against women’s bodies,’ commented one viewer. ‘They poked and prodded at this woman’s body and then wondered why she didn’t wanna do a nude shoot,’ added another. ‘The gaslighting.’
Fans of ANTM have defended that the show as a product of the 2000s, when size zero was the norm in the modelling industry. But even in much more recent history, models have revealed intense body shaming culture at shoots and casting, begging the question—has anything actually changed? Or are people just more careful about what they say in public?
On the Real Housewives, we famously saw Yolanda Hadid grilling Bella and Gigi on how many almonds they were allowed to eat. And, as recently as 2015, Charli Howard (who was 5’8 and size 8 at the time) was dropped by her modelling agency for being ‘too big’ to work in the industry.
‘I refuse to feel ashamed and upset on a daily basis for not meeting your ridiculous, unobtainable beauty standards,’ she wrote in an open letter to her former employer. ‘The more you force us to lose weight and be small, the more designers have to make clothes to fit our sizes, and the more young girls are being made ill. It’s no longer an image I choose to represent.’