Naomi Campbell never shied away from her bad girl image; in fact, she embraced it.
According to Pharrell Williams, she was even the one who coined the term, “I ain’t no hollaback girl.” Naomi started her career in the late 80s, while still in her teens and by the 90s, she was considered part of the holy grail of fashion, the “The Trinity,” which included Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington. By 1991, Tyra Banks, three years Naomi’s junior, had already made a splash and was featured in Paris Fashion Week—where she met Naomi, and according to Tyra, also met Naomi’s dark side—thus beginning a feud as legendary as the Hatfields and McCoys.
The posh British dark-skinned exotic beauty was pitted against the bubbly, buxom, berry blonde, green-eyed California beauty. Even in their constant comparison, the two couldn’t have been more different, and they were certainly billed that way. While Naomi was ever-embroiled in controversy, Tyra was able to be a sex symbol while still being virginally adjacent. She was the innocent girl-next-door that men still felt comfortable openly lusting after. Tyra rode the wave of that image in 1998, coming out with the book, “Tyra’s Beauty: Inside and Out.” The book touched on everything from not over-plucking your eyebrows to not kissing on the first date. Tyra penned the book right after being the first Black woman to be on the coveted cover of Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition.
In 2005, 14 years later, Tyra hosted Naomi as a guest on her eponymous talk show, pouring over the details of how the fashion industry’s bad girl had wronged her many times over the years, making her feel so small, that according to Tyra, she was part of the reason she quit pursuing modeling and went on to start “America’s Next Top Model”. Upon closer examination, it looks like Tyra took that feud with her and out on her Black female contestants. This is not to say that she didn’t do some pretty harsh shit to white contestants of “America’s Next Top Model”, but it almost felt like she was exacting revenge on Naomi, and chuckling at her trauma with every new photo flipped in front of two nervous new adults.
In one of the earlier episodes of Season 3, Tyra talks to Eva Pigford, who would go on to win that season, about some of the interactions she had with the other young women, stating, “I don’t want to cast another Black bitch.” Maybe Tyra did not want to perpetuate stereotypes even though there were only five Black women cast in the two previous seasons combined, but there were white bitches on the show whose ethnicities were never mentioned. In the documentary “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model,” which aired on Netflix earlier this week, former contestants, hosts, producers, and Tyra discuss the impact of the show on pop culture, and on their lives, with many contestants feeling like they left the show with more baggage than they arrived with, and no amount of cool trips overseas would make carrying around all of that, easy.
Dani Evans, cycle 6’s winner, hailed from Little Rock, Arkansas and brought her big gapped smile and her southern charm to the show, laments the trauma the show brought into her life, but most specifically calls out Tyra for essentially forcing her to close her beloved gap between her very straight teeth, even though she was adamant about keeping it, essentially holding it as a ticket to remain in the running. Tyra emphasized that Dani would have trouble getting work and that this was what casting directors would say. A few seasons later, as pointed out in the documentary, Tyra actually put a gap in between a white woman’s teeth, who did not previously have one. The double standard felt personal. To add insult to injury, Dani accused Tyra of not stepping in to help when Dani’s career was hindered by her association with the show.
The other reason Tyra claimed she left modeling was that she was tired of trying to maintain a smaller frame. Contestant Keenyah Hill, from cycle 4, described not only feeling sexually harassed by a male model on a shoot, but also villainized for speaking up about it, but also that her weight was always being talked about, and became a part of her storyline. One of the most iconic episodes of the show, and a widely memed moment in history, was a repeat contestant, Tiffany Richardson, from cycles 3 and 4, originally leaving because of a fight.
“We were rooting for you, we were all rooting for you,” a line famously screamed at her because Richardson felt defeated after not being able to read the names of famous designers. While Tyra claimed it was because she saw herself and Tiffany and wanted to help, Tiffany, a dark-skinned woman, is claiming the complete opposite via her Instagram.
Tiffany writes,” you are 1 lying ass bitch… you know how you treated me the whole time off and on camera, YOU WAS A BULLY!!! You treated me like shit and said the nastiest things about me and my son. That is not how the argument went but YALL EDITED TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE YOU CARED.” =
Also in the documentary, contestant Ebony Haith from cycle 1, a dark-skinned woman, talked about having her head shaved by white stylists who not only made fun of her hair but also lacked the proper equipment to cut it, and were made to feel bad for commenting on her treatment.
While speaking to Naomi, Tyra preached sisterhood and how their meeting truly healed her because of Naomi showing accountability, but it was that same accountability that Tyra lacked during the documentary. The woman who built her entire brand on being nice was, according to the sentiments of contestants, opportunistic and purposely traumatizing. This was all in the name of helping young women achieve success in the modeling world, but really, it was about what would make good TV, especially when she was aware of how the show may have hindered more careers than it helped.
While Tyra may have left modeling, it was clear that Naomi occupied an apartment under her bangs and the girl next door’s house was nowhere near the hood.
