By Crusader (24, Arnold, Missouri)
Sprawled out with legs in the air or spread apart, arms flailed out lifelessly, bleeding on the pavement and the walls of back alleys and surrounded by pipes, filth, and plastic wrap, the women in these scenes could be from a grisly serial murder-rapist case file.
Except for the come-hither, smoldering gazes on the victims’ faces.
After America’s Next Top Model ran this dead model episode, one has to wonder what they were really going for. Claiming that the models were killed by other models (who must have been sadist, rapist, and/or serial killer models, judging by the photos), the show ran images of the women beaten, shot, strangled, drowned, stabbed, and decapitated.
Such shameless dehumanization of women is exactly the opposite of what the planet needs. With someone sexually assaulted every 2.5 minutes in North America alone, 1 in 6 women being assaulted in her lifetime, 2 to 4 million being battered each year, and 4 women dying every day due to domestic violence in America alone, what better way to combat it all than glamorize images of dead, abused, battered women—and call it “beautiful”?
Tell these extollers of the dead female body exactly what you think of them and their show—send an email to them at feedback@CWTV.com. Want to send them snail mail, which can be more effective?
Write to:
Dawn Ostroff
11800 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
If you need talking points, you can alter the sample letter below that I sent the CW. You can also call them at, and contact Tyra Banks at:
Tyra Banks
c/o Studio Fan Mail
1122 S. Robertson Blv. #15
Los Angels, CA 90035
tyrabanks@studiofanmail.com
Crusader's Letter to the CW:
To Whom it May Concern:
I am beyond appalled and offended by your recent episode of “America’s Next Top Model” that featured models posing as mutilated and beaten murder victims.
This grotesque dehumanization of women glorifies the very serious and reprehensible acts of violence taken against women every day. A person is sexually assaulted every 2.5 minutes in North America alone. 1 in 6 women will be assaulted in her lifetime. 2 to 4 million women are battered each year, and 4 women die every day due to domestic violence in America alone. How dare you take these acts, portray them with models, and call them “beautiful”?
Here’s a thought: for your next segment, why don’t you guys just air an all-live clitorectomy? Certainly your models will weigh even less without their clitorises, and think of the loveliness! I can hear the judges already: “Clitlessness becomes you;” or, “What’s great about this is that you can also look beautiful with a sewed-up cunt.”
Certainly nothing is too far in the name of art or beauty—why not take it this far? And since models have to do live work, too, it makes all the sense more to have them enact live violence. Perhaps a stoning is in the works for a future episode? Nothing like a good stoning to showcase such gorified beauty! Or to simply build upon the episode they’ve already done, live abuse and rape could be filmed on location. Tyra Banks might have said, “A smart model is a good model,” but perhaps a dead model will suffice.
Violence against women is a serious issue that needs to be taken as such. To glamorize it with dead models—and then to call them beautiful—is not only demeaning and offensive to women, but also a mockery of their pain and deaths. In response to this heinous, blatant display of disregard for the health and wellbeing of women, not only am I, my family, and my friends going to boycott your network, but we are also going to tell everyone we know to do so as well, until you can come to terms with what you have done and publicly apologize to the women whose lives you’ve mocked and whose pain you’ve exploited, as well as to the women all over the world who watch your show and will undoubtedly reap in the repercussions from the seeds you have sewn, and renounce these violent acts for what they are—the promotion of violence, and nothing more.
• Violence Against Women: A Global Horror
• The Right to be Human
• Modern Day Slavery: Breaking the Silence
