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Watch Dirty Rotten Scandals Season 1 Episode 3 online in HD on Dailymotion (2026).
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00:12Over 20 years ago, I created a television show called America's Next Top Model.
00:18Tyra Banks at the Essence Awards made an appearance because she was getting awarded as a luminary.
00:23You guys have no idea how hard we fought to bring the diversity to that television show
00:31at a time when the world was like, what? You cast in that and what? And what is that?
00:36The mistakes were severe.
00:39I trusted you with my dreams. How dare you take my life away from me?
00:47Thousands of aspiring models stood in line for a chance to be America's Next Top Model.
00:52I'm from St. Louis, Missouri.
00:53Virginia. Salt Lake City, Utah.
00:55Just come on up.
00:56We are actually looking to give someone a dynamic career.
01:00Tyra really was the holy grail.
01:05Tyra Banks was the air that we breathed.
01:09Everyone wanted to be her.
01:12But truth of the matter, she was a hardcore bitch.
01:17Do you know what I think of bullying?
01:18Your pictures have been wah, wah, wah.
01:22Be quiet, everybody.
01:23Be quiet.
01:24That's what is wrong with you.
01:26Stop it.
01:27The crazier the models were, the better ratings they got on television.
01:32I don't understand why I don't have any friends.
01:34I break my daughter off.
01:36Okay.
01:36Why do you get her?
01:45It was a TV show.
01:48Tyra was trying to create great television.
01:52In 2020, Top Model clips started showing up on social media.
01:57Yo, Tyra and her little crew, they were hella problematic.
02:00Gen Z, God bless them, were like, hey, this is bad.
02:04We are actually going to switch your ethnicity.
02:07This is racist.
02:08This is all people see.
02:09Easy reads, beautiful color, girl.
02:11This is abusive.
02:12Destiny.
02:17Tyra declined many requests to give a public statement,
02:21which is why her essence moment was so significant.
02:23I refuse to have my legacy be about some stuff linked together on the internet.
02:34You're breaking the girls down for public consumption.
02:37I was rooting for you.
02:39We were all rooting for you.
02:40How dare you?
02:41I had never shaved my head like that before.
02:44Then they throw you out in the world, and they're like, yeah, feed you to the walls.
02:46They're not looking for the next model.
02:48They could care less.
02:51All Tyra is doing is counting her money.
02:53It wasn't a modeling competition.
02:54It was psychological warfare.
02:56Learn something from this.
03:14I was born in Harbor City, California.
03:20But it's all L.A.
03:22All of it is L.A.
03:24We are super close to where we filmed near Skid Row.
03:28I was like, Mom, I'm going on America's Next Top Model.
03:30I get to go to New York.
03:32And then I was like, surprise, you're going to be down the street from Skid Row.
03:39Boy, that was sketchy times.
03:41I guess it was, um, maybe it was cheaper.
03:45Maybe it was cheaper.
03:52Tyra Banks was not just a model.
03:56She was a superstar.
04:01Top Model was a pop culture sensation.
04:05Tyra considers herself an ugly duckling.
04:08There's this one image that she uses consistently.
04:11Anytime she talks about body images, she always starts with that photo.
04:13It wasn't just that gawky, cute, skinny, oh, she's so gawky and young.
04:17It was, I looked ill.
04:18People thought I was sick.
04:19People used to stare at me.
04:21She was discovered around 17.
04:23And then she made her way to Paris.
04:27And then took over the runways from there.
04:32Tyra was a Victoria's Secret angel.
04:35She was on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
04:40But by the mid-2000s, Tyra was no longer a 17-year-old skinny little model.
04:46And so for Tyra's career to continue, she had to grow outside of just the modeling world.
04:55The early 2000s was like the wild, wild west, not just for the internet and social media at its infancy,
05:03but also shows like the real world survivor, American Idol, were exploding in popularity.
05:12And Tyra Banks wanted to be a part of it.
05:16She had gone on to do some acting, some bit parts, but she never really made it big.
05:21The last time Tyra was in my memory, as part of, like, popular culture, was when she was dating Chris
05:29Webber.
05:30And I can't imagine that the Tyra Banks would like to go out on being just Chris Webber's girlfriend.
05:38Ex-girlfriend.
05:41Tyra wanted to extend her career and extend her visibility.
05:45The entertainment industry has always been very skeptical of models and whether or not they can act.
05:51And so it was really smart for Tyra to say, the best role for me to play is me.
05:58Everybody out here wants to be America's next top model.
06:02Play it to the camera.
06:06Because I'm involved in being part of the fashion industry for so long, it's quality control.
06:11It's not going to be, like, a joke.
06:12A person that wins is going to go from being nobody to being the star in eight weeks.
06:17Everyone wanted to be the next Tyra Banks.
06:20But the show was not only about trying to be a model.
06:24It was what happens when you take a dozen strangers and make them live together kind of show.
06:30I went in there so innocent.
06:32I thought I'd never been a model before.
06:34I'm just learning.
06:35Who are these fabulous girls in this world that I want to be a part of?
06:39A lot of them were just out of high school.
06:41They thought that they would have the chance to have mentorship under Tyra and actually move towards a successful modeling
06:48career.
06:49It happened really, really fast.
06:51Here I am in the house.
06:52I live with the girls.
06:5424-7.
06:55Every day really started off with Tyra showing up when it was time to do the competition.
07:00And that's when we had an idea of what the day was going to be like.
07:05So today, you guys are shooting a commercial.
07:07So this is where your stardom is solidified.
07:11What's lovely, it's formulaic and we love a formula.
07:14First, there's always, like, a mini challenge or some sort of weird test.
07:18You'll be stepping on and off a moving carousel.
07:25Usually something that is loosely applied to the world of modeling.
07:30You're going to have to balance these items on top of your head.
07:36And then one of the most defining things about Top Model is the makeover episode.
07:44It usually comes around as a third to fourth episode, depending.
07:48Tyra comes in and is like, all right, basically, you guys all look bad.
07:53I know how to make you look good.
07:57And it did seem like the makeovers were engineered to make at least three people cry.
08:01I'm like a boy.
08:03Right now, yeah, it's a little Albert twist.
08:05But when they style it, it's your makeup done.
08:07It's going to be so pretty.
08:08You've got to trust me, okay?
08:10The makeup episodes every season were appointment television.
08:14And not because they were good.
08:17They want to see if you react excessively to stress to make a good show.
08:22And so, in the fasting process, they asked personality questions to see whether or not you are a volatile person.
08:29We have a psychologist who comes and evaluates them even before they're chosen.
08:34The psych evaluations were no joke.
08:37I was in a room for two to four hours.
08:40They would ask, have you ever thought I wanted to commit suicide or hurt somebody?
08:44You hurt yourself.
08:45Are you depressed?
08:46It also shows Tyra, do we think they can handle the pressure?
08:51I don't like to cast for conflict.
08:54We just cast strong personalities.
08:58On my psychological evaluations, one of the questions that they asked was about my childhood.
09:04It did make me feel uncomfortable, but then I was like, well, this is reality TV, so I shrugged it
09:10off as nothing.
09:11The show is pretty transparent about how it wants to mine the backstories of its contestants.
09:19Tyra is trying to make a show that's entertaining, even if it is a little exploitative.
09:24So what's this about your relationship with your mom?
09:27They kept trying to pick and get more information about my mom.
09:33My mom was my abuser.
09:35My mom is the one that tortured me my whole life.
09:40They ask, what kind of abuse?
09:44How do you think your mom would feel right now?
09:49The show is shocking audiences by putting not just explosive confrontations on screen.
09:56You're basically presenting yourself like a moron, okay?
10:00And what are you doing, alcoholic bitch?
10:02But also asking a lot of its contestants to perform their kind of trauma on screen.
10:08You might as well just...
10:12They suck.
10:17I wasn't eating correctly.
10:19I wasn't sleeping wine.
10:24I was just, like, always one moment away from, like, fully almost, like, losing it.
10:33Because they were weaponizing my childhood trauma, they just f***ed with me, emotionally.
10:51Tyra made me look absolutely crazy.
10:54I felt like she decided, we're going to make a mockery of you, and then the whole world on top
10:59of that is going to call you crazy and make fun of you.
11:03Corinne calls me an alcoholic bitch.
11:06That set the tone of what I've been called around the globe for over 15 years.
11:13I was set up to be publicly humiliated on repeat forever.
11:22I got into the editing bay, and I was like, I love this!
11:26Fun, putting it together, editing it.
11:31Not only is Tyra on set, but Tyra goes to every single editing session.
11:40She really sits there and knows exactly what she wants to see fold out on tape.
11:45So do you care to comment on Ken Mock?
11:50I managed to dodge that question very well, didn't I?
11:53Um, no, absolutely not.
11:57Tyra, control freak?
11:58I don't know what you're talking about.
12:02Anyone who likes to think that Tyra's just the face of the show, I'm here to tell you that that
12:08is a complete lie.
12:10Tyra is the puppeteer that was being psychologically tortured for the entertainment of the world.
12:21And for Tyra Banks and the network's profit.
12:25And she did the same thing to all the other girls.
12:35So are you going to come back next season?
12:37To America's Top Model?
12:38You, of course!
12:40Until they get sick of me or I say something wrong and they fire me.
12:45Tyra chose judges.
12:48They were always over-the-hill supermodels.
12:52It was Paulina Poroskova, it was like Twiggy, it was Janice Dickinson.
12:58So Tyra had the ability to state her presence.
13:02It was her show.
13:05The most important judge is Tyra, but you really wanted somebody that was going to come in, that was going
13:10to kind of be a lightning rod.
13:12Someone who is not going to censor herself.
13:16I'm Janice Dickinson.
13:17I am the world's first supermodel.
13:20I coined the term.
13:22Ask anybody, it was me.
13:24Ha ha.
13:26I cast Janice, she was 100% my idea.
13:30I definitely wanted her because I was like, you know what, she seems like she's going to be really honest
13:34and really tell it like it is.
13:36I had no idea she was going to be as honest and tell it like it is as she is.
13:40Looks like you landed from another planet because you have so much teeth.
13:44You're deranged.
13:45This photograph looks like the batteries died in her vibrator.
13:50The producers on America's Next Top Model, especially Tyra, were begging me to be harsher and cruel, like Simon Cowell
13:58was on American Idol.
14:02Tyra was able to allow Janice to be the bully in a way that gave Tyra plausible deniability.
14:07It's like a Hitchcock film.
14:09Go back and forth, back and forth really fast to see what I mean.
14:12Eep, eep, eep, ha, hoo, ha, hoo.
14:17If she doesn't want to be the one to say, you look fat and disgusted and your thighs are jiggling,
14:20she doesn't have to say it.
14:23Because Janice is going to be willing to take the lump on that.
14:25You got to work on the thighs.
14:27You got that booty thing.
14:28You got to kind of really watch the diet and exercise.
14:32I was taken back by the judges in their comments.
14:35One minute they're saying, oh, you're just so beautiful.
14:38The next minute, oh, your body, look at this, you have all these issues.
14:42Ioana has a lovely face.
14:44I think she needs to definitely work on her body.
14:46I think, you know, I wouldn't want to see her in a swimsuit.
14:48It almost felt like you're in this vortex of a narcissistic relationship.
14:53Going from the love bombing back to getting devalued at the drop of a hat.
14:58See her back.
15:00Ioana has one problem, and it's the midriff.
15:06I didn't know what my backside really looked like, and to have cameras really zoning in on that, and to
15:12be so young, and to have, you know, other people commenting.
15:16There was a level of, I want to say, cruelness at that time that you wouldn't be able to get
15:22away with saying in this moment.
15:23Why don't we go around the room and talk about imperfection?
15:25What do you think yours is?
15:29It really kind of messed with my self-esteem.
15:35If you're sporting a gut, then you turn to the side and disguise it.
15:41Really, honestly, putting that on TV was really dangerous because I was so, so thin.
15:47And I've had so many people message me and say that they developed eating disorders after watching, and, um, it
15:57sucks.
15:59I'm really very interesting.
16:00In the early aughts, the biggest thing that I remember about Tyra is that people kept talking about how curvy
16:07she was.
16:08I represent the modeling world.
16:10It's a body that's fuller.
16:11It's thicker.
16:12It's got a booty.
16:13Are you considered full?
16:14In this industry, yeah.
16:15I'm, like, 20 pounds heavier than these girls, girl.
16:18Her body type is not that of, like, a 2000s era model.
16:22Like, a Kate Moss, skinny, heroin chic.
16:26Tyra was not that.
16:28This is the era where the idea was the double zero.
16:31Can you be able to wear low-rise pants and, you know, not have love handles?
16:36When Tyra would say stuff to people about their bodies, it felt like it was coming from, like, a place,
16:42like, deep in there,
16:43where she was, like, whoop, I haven't dealt with this yet, so let me just put it on you instead.
16:48I got the same stomach, girl, but I know how to hold it in.
16:51Other people.
16:52She's been explicit that she was viewed as too big for the runway.
16:55And Tyra really projected a lot of her traumas onto women who weren't necessarily ready to receive it.
17:04Immediately, I was like, they're going to talk about my weight.
17:06That's going to be the thing.
17:07You are a little, perhaps, nervous about your body.
17:10Every question, everything we did got tied back to my weight.
17:16When I got the makeover, I looked great.
17:19It has since become the Karen haircut.
17:21It was, like, that short blonde with the...
17:24At the time, it was cool, but they were like,
17:26are you worried that the short hair is going to make you look fatter?
17:31What is it like being the biggest girl?
17:34I realized that I had been brought to this show to be other.
17:40Like, they were all the ideal.
17:42They were all what everyone in America, every woman should aspire to look like.
17:46And I was something else.
17:50It just confirmed every bad thought that an eating disorder had already planted in my head.
17:57There would always be a plus-size model or two, and they were kind of cannon fodder.
18:02It was, on one hand, saying, we want women of all sizes.
18:07But then, when there were women of all sizes, treating the women of different sizes like sh**.
18:12You know you're plus-size.
18:13Sopper gut, baby.
18:14Anything hanging out, it looks nasty.
18:16They were just recruiting these women who weren't traditional model size,
18:21and then throwing them to the wolves.
18:23Do you think that I'm going to be able to get a rack like this loaded with clothes in your
18:28size?
18:28I don't think that you realize how this whole modeling thing works.
18:33When she came in, Sarah was openly a plus-size model.
18:36But then, over the course of filming, Sarah lost weight, and that became a problem.
18:41I lost quite a bit of weight.
18:43People have said that, and I haven't been trying to, but people keep mentioning it.
18:48Sarah was told that you're pretty despite this thing.
18:52And by virtue of what production has you doing, you lose weight.
18:57And they hold that against you.
18:59The judges feel like you, Sarah, so skinny for their plus-size.
19:05I was told I was too thin for a plus-size model, but too fat to be an America's Next
19:10Top model.
19:11Tyra Banks can't shake up standards of beauty while ultimately crowning the person who suits the standard of beauty.
19:20Here she is reinforcing the status quo when she promised us the opposite.
19:25So when you create an environment that you told me was going to be better than this, and then you
19:31make it worse, that's up.
19:44One of the things the viewers never really realized we were going through is the amount of deliberation and the
19:51feedback from the judges.
19:52We might see a clip of one comment.
19:55I think it's the worst picture I've ever seen in my life.
19:58Your hair looks like a cockatoo there and here.
20:03But we would be in front of the judges for hours.
20:06The elimination days were usually minimum 12 hours, sometimes 18, until 2, 3, 4 in the morning.
20:15On the first day, one of the crew members warned us.
20:18They were like, look, a girl faints every week.
20:25So if you feel like you're feeling faint, don't be a hero.
20:28Raise your hand and someone will come help you.
20:30And I remember I thought, like, oh, my God, these skinny bitches can't even stand for a while.
20:36Like, and they're fainting.
20:37First day, it was me.
20:39I had to raise my hand and I almost went down.
20:43All of us were sleep-deprived.
20:45All of us weren't able to eat enough food.
20:47They know what they're doing.
20:49It's all intentional.
20:53If you can get through the pressure and look like a model.
20:57And get through judging and get through us being evil.
21:01Just knock you down and build you back up.
21:04Then you have what it takes to become America's Next Top Model.
21:07Yes.
21:08The rules in the house were challenging.
21:10Lights were always on, even when you were ready to go to bed.
21:14There was no cell phone usage.
21:16You were not allowed to leave the house.
21:18No windows were allowed to be opened.
21:21If we didn't follow the rules, we would be punished.
21:24They could take away our books, take away our iPods.
21:27So we would have to sit in silence for hours.
21:31You're squeezing into an apartment with so many girls and only one bathroom's working.
21:37And the rules are we will not film you in the shower or in the toilet stalls.
21:41If there's only one of you, but the second there's two of you, we can film you.
21:45And also you guys should shower together for the environment.
21:52You're almost an animal for spectator sport versus a human being.
21:58Felt like it was an experiment to see how easy we could crack and break.
22:05For the most part on my season, the producers just wanted to instigate conflict.
22:10But the photo shoot in Africa was something else.
22:15You're going to be dancing with three hot guys.
22:20What a lot of people didn't see was that like behind the scenes,
22:24the male model Bertini was actually hardcore flirting with me,
22:30telling me that he was going to come to the States and find me.
22:34And he wanted to be with me.
22:36And it was just a lot.
22:37Give me that side.
22:38Sorry, I got to go right in the wardrobe after this.
22:41This is so cringe to watch.
22:43I got to break this out.
22:47He was like grunting as he was dancing with me,
22:49and he stood a lot closer to me than the other models.
22:52He had on this tiny little loincloth fabric.
22:56And then it just got to the point where I realized that he actually had an erection.
23:01What's the issue?
23:02I know it's not about feeling comfortable,
23:04but hearing moaning, it just threw me off.
23:07Moaning where?
23:09Like on me, like, I'm sorry, I just didn't feel comfortable.
23:12It was flipped into me being a bit of a diva.
23:17We're here in a professional situation.
23:19There are like 50 of us sitting here on set.
23:21Right, right.
23:22We're going with the flow.
23:24When your space is invaded and you're put in a tough situation,
23:32it almost feels even more sinister to be in front of everyone.
23:39I really thought that I would be applauded for speaking up for myself.
23:47What's even crazier to me about that scenario is that it's not a real job.
23:51Kenya wasn't a girl who had to get the job done so that she can pay her bills next week.
23:58Like, this was a fake shoot on a fake show.
24:03And there are people in charge who can do something about it.
24:06There has to be a way that you can handle it.
24:08You know, you have to be able to be in control.
24:11Like with your feminine wiles, like, boy, you best to back up throughout and knock you inside the head.
24:15But you do it in a fun way where he knows to back the heck up,
24:18but it doesn't really put static in the air because then it makes you uncomfortable.
24:21Tyra Banks reprimanded you for not handling real sexual harassment on a fake shoot.
24:29You have to wonder what Tyra went through to think that that's the way you handle a situation like that.
24:35But then my empathy has to go out the window because you visited upon that girl something that was probably
24:41traumatic to you.
24:45It's just so interesting, like, watching it back to little Kenya because Tyra's a grown woman at this time.
24:52I was 19 years old and it should have never unfolded that way.
25:02Moments like what Jada endured are particularly frustrating because ultimately what you're doing is a little bit of a humiliation
25:09ritual.
25:14Jada's partner Nacho tells Jada that he doesn't even like black girls.
25:18That man just is like, I don't want to kiss her, I don't really like black girls.
25:22Again, a fake shoot with a real racist in a fake scenario that you all created.
25:32Oh, you're going to have to give him a kiss to make him love some black girls because what do
25:36they say?
25:37Once they go black, they don't go back.
25:39There you go.
25:41Jada, you can't cry because we don't have time to fix your makeup.
25:44I can't do this.
25:46She expressed her discomfort over and over and over again.
25:53And they made her do this fake commercial with a real racist.
25:58You told me that this is the guy that said that he didn't want to kiss a black girl?
26:01He doesn't like black girls.
26:03Oh.
26:03He's just an extra.
26:05That should not have stopped her from doing the job that she was sent there to do.
26:10At what point do you get to put your hands up and say enough is enough?
26:22I can actually believe that Tyra thinks that representation feels important.
26:27I want to be out like I'm gay and I'm really proud of it.
26:32But in the wrong hands, is representation enough?
26:36It absolutely is not.
26:37I think there's a certain thing of being proud.
26:39Like, I'm black and proud.
26:40You know what I mean?
26:40But I'm not like walking on the red carpet.
26:42I'm black.
26:44One of the things that queer phobia kind of generates is this idea that, like, of a looming predator.
26:49I can't be safe around you because you are attracted to my gender.
26:52Therefore, anything you do is automatically sexual.
26:55Kim, you think I'm beautiful?
26:57Yeah.
27:00It becomes, again, this contradictory message in which it's we want to support queer inclusivity,
27:05but we also need to somehow make a spectacle of it at the same time.
27:11In those early days, you couldn't find lesbians anywhere on television outside of Ellen,
27:16and you certainly couldn't find a black lesbian.
27:18We know you're a lesbian.
27:19How do you feel about expressing that on national television?
27:23People never assume I'm gay.
27:25I felt my sexuality.
27:27It was something between me and everybody that was producing the project.
27:30But Tyra Banks choosing to say that I was gay and putting that out there without talking to me first,
27:35I was floored.
27:37We're talking the 90s, 2000s.
27:38What do you think about that time?
27:41Being openly homosexual was actively exposing yourself to danger.
27:46I just wondered, what did she think was going to happen to me afterwards?
27:50I would get random calls from churches telling me to come back to the Lord.
27:56I didn't understand how churches got my number.
27:59If you were to ask Tyra, I'm sure she would say, well, I gave you a platform.
28:03But a platform, it's not safety.
28:06It's scrutiny.
28:08It's surveillance.
28:09It's inviting millions of people to have judgments on how you live your life.
28:14One of the first representations of a trans woman on television was on top model.
28:21But the other girls weren't very nice to Isis.
28:24Growing up in the South, you don't exactly run into a he-shee every day.
28:28You walk around like that in a small town, you're a shot.
28:31The transphobia is harder to swallow than some of the other stuff because there wasn't really
28:37any other trans representation on the show.
28:39And so it really does feel like Isis is being picked on.
28:43Sam Isis, you need to shave your ass.
28:44I think Tyra's belief is I should get a pat on the back simply for the idea of acknowledging
28:50that a trans person exists and is worth talking to.
28:54But if you are someone with visible, marginal identities, there's little reward in being
28:59the primary person to break a boundary.
29:02You're the person who gets all the backlash.
29:05She actually used to be he and I think still is.
29:10Tyra wasn't trying to help these girls.
29:13They were trying to create a great TV show.
29:18I think in the first couple seasons, it tried to take itself a little bit seriously and
29:23then it just got like wacky.
29:25These are giant Madagascar hissing cockroaches.
29:28Oh, he's going crazy.
29:30We were put through things that would never happen in real life.
29:32Some girls are going to be shooting with a bull.
29:37Oh my God!
29:40Listen, I think there is some thrill in watching pretty people be tortured.
29:45These girls have to be prepared to do almost anything to sell a garment.
29:50I'm freaking bleeding.
29:54America's Next Top Model is also a social experiment.
29:58What people are willing to do for fame, what they're willing to enjoy to get it.
30:02You find out what someone's fear is and then you find a way to exploit it on time.
30:07I'm definitely afraid.
30:09A photo shoot with spiders.
30:11She's cold.
30:12Really?
30:13Can I get a tissue for her, please?
30:15They made these models work with snakes.
30:18Take breaths.
30:20Take breaths.
30:21See how it's making me.
30:22It's okay, David.
30:23Heights.
30:23Do you want to come up, Katie?
30:25Give me a second.
30:26Dangling over a pit probably was more of a liability than an actual shot for a magazine.
30:35But I thought, there's a modeling contract eventually that you're going to be able to have.
30:39Just go for it.
30:42There were a lot of things done in Top Model that they got wrong.
30:51And one challenge got it very wrong.
30:54I think Hulu banned this one now.
30:57Someone should have refused to do that and yet no one did.
31:08The Got Milk Challenge photo shoot was...
31:13Shocking.
31:14Degrading.
31:15It was just stupid.
31:18That episode, there are literally people in blackface on TV in the 2000s.
31:25The challenge here really is taking on the persona of that other ethnicity.
31:32Everyone seems kind of like, okay, girl, I guess I'll do this because I'd like to win the show.
31:38But I remember watching that as it was airing and being like, I don't know, man.
31:42This doesn't seem...
31:43I don't think we should be doing this.
31:46Michelle?
31:47Yeah.
31:48An Eskimo.
31:49Kenya?
31:50Korean.
31:51Brittany?
31:52An African-American woman.
31:53I think Tyra thinks that she's introducing a conversation about us all being one and what
31:58are the things that bring us together versus bring us apart.
32:01But instead, it's like a caricature of existing racist tropes.
32:05It should be noted that so many of the creatives working on Top Model were people of color.
32:13Tyra, a black woman.
32:15Ken Mock, an Asian man.
32:18They knew what they were doing was edgy.
32:23But they viewed it as edgy and not wrong.
32:28At the time, because Tyra Banks is an African-American woman and she's wanting me to become...
32:34to transport me into an African-American woman, I truly didn't see anything of it.
32:38None of us did.
32:40And whatever Tyra says us to do, we do.
32:42No one wants to go home.
32:44As a 19-year-old, you don't really have the courage at that time to say,
32:49hey, this is, you know, isn't politically correct or, you know, whatever you may feel.
32:55Because there was a potential for you to go home and for this whole dream and opportunity
33:00to just be over.
33:01Tyra had the ability to make or break you.
33:04We're all scared of Tyra.
33:07Tyra, I think that the race swap challenges that the show did a couple of times in some
33:12ways have become a little bit of a scapegoat so that contemporary reality television doesn't
33:17have to grapple with its own issues of racism.
33:20It's not so much that the race swap itself as a challenge was inherently offensive, although
33:25it's offensive.
33:26The worst thing about that challenge was the judging panel and the ways that they seem
33:32to understand racial identity, such that it's a thing that can be authentically performed.
33:38Brittany.
33:40Sister.
33:41You look like a black girl, girl.
33:43I was feeling it.
33:45Oh, I loved it.
33:47What's one thing if you take a young white woman and put some dark makeup on her in an
33:52Afro wig, it's another thing to say you need to embody blackness and celebrate her for,
33:58you know, I don't know, just sort of acting like she has an attitude.
34:01You realize the show wants to celebrate blackness, but only a very limited idea of what blackness
34:08can be.
34:09That's a ghetto walk.
34:11If she took a little bit of hoochie out of that ghetto walk, that would have been Naomi.
34:14Tyra seemed weirdly obsessed with and repulsed by all things ghetto.
34:20Like, obvious markers of, like, lower middle class, lower class black people.
34:26But then, Tyra always went off her way to cast women who were coded in that way.
34:34Do you really think you can have a cover girl contract with a gap in your mouth?
34:37Yeah, why not?
34:38This is all people see.
34:39Easy Reads, Beautiful Cover Girl.
34:41It's not marketable.
34:42I remember feeling really uncomfortable by this idea that Dani's gap needed to be fixed.
34:47The show seemed to be equating her gap with a particular type of blackness that was undesirable
34:55within that industry.
34:57Being unapologetically working class and black at the same time, it prohibits you from being
35:02able to be viewed as relatable.
35:04So, as a result, you're going to be consistently punished for being a product of your own circumstances.
35:10Chelsea, we love your teeth.
35:12Chelsea, we'd love to exaggerate that and take you a little bit more to Lauren.
35:17And then to try to expand this white girl's teeth on camera is not a contradiction that
35:25feels out of place at all with Tyra.
35:32Tyra Banks, as a black woman, there are many things that she did that she knew better.
35:38With your skin texture, being an African-American woman, it should be like butter.
35:42At the retouching session, your photo was the hardest that we had to do.
35:47There's no way that I believe that it's lost on Tyra how offensive and hurtful it is to
35:51call a black woman, especially a dark-skinned one, ashy.
35:54When she said my skin texture was too rough, she knew my skin texture wasn't too rough.
35:58She knew what she was doing.
36:02As a black woman in high fashion, I'm sure, Tyra was made to feel ghetto, lower class, inferior.
36:11And so, I can imagine that has a lot to do with her obsession with black presentation in different spaces.
36:19But the thing is, your job is to get therapy, not 20 years of abusive television.
36:27Those girls didn't deserve that.
36:38The media really had a field day with this idea of Tyra Banks and Naomi Campbell beefing behind the scenes.
36:44For years, supermodel Tyra Banks was in the middle of a bitter feud with another top model, Naomi Campbell.
36:53Tyra felt like she was bullied by Naomi Campbell, that there wasn't room for two black girls in the industry.
36:59I think I've been a serious victim of pitting one black model against another.
37:04My mom would look at fashion magazines.
37:06It was just Iman.
37:07That's all you saw.
37:08And then it was just Beverly Johnson.
37:10And then it was just Naomi Campbell.
37:12Do you remember that Times article?
37:15Beyoncé's first solo effort is good, but she's no Ashanti.
37:20That's what this is.
37:22It's not just Tyra who makes a marginalized community feel like there can only be one.
37:29It really made me angry.
37:31As I'm saying, in order for me to be successful, I have to knock someone out.
37:34So that means when I get really up there, that somebody's going to come and knock me out.
37:37I think she really did feel like she was sort of competing with Naomi.
37:41When you're presented as the other person's replacement, maybe you do get mean, and maybe you do get jealous, and
37:48maybe you do get catty.
37:50But I think Tyra's been working out her Naomi rivalry with every black woman she's come across in the 30
37:56years since.
37:58I don't even think Tyra really wants any of us to become stars.
38:02Tyra didn't want any competition.
38:05Tyra was breaking the girls down so she could feel better about herself.
38:10She went off on one girl that was so frightening that I was going to get up and, like, hold
38:16her down.
38:17Be quiet, Tiffany. Be quiet!
38:19That's what is wrong with you.
38:21Stop it!
38:22I have never in my life yelled at a girl like this.
38:25When my mother yells at this, it's because she loves me.
38:28I was rooting for you. We were all rooting for you.
38:31All of us were standing there like, it did not feel like a mother yelling at her daughter.
38:38It just felt like someone just yelling at someone kicking a dog when they're down.
38:42She would go harder on the black girls on the show because it's about competitiveness and jealousy.
38:55And she being older than these young models.
38:58You take responsibility for yourself because nobody's going to take responsibility for you.
39:04If that's Mama Tyra, then they need to come take me away.
39:08Child services needs to take us.
39:10You roll in your eyes and you act like this because you've heard it all before.
39:13You've heard it all before. You don't know where the hell I come from.
39:16You have no idea what I've been through.
39:17But I'm not a victim. I grow from it and I learn.
39:20She was always trying to be this tough teen mom to the girls.
39:24But she just did not build up enough confidence in the girls.
39:29They left the show completely depressed and depleted while she got so effing rich.
39:38Is Tyra a narcissist?
39:42I ain't a doctor, but yes.
39:46Narcissists are high ego, low self-esteem.
39:50Low self-esteem just oozes out of her.
39:52Paulina Portakova says that you lack respect for the co-judges.
39:57Janice Dickinson said that you were righteous.
39:59Why do you think both of them had such negative things to say about their experience?
40:02I don't know. Why do you think?
40:05It wasn't there.
40:06You...
40:07She doesn't want to go there.
40:08Why do you think?
40:09I don't know.
40:11Jealous? Is that what you're saying?
40:13Yeah, I'm asking you. You said it. I didn't say that word. You said it.
40:19America's Next Top Model really tortured these girls for Tyra Banks' ego.
40:26She put the girls down for everything.
40:28The hairstyles, the way they walk, the way they hold their face.
40:32It really tore their ego and identity.
40:36I was there and I saw it for four seasons.
40:42She was a hardcore bitch.
40:4745 different countries worldwide had their own version of Top Model.
40:53Tyra Banks became a mogul.
40:55A lot of people might have assumed that we were paid to be on that show.
40:58We were given $37 a day to buy our food.
41:00I left the show broker than I'd ever been in my life.
41:03Tyra doesn't have that empathy.
41:05She has blind ambition.
41:07In the all-star cycle, they brought back all of these returning contestants.
41:12I went back for revenge. I went back for redemption.
41:14But they kept us in the vans with paper bags over our heads.
41:18I won this show and they were like, we can't air you as the winner because you were engaging in
41:24sex work.
41:25She was set up from the very beginning to be the one that's disqualified at the end.
41:29They were really good at casting someone who was struggling with something.
41:34Alway accused of breaking into people's homes and cars.
41:37I had never shaved my head like that before.
41:39I felt so small.
41:41And my dream was right there.
41:43It was like, almost, almost, almost.
41:45And then you just take my shit away from me.
41:47How are you any different from a pimp selling dreams?
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