Cuckoo hooks

When reading Belle Hooks, Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance, I started to think about the show Americas Next Top Model. They are always using ‘ethnicity…. to liven up the dull dish” rather their show. The models are often placed in situation where they have to mimic another culture in their photo shoot, and then are judge on how well they embodied what they were taught. People find pleasure…. in the acknowledgement and enjoyment of racial difference” (366). The judges are often talking about how certain models have something exotic about them and that it sells. During one of the challenges the girls learned about the aboriginal Australian Culture way of story telling through dance and body art. Later the girls have to incorporate what they learned into their photo shoot. Here are some examples…

This is only one of many examples through out the show that have used different cultures to sell an image. Hooks writes, “The world of fashion has also come to understand that selling products is heightened by the exploration of Otherness” and these image confirm this. (371)

When I was younger there was this billboard that had these two hands shaking, one was black and one was white. While reading this article and thinking about how media use the Other to sell products this image kept coming back to me. This image has always been a popular way to show difference. If these image were of two hands of the same race it would not be powerful, but because of the contrast of the two it stands out more. Hooks talks about the Tweeds catalogue and how they choose the model they use for the images based on contrast. Having a dark-skinned model used while in Egypt would not work because of the “play on contrast”.