out of curiosity, what was your favourite picture from cycle 24 and has your opinion changed? back when i was reading your old commentary i realised that the post had gotten removed and i've been wondering what it was 😬
I think by the looks of things it was Sandra's Vulnerable photo (Week 7), and I do still love that shot, even if the whole hands touching them has a slight weirder vibe in 2022 than it did back then. Ultimately still not a huge fan of most of Cycle 24 photoshoots, so much wasted potential across the board.
I think Liberty's post-makeover video would now be a contender for number 1, but I actually think Shanice's Parachute shot might actually be my favourite. She is the only one for me who produced a good shot from that shoot, and I had been so excited about it all season from when I saw it in the promos. It was her shining moment on the show.
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2. Where Did They Find These White Girls?
A lot of reality shows only cast a handful of non-white contestants, and those limited spots often go to "the bitch" or "the villain" archetypes, so credit to Top Model for going against the grain. In this cycle, it's people of color who make up the majority of the cast, and it's the white girls who come off the most crazy and unlikable. That's progress, maybe!
For example, there's Liberty, who's from a super white and conservative small town in Idaho. Despite acknowledging she has a lot to learn about the world and politics, she has no problem spouting her uninformed views. I'm really curious to know what was going on in her pretty little head when she asks several women of color if they think there might be pros to having Donald Trump as president in the upcoming years. Spoiler: The black women do not. Second spoiler: The black women are correct.
Undeterred, Liberty outs herself as being pro-Trump because of his business experience. She expects that he will provide "some career opportunities" and improve the economy "a little bit." Yeah, that doesn't seem nearly worth the trade off for having an unstable, incompetent, and corrupt bigot at the helm.
Also, she's essentially telling these fellow models that having a president who views them as subhuman is acceptable if the economy improves. Let's be clear, Liberty, that there's only one wealthy, egomaniacal reality show host who is providing you with a career opportunity right now and it's not the president - it's Tyra Banks!
Then we've got the white girl who's a little too comfortable claiming she's down with brown-skinned people. As Maggie explains to the panel, she grew up in lily white Maine until she went to college in Oakland, which is a lot more diverse. She now goes by the nickname "White Homegirl" since she glommed on to black culture as soon as she was introduced to it.
Oh boy. I don't doubt that some people of color jokingly called Maggie "white homegirl" in college, but if any of those people were really her friend, they would have told her not to embrace that monicker, as she looks completely foolish. Good for her for branching out, but she hasn't been "stripped" of her whiteness. I mean, with that dumb red hat, she still looks like your typical white hipster girl to me.
Finally, we have Liz, who is a mess and a half. She trips on her way into the room, which Tyra seems to love since it makes Liz "memorable," though she does inquire how inebriated Liz is. Liz insists she's sober.
Flashback to Tyra doing the same thing:
That's not to say LIz is sober sober like Tyra since she asks the judges to get drinks with her when the process is all over. Law still suspects she has a flask hiding in her cleavage. Nevertheless, he wants to create a brand just so she can be the face of it.
That's THIS face, mind you. Who wouldn't want to buy what she's selling?
Before the photoshoot, Liz compares herself to both Alice in Wonderland and Courtney Love, which would imply she's mixing psychedelics and downers. Her sobriety is further questioned during the photoshoot when Drew actually has to tell Liz, "Do some where you look beautiful instead of just drunk." She survives the next cut anyway.
Then, at the fashion show, Liz stomps like this, practically stumbling into the audience:
For whatever reason, Law still loves it. She survives the cut after that, as well.
But not before stirring up some confusing drama where she cries at Khrystyana about… well, Liz doesn't even know what the point of her own rambling is, to be honest. That still doesn't stop from her from whining and even getting mad when Khrystyana tries to wrap up the conversation. "You're not letting me finish!" is a fine thing to say to someone who interrupts you, but if you haven't made a coherent point in several minutes, what are you trying to finish even?
"I'm just telling you my feelings," Liz says, and later adds, "I just, like, I just want you to know that, like, I just feel, like, really, like, crappy, you know?" I could die happy if I never heard the pejorative "snowflake" again, but there is something super off-putting about someone who thinks she has the right to hold another person hostage so she can babble about her vague insecurities. Every feeling you have doesn't need to be shared… and perhaps shouldn't when you can't even articulate it!
Bless Khrystyana for being maybe the one example of a non-crazy white person this cycle. She says that Liz seems to be under the impression that she confide in her because she thinks that they're "really close friends," but Khrystyana doesn't know why Liz would feel that way.
She cutely shrugs it off, but we're going to need to Furonda to more bluntly express Khrystyana's point of view:
If Liz were actually Khrystyana’s friend, she wouldn’t dare pull her into a sure-to-be-on-TV moment while she has cream all over her face.
One night in, and the whole house already sees Liz for the basket case that she is. If this is Liz sober, I'd hate to see how ridiculously she'd act on drugs.
5 Funniest Moments of America’s Next Top Model Cycle 24 Episode 1
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