Tyra Banks Takes A Bite Out Of Fat Critics

Supermodels.

Their faces stare back at us from the check out lines. Their tight, taut, perfectly lithe bodies mock us with their long limbs, and impossibly tiny waists.

Their hair is lustrous, their teeth the color of toilet porcelain, and their lifestyle is nothing short of glamorous.

And their fame is so all encompassing, they need only one name in order to convey their dominance on the runway…

Gisele. Alessandra. Naomi. Kate. Heidi. And of course, Tyra.

Tyra Banks, the first African American woman to be featured on the covers of both GQ and Sports Illustrated. Tyra Banks, one of the original Victoria’s Secret Angels. Tyra Banks, whose modeling credits include stints with Cover Girl, Swatch, Pepsi, Nike, Inc., XOXO, LensCrafters, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Dolce & Gabbana, Yves Saint-Laurent, Chanel, Escada, Anna Sui, Michael Kors, Liz Claiborne, and Richard Tyler - just to name a few.

And yes, Tyra Banks, the savvy, hard driving, dramatic, blunt-as-a-spoon modeling mentor of America’s Next Top Model.

Few would argue that Tyra’s meteoric rise in the modeling strata was undeserved. The girl has always been gorgeous, with challenging eyes, and a body that could reduce grown men to tears – crying mostly because they knew in their beer gutted, sweaty little hearts that the closest they would ever get was the increasingly dog eared pages of their SI Swimsuit issues.

So, of course, as she strutted the runways of the world, amassed cover after cover on international magazines, and created her own television empire, it was only inevitable that people would be sniffing around for the opportunity to knock her out of the superstar orbit.

That opportunity surfaced last month when paparazzi in Australia snapped pics of Tyra enjoying the surf.

There she was, happy, smiling, and chubby.

Or as the tabloids began to scream, "FAT!", "Tyra Porkchop!", and "America’s Next Top Waddle".

Puh-leez.

Does she weigh more now than at the height of her runway career? Absolutely, a fact she does not deny.

But in truth, Tyra has never been at the Kate Moss end of the modeling spectrum. She has always embraced her curves and fought her way up in an industry replete with waifish, heroin-chic figures. She is voluptuous, always has been. She likes to eat, always has.

But is she fat?

Line her up next to the 25% of Americans who tip the obese scales, and the other 50% who are overweight for their height, not to mention seriously sedentary and out of shape, and Tyra is still pretty damned hot.

But while I find it a tad disturbing that the candid snapshots are being touted as "fat", I also don’t find the derision unexpected.

The woman made a career out of her face and body. She was, for years, one of the many images we normal women saw and turned away from, depressed that we had not won the genetic lottery too. And she was, for years, the goddess image so many men turned to for her fantasy heightening powers.

And we here in the unwashed masses like nothing better than a good comeuppance.

Personally, I applaud Tyra for coming forward and striking back. She appears on the cover of this week’s People in a bathing suit and the accompanying story will speak to untold millions who struggle with their weight daily.

She admits she weighs at least 30 pounds more than in her modeling heyday, and like most of us, has a range of sizes in her closet for the many fluctuations that occur. And those fluctuations stop her just like they stop you or I.

"I don't want to sit in front of you and be soap-boxy and fake and say, 'I love myself, I'm beautiful, it's great,' " Banks says. "I still feel hot, but every day is different. It's when I put on the jeans that used to fit a year ago and don't fit now and give me the muffin top, that's when I say, 'Damn!' "

What?!?! You mean she’s human?!?

Like all of us, she admits, "I feel more comfortable when I'm lighter – I sleep better, I snore less, I have more endurance when I work out, my arms look better, but I don't have the desire to really keep it up. When I was modeling, I remember one year in Milan, Veronica Webb and Karen Alexander would be going to the gym every single day during the collections. I was like, 'Wow, I want that.' I wish I had that discipline."

A supermodel without superhuman discipline? Say it ain’t so!

Actually – say it IS so.

It is a great message to send out to the untold number of young girls desperately struggling with their own body images, those teens who look at the pages of Vogue and Glamour and hate their curvier bodies.

They need to hear that a body like that only comes with abnormal restraints and unrealistic discipline, or, as I stated earlier, the winning ticket in the Genetic Lottery of Life.

They need to aim for healthy. They need to aim for balance. They need to aim for happy.

As to the critics who now claim a fuller Tyra has no business critiquing the aspiring girls on her modeling show? Tyra, who knows the business from the inside out, scoffs, ""You have to be thin to be a model – I don't have to live up to that model standard anymore."

Listen, I am barely 5’2" and tip the scales at 100 pounds. I am naturally short, not naturally thin. I work at it everyday. I discipline myself in ways the majority of 40 year old women on this planet do not. I am proud of how I look. But it is hard work and I sometimes wonder how long I am going to be willing to keep at this. When I am going to let up a little and allow my ass to grow sideways a tad? To accept myself, even when there is more of myself to accept?

I take heart in Tyra’s frankness, her openness, her honesty. Because if a supermodel can embrace her larger self and turn into a super-role-model, then maybe there is hope for a fanatic like me.

Screw the treadmill. I’m taking the day off. Thanks, Tyra.

Comments

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[Lori in Texas]

WTF??? Tompaine, are you saying that Tyra Banks looks like a "distended pear" or "the Princess from Shrek"??? Tyra Banks is a HEALTHY weight. Have you actually traveled through Europe lately? Yourself? Personally? I doubt it. You obviously haven't seen any Germans, Italians, Greeks, or Brits lately. Obesity is NOT an exclusively American problem, darling. And, no, you most definitely cannot spot a fellow American in Europe by their "waddle" -- you're more likely to spot an Eastern European waddling by. You need to get out of your house more, Tom. Quit swallowing what the media is feeding you... it's baloney and it's untrue.

[tompaine]

My apologies, but ...

If gorging on hamburgers, french fries, pizza, and ice cream until one looks like a distended pear or the Princess from Shrek is healthy and balanced, then stand up Am-er-ica and be prooooooouuuuud.....Yeeeeeah!

Travel through Europe or Asia, and tell me you can't spot a fellow American from the crowd by their bloated face or slothful waddle. Morbid obesity (gluttony) is a devoutly American phenomenon. We make the best of our unlimited food supply.

Loafing on the couch in unbelted, stretch pants, with a tablespoon jammed into a pint of Häagen-Dazs and another hand doused with melted boxed chocolate, is the default station in life. Anyone can do it. There is no celebration in that. Sorry fellow citizens.

Hoo...........ray for Tyra.

Who-ray for us.