Tech Tyra Banks show a new low on TV

Am I speaking about Don Imus? Well, as inappropriate and insulting as what he uttered was, there is a recent occurrence that some people may believe to be just as bad and perhaps even worse.

I'm talking about Tyra Banks and her reality TV show, "America's Next Top Model."

I have to confess to never having seen this show, but I work at a nonprofit organization, Spectrum Youth and Family Services, which has as one of its principal aims the prevention of domestic violence, and the men and women on our staff who are involved in this work are disgusted over a recent episode.

Through the wonder of zap2it.com, I was able to view still shots and the dialogue from the offending episode, entitled "Crime Scene Victims." Apparently "America's Next Top Model" consists of aspiring models competing each week against each other, and in this particular episode there were pictures of each model posed in a different death scene, each garbed in a gown or lingerie.

One model is slumped over a table, eyes open but posing as dead; according to the script she was poisoned. One of the judges, a J. Alexander, states, "What's great about this is that you can also look beautiful in death." Another shot is of a model slumped on the ground, having been pushed off a rooftop, with judge Nigel Barker proclaiming, "Death becomes you, young lady." Another model lies lifeless, draped off of an outside stairway, depicted as partially decapitated. A model named Whitney has been stabbed to death, a gaping wound in her neck; "I think you look absolutely wonderful," states J. Alexander. Finally, the model Dionne is propped up against a wall, in a gown, blood splattered behind her. She has been shot to death. Tyra Banks's reaction? "Absolutely beautiful."

In the mind of Tyra Banks and her producers, this passes for fashion and entertainment. In my mind and in the minds of our staff who work to prevent the battering and homicide of women every day, it trivializes what has become a national epidemic in America: violence against women.

I wonder if Banks knows that, on average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in America every day. Or that pregnant women are more likely to be victims of homicide than to die of any other cause. That one third of American women report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives.

Apparently we at Spectrum are not the only ones offended by "America's Next Top Model." Sixteen representatives from the Vermont Legislature introduced a joint resolution during the waning days of the session which just ended, stating that, "The General Assembly deplores the grotesque and unseemly depiction of a crime scene on a recent episode of CW Television Network program "America's Next Top Model," and its airing in the early evening hours, and be it further resolved that the secretary of state be directed to send a copy of this resolution to the corporate offices of CBS and Time Warner in New York City."

I doubt that the higher-ups in those conglomerates will take notice, but I take solace in the fact elected representatives from our state declared, "This is wrong."
Mark Redmond of Essex is the executive director of Spectrum Youth and Family Services in Burlington.