MTV’s Model Makers: Because Eating Disorders Make For Great TV!

Really MTV? Now, I know I can hardly knock ya too much—after all, The Hills is my vice—but when I read about an upcoming show called Model Makers, I knew maybe my favorite craptastic network had gone too far. Billed as a “Transformation Make-Over” reality show, Model Makers advertised for contestants with the following ad:

Have you always wanted to model but don’t know where to start? Maybe you don’t know the right people. Maybe you are not thin enough. Maybe you are not photogenic.  MODEL MAKERS will give you the ultimate make-over and transform you into the model of your dreams. Women come in all shapes and sizes, but models don’t. The term model conjures an image of stick-thin, towering beauties oozing confidence, glamour, poise and sexuality from every pore. ‘Skinny,’ ‘no body fat,’ and ‘size zero’ are the words and phrases associated with models. ‘Chubby,’ ‘well-fed,’ and ‘big-boned’ are not…

It almost seems like a joke how transparent this show is—while other modeling shows clearly are filled with thin girls (with the exception of last season’s America’s Next Top Model winner Whitney, who broke the scales at a HUGE size 8), they’ve never been so blatant about their industry’s dangerous and shallow standards. MTV’s core demographic is 12 to 24-year-olds, also the age range when most women with eating disorders develop anorexia or bulimia. Couple this show with the recent news that the nation’s most popular teen magazine—Seventeen—is going to develop a line of work out videos for teenagers, and you’ve got a noticeable trend where major media companies are now actively instilling body obsession in girls when they’re at their most vulnerable. Catherine may be boycotting The Hills because she’s disturbed that Lauren Conrad makes a disgusting $75,000 per episode, but I may have to boycott the network as a whole because I am so disgusted.