Sunday, November 9, 2008

MTV's Model Maker Ends Before It Begins

After this week’s news that Libby Lu is being shut down, I was contacted by a sister Mom of daughters, whose girls are 15 and 17, to let me know about the end of another venture: MTV’s Model Maker. http://www.mtvmodelmaker.com/

The casting call for Model Maker began in April, and the goal of the show was to film women pursuing the chance to become a fashion runway model. The catch: all models who joined the show had to be ready to lose up to 30 lbs. And the tagline? “Women come in all shapes and sizes, but models don’t.”

Although it’s disheartening that physical beauty continues to be paramount on television, there’s a silver lining to this story. Darryl Roberts at Huffington Post reported that public outcry from individuals and organizations put an end to the filming of Model Maker, and there are now no plans to release this show. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/darryl-roberts/mtv-decides-not-to-releas_b_136327.html

After a great week of examples of how grassroots efforts can make a difference on the political scene, I’m proud to know that individual activism can also put an end to harmful gender themes and portrayals on our TVs.

2 comments:

Brianna J said...

Well, I guess that's something, but I'm not sure I see how 'Model Maker' was any different from the [country]'s Next Top Model franchise, or any of the other makeover/modeling shows. I don't hear much of an outcry over those shows!

Nancy Gruver said...

You're absolutely right, Brianna! It's just that we see some hope in the cancelling of Model Maker.