An Asian American 'Top Model'?

Sylvie Kim
August 13, 2008

That never stops being funny.

This cycle's AA representation is in the form of Sheena, a 21-year-old hostess/go-go dancer originally from Honolulu and living in Harlem:

cw-antm11-sheena-container_012327-7692f4-500x637.jpg

[photo from CWTV.com]

I'm not gonna get my hopes up high for this one because judging by the show's history, Asian gals usually get the boot pretty quickly (or are called "emotionless" by judges) as do contestants that dance for a living.

Alongside Choe, Indian American Julie Titus from 2004, and Japanese/Caucasian American April Wilkner, Sheena will be the fourth Asian American model to compete out of approximately 140 women who have been on the show since its debut. The winners have consistently been white or African American, though a few have been Latina. Those stats don't say much for Tyra and Co.'s perception of Asian American aesthetics in the modeling world. While they say they're all about accepting different body types and faces, they seem to leave out those of Asian descent. But they have no problem whatsoever in imitating Asians. Scroll to :55 to see them in action:

 

Granted, the success rate for ANTM's winners and participants haven't been outstanding. But with the show's loyal cult following and home on accessible network TV, it'd be a nice platform for Asian faces to affirm their place in American beauty. Good luck to Sheena. She'll be competing against a transgendered model with killer legs; she needs all the support she can get. 

"America's Next Top Model" airs on The CW.

Categories: 
TV
Contributor: 

Sylvie Kim

contributing editor & blogger

Sylvie Kim is a contributing editor at Hyphen. She previously served as Hyphen's blog coeditor with erin Khue Ninh, film editor, and blog columnist.

She writes about gender, race, class and privilege in pop culture and media (fun fun fun!) at www.sylvie-kim.com and at SF Weekly's The Exhibitionist blog. Her work has also appeared on Racialicious and Salon.

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Comments

Comments

Leslie wrote on Mon, 08/18/2008 - 3:46pm
April was open during the time she was on the show about not caring for her Japanese heritage because she doesn't know anything about it. She identified herself as white on the show. I do not think she is a very good role model for the Asian American community.
Leslie wrote on Mon, 08/18/2008 - 3:47pm
April was open during the time she was on the show about not caring for her Japanese heritage because she doesn't know anything about it. She identified herself as white on the show. I do not think she is a very good role model for the Asian American community.
Lokutaro wrote on Thu, 09/25/2008 - 8:47pm
April never implied she did not "care for" her Japanese heritage, nor did she say she did "not know" anything about it, nor did she identify herself as strictly "white" on the show. You should not make statements like this that are completely based on your own perception of an already polluted medium, skewed by manipulative editing and not based on the facts. April said on the show that she is of both JAPANESE and EUROPEAN heritage, and that she has always identified herself as AMERICAN (a nationality not a race) rather than JAPANESE. Furthermore she has done countless interviews post show explaining how the editing of her words were taken out of context to imply other than the truth of her sentiments and connection to her heritage, and explaining her beliefs about her MIXED heritage of both Asian and European descent. Many mixed Asian Americans as myself can relate to this, being put into a box, or being told to wave a flag as she claims was being encouraged by producers behind the scenes, and I resent that you would take this forum as an opportunity to put down another Asian American attempting to represent a mixed background rather than supporting them.
lisa mac wrote on Wed, 08/13/2008 - 8:56pm
don't forget anchal (cycle 7)!
sylvie wrote on Wed, 08/13/2008 - 9:11pm
I knew I would forget someone. Anchal was on the cycle that I avoided because of those scary twins.
lisalee wrote on Thu, 08/14/2008 - 1:24am
she is so... skinny...
claire wrote on Thu, 08/14/2008 - 11:33am
seriously? no as am has ever won? that's fucked up.
Melissa wrote on Thu, 08/14/2008 - 11:56am
Nope. April Wilkner got the furthest. She was in the top 4 and was eliminated in the second to last episode of the second season.