(Oct. 8, 2018 – Source: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images North America)
*Tyra Banks is catching heat after old clips of “America’s Next Top Model” resurfaced this week, showing her rude, toxic and demeaning handling of several contestants.
Banks is now in the center of a firestorm on social media, with folks calling on her to answer for her problematic behavior on ANTM. Many believe it’s time to #CancelTyraBanks because it’s clear she has never had the back of her own.
One clip shows a moment when Banks pressured Cycle 6 contestant Danielle Evans to get dental surgery to have her gap closed (see Twitter video embed below).
Banks even condemns Evans for refusing the surgery, asking her “Do you really think you can have a Cover Girl contract with a gap in your mouth?” and then tells Evans that her gap-tooth smile is “not marketable.”
Tyra went there… despite the fact that Lauren Hutton, who is white—became one of the world’s most successful models with her wide gap-tooth smile.
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Why was this allowed to air wtf Tyra banks is going to straight hell pic.twitter.com/xtiWl3srKJ
— Aisha Oladapo (@OladapoAisha) May 5, 2020
It’s also worth noting that years after this clip from 2006, model Slick Woods and her wide gap-tooth smile would rock the fashion industry. Here’s what she had to say about Tyra recently (see Twitter post below):
This is what Slick Woods had to say about Tyra Banks recently ? we can’t discredit everything Tyra did but… pic.twitter.com/yEp8YsFBTo
— F (@ohfads) May 5, 2020
The ANTM clips have many on social dragging Banks’ for her policing of the Black contestants on the show, which first aired in 2003.
“I remember watching this as a young woman & I felt extremely discouraged to be on TV bc of this scene. I was disappointed in Tyra then… She ended up pressuring this girl to get dental surgery to be ‘marketable.’ Also my gap & TV contract say ‘HI!'” Nina Parker, E! News correspondent and Nightly Pop co-host, wrote on Twitter on Monday.
“11 year old me, with a gap in my mouth, watched this and I became obsessed with closing my gap. Glad I never closed it but Tyra was deadass wrong for this,” wrote another Twitter user.
“While Danielle was made to feel ugly for her gap, 6/7 cycles laters Tyra widened a white contestant’s gap because of how high fashion, unique and captivating it would be,” a third Twitter user wadded. ”Not marketable’ is Tyra speak for hating dark skin girls.”
As noted by Refinery 29, “Many of us were just kids when the show first began, so we didn’t quite understand the nuance of what we were seeing, but as adults, it’s not looking so good,” the outlet writes.
And how could we ever forget the many white women she put in blackface for photoshoots (see below):
some tyra moments:
– keenyah was putting on weight during the season, so she made keenyah an elephant (after making her “gluttony”
– she put brittany in blackface for a shoot
– seasons later put jennifer and the short girl cast in black/brownface
– yaya vs. the hat pic.twitter.com/i4XDxg3SsP— stan of cleves (@alex_abads) May 5, 2020
Check out a few more tweets about Banks below, including posts from a few defenders of her hot mess:
Ya’ll tryna cancel Tyra over shit she PUBLICLY did years ago. Please go for a walk and get some air.
— Hi(gh) Noon 05/08 (@RandyEmillio) May 5, 2020
Me watching my whole feed drag Tyra #Tyra pic.twitter.com/kAGzEJWLPd
— Shojuanie T. (@shojuanie1) May 5, 2020
Me watching the TL drag tf outta Tyra pic.twitter.com/M9SpKo48gv
— Brown Skin Girl With Skin Like Pearls (@AnimeOtaku1723) May 5, 2020
Not even going to lie to you, you can’t cancel Tyra Banks in 2020 pic.twitter.com/Tc3ZpE7fzv
— ???? ????? ??????-???????. (@Ietitburns) May 5, 2020
ANTM/Tyra Banks’ commentary aged badly & that’s the honest truth. We were kids when we were watching this so we weren’t aware of what was being framed to us. Watching those clips now…. she definitely violated and she did it a lot.
— ????? ??? ? (@TheCourtKim) May 5, 2020
Wait wait wait. We must talk about this as well. Tyra was out here normalizing Blackface. How is this woman not cancelled ?? #ANTM pic.twitter.com/EyyKh7gYWO
— Michaela Pratt (@kay_scott324) May 5, 2020
The part on ANTM that never sat right with me was how Tyra did Yaya that one episode. She let that white lady tell Yaya she was acting too black then told her she was being defensive. Like girl wtf ? pic.twitter.com/EASO8zVY8t
— nae. (@euphorixa) May 5, 2020
Thinking about how Tyra banks made a girl on ANTM do a photoshoot in a graveyard the day after her childhood best friend died
— NIAMH (@angelthott) May 4, 2020
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