Tyra Banks was the subject of many a headline last week when throwback clips from her time on ‘America’s Next Top Model’ went viral.
As reported, the mogul’s conduct became the center of debate – with some billing her antics inappropriate and others defending it as simply mirroring the reality of the fashion and entertainment industries.
Banks herself weighed-in, taking accountability.
Now, she’s receiving support from an unlikely source.
Full story below…
ANTM’s first winner Adrienne Curry has made no secret of her issues with Banks and the show at large.
Yet, she took to social media to defend both:
I agree 100%. It’s amazing how in 2020 everyone is so ‘woke’, yet we all forget that we watched that show with no complaints. Holding her accountable for her actions is not a bad thing. But we can’t judge her and not acknowledge that we were also ok with it at the time.
Very well said i also agree 100 percent
Yep! She has a point! We can spend years going through archives of modern television and pointing out things we deemed acceptable TV. I watch rerun shows from the 90s and 2000s and can see how it could be misconstrued today. Move the hell on! Y’all gave ANTM high ratings, gave her a talk show and made her a host to a major show. All this retroactive cancellation is so tired!
She’s said everything I’ve wanted to say. She’s right.
These are changing times but it seems the modelling industry is still cut throat guaranteed but Tyra experienced bullying to even from Naomi as a woman of colourherself and she tried to make it easier for women of color that’s not to day some of those judges were a bit critical that it was whimsical but that is how the modelling industry is
Are you kidding me? That was their job to be critical. Models are HEAVILY criticized even before they get the JOB. She was giving them a taste of what they wanted to get into.
Part of her is right, but part of this is because of the power of social media this time.
Now that Amazon is streaming ALL of these seasons people are seeing how wrong Tyra was. People can now be vocal on social about a lot of moments people forgot about (or never even saw until just now).
I think if social media was around then it would have been a different story.
You can have an opinion without being outraged. It’s all about making a fair assessment of a given situation. If you know what goes into the modeling industry you will understand that nothing Tyra said was a problem.
And drop the mic
Im glad she posted becuz I agree. Nothing in life is easy. Hell’s kitchen proved that even chefs have to endure. When the industry is cut throat and competition is high then u can expect challenges. Tyra portrayed the reality of modeling. Ppl think famous people should just GIVE to them without having to really work and that’s not ok…. Diddy and Laurie Ann Gibson were just as cut throat.. Trump on his show.. American Idol was cut throat..
Good for you Adrienne. The courage to speak your mind with truth. I’m sick of this always “calling people out” witch hunting bs. We live in a PC world where social media is the platform.
Most of you idios in the comment section fail to realize that a lot of the people angry are young adults who were literally in first or second grade when the show originally aired!! Do you guys not realize that? The majority of people complaining are watching this show for the FIRST TIME. So no, we weren’t “okay with it until 2020” lol you all sound like idiots. Also, social media is mainstream NOW. There was literally zero social media platforms back in 2009 that people could vent on.
Myspace – 2003
Facebook – 2004
YouTube – 2005
Twitter – 2006
Tumblr – 2007
Pinterest – 2009
Instagram – 2010
Besides all of these sites, there were message boards and forums galore. You had your chance.
nah, i was grown af when i chopped ANTM for this foolery in real time and I still remember tyra’s bs….
TYRA you tried to do what many in the industry wouldn’t even get up to answer the doorbell. Unfortunately some people’ have tryand take one moment and make it a day. Shame on them! You are greatcWoman and as humble and gracious as you are you have nothing to apologize for! Love and Peace!!!💝💝💝💝
I didn’t just become outraged. i was always outraged at some the crap the models dealt with on that show. I don’t believe models deal with such conditions in the real world. The fact Adrienne Curry got over it is great but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. The time has passed for mistreating people and time has passed for us to tolerate it to reach our goals.
Tyra tried to prepare these girls for some of what she herself endured. They don’t mince words in the entertainment industry and neither did Tyra. Her gap comment to Danielle is one of the main videos going around as an example of verbal and emotional abuse, but no one mentions that Danielle took Tyra’s advice and closed her gap when she went into the industry years later. If it weren’t for some tough love, Danielle would’ve been sending out resumes wondering why she wasn’t booking jobs. Tyra obviously knew what she talking about and only tried to help these girls understand what to expect.
Thank you! I agree. Everyone is so offended about everything these days you can’t say or do anything. If everybody is to be condemned for things they did 5, 10, 20 years ago… EVERYONE should just lose their job and go crawl in a hole. And I’m SO glad Tyra did not just wholesale apologize to strangers like everyone else does. If that were me: Who are you? Why am I sorry that you’re offended? While you have the right to be offended, I have the right to own what I did or said a whole lifetime ago practically, and move on! Take that log out of your eye before you point out my splinter, world! anyway, we watch top model for the drama and we loved it. If everything was sunshine and roses it would have been boring and nobody would have watched.
Not true. We did have chat rooms we could do that in. We also had MySpace.
She giving it all back to Master…
Master would come and take the brother wife and send her back to him pregnant…Now Master get it freely and a bank account with it. We get success and takes it and run with it.Brothers in the NFL no different…how many died and hung for white women lying they rapped or winked whistled and now it’s a hot thang to have a white woman. Our world has changed with labor because the majority of us get paid for still being slaved. They pay good for our entertainment but are still not ok with status and never will be. I believe in forgiving but never forgetting how I arrived. “I REFUSE TO SLEEP WITH THE DEVIL ANCESTORS”.
I guess she told yall. What really is going on is that Tyra open model land and the white powerful folks don’t like it. They are trying to tear it down before it gets built up and whom ever you are I SEE YOU. TYRA paved the way for black girls women of color all over the world.And now y’all trying to destroy her . Yes I SEE YOU
lord this twat will jump on anything to get some sort of headline. How come no one gets how racist she has and always has been. She talks so much s*** about Tyra but tries so hard to defend her hoping someone gives a s***. No one does. Her husband leaves her every weekend to camp alone in the backyard
Lol that sure tells u enough about this broad that her own hubby can’t stand her
she’s right tho.. i cringed during the race-swap episodes as hard as Mr Jay cringed and I finally had enough with Tyra’s coonery after witnessing what she did to AzMarie Livingston. AzMarie’s shady at exit was the last fkn straw that broke the antm camel’s back for me. I’m glad AzMarie has been out here making the best of her beautiful life despite Tyra’s foolery. I’m glad she had such prominent role on Empire before that show’s end. I’m especially glad Tyra’s out here getting READ FOR HER FKN FILTH. In these post Bill Cosby the hero days; IDGAF how many barriers Tyra has broken down for black models in the industry. At the end of fkn day, I’m counting the barriers that bithc put up before I decided to chop her how-slavin a$$.
house-slavin ass…. YEA I FKN SAID IT
To be honest, I loved ANTM and never saw anything wrong with the show until I started watching as now a 34 year old woman. There are things I wish she didn’t do and say, but I understand that the show was a product of its time. It doesn’t change how I feel about Tyra, especially if she has used the feedback as an opportunity to reflect and grow. I have.
Thank you! A VERY BIG THANK YOU TO
ADRIANNE CURRY! Her statement states what I’ve been thinking since I first heard of all this drummed-up controversy. I binge watched those first seasonshears ago as reruns and though I didn’t like how they picked on Danielle because of her accent and the gap in her teeth, I didn’t stop watching (so glad she woman’s is doing well, no drama and bad-mouthing others, arguments – a class act!) . Though the judges singled out certain qualities about certain contestants in each season, continually and repetitively, my tv still found that same channel and continued to watch ANTM, so it’s not fair to retroactively complain.
There were many questionable choices over the years by Tyra, Mr. J, Miss J, Nigel and other judges and fashion people that worked on the show. But no one complained then. The contestants chose to be on the show and knew that everything was subject to change and on chance. A model is a blank canvas upon which an artist creates. That’s the job. If you, as a model, or a viewer, find something offensive, disgusting or degrading, you have the choice to not participate, leave the job or not watch, just as the contestants have the right to leave the show. It’s very difficult to make such a sacrifice. It may badly affect a model’s career.
Ms. Curry, So true. I Loved watching ANTM. If they were ok with it then….. Let it sleep on undisturbed.
Thank you so much for this. The truth is so many of us were avid watchers, barely able to wait for the next episode/season, eating it all up… that was all of ANTM’s fans, young and old. Admittedly, some of the judges critiques were unfair, offensive and cringe worthy, just on a human level, a mean spiritedness that made you want to jump in defend the girls from the hurt of it all, but it never stopped the fans frm tuning in for more. The episodes that have found their way in today’s spotlight are just moments that made you talk out loud back to the TV for the shear injury of it all. That said, all of those girls signed on to be contestants, and tacitly agreed, as grown women to the terms of the show, more importantly, Tyra repeatedly said, that the judgings were just a snapshot of what the industry is like. She drilled that point in over and over again, and like so many of the girls who became contestants, they were fans first, so they already knew what to expect… they knew. It’s pretty hard to litigate an offense when you, on some level were okay with the rules of the game, as so many of the girls were. In Dani’s video addressing what happened to her, she infers as much by indicating that she wasn’t going to let her gap be the thing that sent her back to Arkansas, she not understood the game, but was playing it, and though some cruddy things may have transpired on the show at the behest of the EPs and Tyra, specifically, many of the girls have gone to have some pretty remarkable careers, others have parlayed their time on the show into some wonderful relationships and have gone to become celebs in their own right, which never would have happened apart from being on Top Model. It put all the girls on the map, whether they were able to use as a springboard or not. I agree with Adrienne, 15 years is a long time ago and that time has already had its moment in the spotlight, it’s time to move on and stop feigning anger over this non-issue. Whatever you think of Tyra, she did make it rain for a lot of the girls, and for that, they should still be saying THANK YOU, INMHO.
…and to be clear, what’s going on in our world right now is the real issue. People dying from the C********** pandemic, having to stay home, and trying to figure what their lives are going to look like after this is all over, assuming that it will be sooner rather than later. I get it, people are bored – they’ve got too much time on their hands, hence dragging this ANTM dead horse out to re-kill it. It’s dead people, let it go! Whatever happened to forgiveness?! We need to know how to apologize, forgive and let the matter (die) go, LET IT GO! There are too many real grown up things going on in our world today. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives to this v****, our government is failing at administering a right and proper response. We’ve got an presidential election fastly approaching, and the country has never been more polarized/divided. There are people who have never been more brazen in their racism and violent attacks on people who don’t look like them or believe the way they do, and there is much work to be done. Arguing about what happened on Top Model 15 years ago is not one of them. I promise you, it’s not. May I encourage you to refocus your anger, use it productively, don’t forget to VOTE during this election cycle, and do everything to keep yourselves and your friends and family safe. Be good to yourselves, and stop chasing the shiny objects of the past that social media experts use to stoke false controversies, stir us up, and further distract us from the chaos that is happening in our country and in our world. Love y’all Fam, remember stay woke or get woke, whatever you do, don’t be deceived.
I’m sooo glad she (Tyra) apologized! She DEFINITELY should have. It doesn’t matter how long ago it was. I watched it THEN & since being home due to the pandemic, I binge watched the seasons. I was reminded of those same feelings I had when she gave her “advice “ & opinion to several different girls of various ethnicities. The one that bothered me the most was when she tried to make Danielle’s “accent” or should I say the way she spoke. 🙄 It was clearly her culture and where she was brought up but she and one of the other modeling agents wanted her to “fix it” because it’s not marketable!!!🙄🙄🙄
Are people bored or just demented. what is the point of bringing up some trivial nonsense that happened nearly 20 years ago? Leave Tyra alone. if you want to pick on someone there’s a big orange chump stinking up the white house right now who is fair game.