Heat the $#^ing Pool!

I don't quite know why, I will attempt to explain, but if it doesn't make sense at the end of this post, just realize that I don't really know why I love America's Next Top Model. I can't keep my eyes away, I see it on MTV, VH1, or whatever channel it was on before those two, and I have to watch. But at the same time, I hate it, it pisses me off, and I don't understand what their problem is.

It isn't about watching "skinny bitches" in awkward situations, because I tend to sympathize with all of the contestants. What I get infuriated about is the seemingly arbitrary judging and the dangerous working conditions. At least two contestants have been hospitalized for dehydration, and one was essentially kicked off the show for being too ill to work. She was compared to the other contestant that either wasn't as sick or wasn't facing as daunting a task as this one was. The working conditions are such that if the contestants really had a choice, they would turn down the job offer.

The best example of this in my mind is the pool photo shoot in Barcelona. The contestant Caridee, who is obviously much thinner than the other contestants, experiences hypothermia. The other contestants assume that she is "overreacting", because the water was cold. Caridee was told "you have a problem with cold" and to make sure she "doesn't waste the client's money" by letting them know this up front. Obviously, "the client" is too poor to provide a safe working condition. Frankly, I think ANTM does many shoots outside of the United States in order to skirt labor laws, and it pisses me off. Models are already held to extreme physical standards, to expect them to work while sick, in water so cold it causes hypothermia, is abuse. If that is how the modeling industry "is", then the industry has a serious problem.