I don’t watch America’s Next Top Model for a reason. Well, there are a few reasons. The big one is that I like to remember Tyra Banks as an enigma. She was one of the fiercest 1990s supermodels and worked runways and editorials like crazy. Somewhere around 2005 (when her first talk show hit the airwaves), I started to realize that Tyra was a little nutty. So I selectively remember old school Tyra.
Well, Tyra has a new talk show coming out next year (god help us). She’s also promoting her new makeup line called TYRA Beauty, so she did an interview with Yahoo. The makeup actually sounds pretty cool because it’s mostly stick-based stuff. The eyeliner is called “Oops” because it includes liner on one end and makeup remover on the other. Handy. In this interview, Tyra put her stamp on the current trend of journos asking women about feminism. Compared to some of the other starlets, Tyra does okay with her answer:
She funded TYRA Beauty: “It was important for me to create a brand that wasn’t a licensing deal, but a true self-funded startup. Something that could be a legacy business, not something that would be hot for a moment and then go away. Everything is saturated today. But I’ve always been about zagging when everyone else is zigging. I hate me-too. So I became obsessed with innovation–with being unique, first, and different.”
No foundation/concealer yet: “On photo shoots, when I was a young model, they didn’t have my color. And I said, ‘That’s not going to happen with my project.'” She says she won’t do foundation unless every woman–those with ebony and alabaster skin, and every color in between–can find what they’re looking for. (She notes that if future technology and budgets allow, she’ll make it happen.)
Is she a feminist? “I do consider myself a feminist, yeah. Totally. Even when I was a model with my bra and panties on for a Victoria’s Secret fashion show. Sure, I was stompin’, and I know guys were like, ‘Woo, look at Tyra.’ But I know that my body being thicker on that runway meant something. A lot of the things I did in my modeling career as a woman of color was part of that feminism–of expanding the definition of beauty and making women feel beautiful, no matter what color their skin is.”
She’s a businesswoman/feminist: “Right now, with women in power, and not apologizing for being strong or wanting to make money or to be on top, that’s my message–and that’s all feminism. I just feel like you should be able to have a fierce face at the same time.”
[From Yahoo!]
Was Tyra ever considered “thick”? Compared to the waiflike models like Kate Moss, sure, but Tyra fit right in with the 1990s Victoria’s Secret catalogue ladies. VS models are much thinner these days. Tyra was always one of the standouts during her VS tenure. Now I can’t recognize more than one or two of them by name.
Tyra’s take on feminism is fine. She’s not super serious about it, but Tyra is rarely serious about anything except the importance of “smiling with the eyes.” I kid. Tyra’s message is that you can be sexy and feminist at the same time, and that’s true.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN
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