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America's Next
Top Model's writers seek basic benefits

America's Next
Top Model's writers seek basic benefits

When I first became a writer for "America's Next Top Model" back on Cycle Four of the show, people would often hear of my chosen vocation and respond with some permutation of the following: "Oh, hey, my daughter / coworker / gay cousin watches that show! Me, not so much. I don't even know when it's on, seeing as I find a modeling competition too lowbrow for my NPR-level sensibilities." But that was two years ago

When I first became a writer for "America's Next Top Model" back on Cycle Four of the show, people would often hear of my chosen vocation and respond with some permutation of the following: "Oh, hey, my daughter / coworker / gay cousin watches that show! Me, not so much. I don't even know when it's on, seeing as I find a modeling competition too lowbrow for my NPR-level sensibilities." But that was two years ago and, entering into Cycle Seven, it seems the world has finally embraced Tyra's weave and its merry band of eating-disorder-addled proteges. "Top Model," in other words, has totally come out of the closet. This has made the dedicated staff of writers on the show an extremely powerful entity. One that became powerful enough to walk off the job unanimously on July 21, requesting such basic benefits as health insurance and pensions. Y'know, like people on other top-rated television shows have. But not "America's Next Top Model."

"Writers? On a reality show? Stop it!" Oh, please. Regular people aren't half as interesting as the girls on "America's Next Top Model." This is because there is a talented staff of twelve of us -- or there was, before we were forced to take leave of our desks and begin living life in front of the show's production office on Santa Monica Boulevard -- who take hundreds of hours of footage of young women sitting around doing nothing and turn it into forty-two minutes of sparking television. Ever been amazed that the girl who happens to be such a focal point of an episode of reality television also happensto be the girl who gets eliminated that week?Thank a reality writer for crafting it so seamlessly that it looks like it happened by itself.

Throughout the last month, we have received endless support from fans of the show, and we've been portrayed as golden boys and girls in the press. But when you're getting stonewalled by a multibillion dollar conglomerate such as CBS (who owns the new CW Network on which "Top Model" will air), a spate of good press can still feel like you're throwing grapes against a brick wall. Someone with power and influence needs to step into this void and act as an advocate on our behalf.

Someone named Tyra Banks, ex-supermodel extraordinaire, host of "America's Next Top Model," and my boss.

After weeks of stalling silence which found my colleagues and I rotting outside in a Los Angeles heat wave, Tyra finally spoke out on August 18, telling her own staff in a prepared statement: "This is not a decision I control." Oh, Tyra. Tyra! How boring to tow the company line, to not stand up for the underrepresented! How drab and un-fabulous to listen to everyone around you, telling you to stay out of it, even though you can fix this thing for your writers with a wave of your perfectly-manicured hand! We all saw the episode of your talk show where you helped that girl get over her crippling fear of pennies! Of courseyou have power.You're just choosing not to use it in your own backyard!So much for channeling your inner Oprah.

The way I see it, the two key demographics of "America's Next Top Model" are teenage girls who want to become models and jaded gay men who want to snark the death out of them. Now that Tyra has put herself in the decidedly non-fierce position of passive pawn in this whole thing, she is jeopardizing her status as kick-ass gay icon. Her millions of gay fans, her team of gay stylists and handlers, and her gay writers on "America's Top Model" (of which there are more than one) should let her know she's on notice. Stop hiding, Tyra! It's really, really gay, and not in a good way.

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