Last night on America's Next Top Model, a show normally entrenched in mind-numbingly irrelevant issues like "to bleach or not bleach my eyebrows," a rare moment of true moral dilemma graced our screens in an unexpected place (Wal-Mart), during an unexpected challenge for 90-pound humans (a cut-throat relay race through that Wal-Mart).

During said race, Aryan Erin (she's been bleached to the moon, you see) let her inner line-backer come out and play, pushing and shoving and bruising the competition on her way to the Covergirl aisle. Then she proceeded to bruise their feelings too, purposely sabotaging another girl's chance of winning by hiding her golden ticket (her go-see photo), keeping her from crossing the finish line in time.

"Races don't have manners," Erin reasoned later.

Beyond the most obvious question about this situation (That would be, "What does a relay in Wal-Mart have to do with modeling?") another quandary presented itself last night. One that, SHOCKINGLY, Tyra never addressed within the hour of the show:

If dancing, smeyesing, interviewing, makeup-applying, 8-inch-heel-wearing, and tricking the camera into thinking you're taller are all parts of becoming America's Next Top Model (meaning, if you couldn't tell before, that this show is NOT about who has the purest modeling talent, but who has the "full package") and personality plays a major role in Tyra's judging and elimination process of said "full package," well, then shouldn't being a decent human being and not physically injuring your competition be part of it, too?



Judging by Tyra's many seasons of imparting her wide-eyed, crazy-mouthed wisdom upon hosts of aspiring models... yes and no. There's always been a razor-thin line between right and wrong: being ambitious versus being vicious; standing up for yourself versus talking back to authority; being receptive to criticism versus being a push-over. That line simply depends upon whatever lesson Tyra wants to teach on that particular day. Be careful, future ANTM contestants, because if you do so much as make suggestions to your photographer, you never know if you'll be praised for your ingenuity or critiqued for not knowing your place. The morality of this show--even beyond the mixed messages about beauty at 'every shape or size,' though the real winners are always the tallest and thinnest in the bunch--is slippery, and always at the mercy of a millionaire madwoman's whims.

Luckily for Erin, sportswomanship wasn't a lesson Tyra felt compelled to drill home this week, because I don't think Banks would have landed in Erin's favor, on the 'be more aggressive' side of that debate. Yes, trying your hardest to win the minor challenges on this reality show indicates how dedicated you are to this competition, but Tyra is all about feelings and respect first--at least on the surface. And that means playing by the basic rules. Races don't have manners, it's true. But most races do have rules, and even the basest reality shows (and human interactions) operate under the #1 rule that you should not purposefully physically injure your competition--and if you do, there needs to be a consequence, or at least some contrition. Right?

Should Erin have had to suffer consequences for her actions, beyond a forced apology by her fellow models? Or was she just playing to win?

On the one hand, the bruises to Sundai and Ashley were minor, and Sundai still ended up winning the competition, despite being all too literally 'held back' in the race. In the grand scheme of the competition, no one was severely handicapped when Erin played dirty--she couldn't even secure the win for herself, even after hiding Ashley's photo in the final leg of the race. The challenge ended up being a glorified advertisement for Wal-Mart and Covergirl, with little to no lasting lesson for the models about their industry or skill set. A flash in the pan. Chalk it up to guts and the no-holds-barred quest for glory that Erin was willing to throw some 'bows to get the job done.

On the other: where does competitiveness end and bitchiness begin? Or does that distinction not hold in the modeling business? Cut-throat as it is, it's even more vital for these shorter models to have confidence and tenacity. But if Tyra is really trying to prepare these girls for the 'biz, she missed an opportunity to teach a lesson that might have actually helped these models--or anyone in a competitive field, for that matter... that winning isn't everything.

Haha, just kidding. That sounded so corny! The real lesson should have been that IMAGE is everything.

Even if you are a ruthless bone-breaker who will do anything to get to the top and you don't care who you have to hurt to do it... for God's sake, don't tell us that! If you happen to bruise some people's limbs, don't defend your savage ways at first and then cry when the injured demand an apology. You just end up confusing everybody.

You need to decide now if you're going to be a benevolent-faced monster (i.e., Tyra) who "accidentally" trips her competition at the finish line, or if you have the guts and talent that you can actually afford to be the rare monster-faced monster (i.e., Janice Dickinson) who breaks out the hatchet and takes no prisoners. Either way, you need to commit to it. No apologies. The point isn't necessarily to be a decent human being, but just to appear like one. Tyra's been doing it for years! Though Paulina Porizkova almost let the cat out last season.

Of course, that lesson isn't exactly TV-friendly, now is it? Maybe Tyra teaches that one behind the scenes.



 -Meghan Carlson, BuddyTV Staff Writer
Image courtesy of CW