Thursday, July 17, 2008

Janice Dickinson is Thin.

Janice Dickinson is insane.
This is not a shocking statement. What IS shocking is how she gets away with being cruel, humiliating and an all around harpie. She has her own tv show about models and she just yelled at a model for being "fat." "Fat," meaning she isn't starving herself anymore or living in the gym. The young model explained that she's more interested in being healthy this year, and that she wasn't happy making herself hungry. Janice flew into a rage (probably because SHE hasn't eaten anything since 1972) and forced her teen model to trade skirts. "If you can fit into my size 4 skirt, I'll eat my #&*$% words."
Dramatic Pause. (In this dramatic pause, I'd like to insert that I don't look terribly thin, and even I am a size 4. So I don't know what this woman is talking about. The girl was hardly fat. She simply looked HEALTHY.)
The model fit.
Janice, shocked, ate her words. Figuratively, of course. I don't think she'd be bothered to actually EAT anything (especially after that rant).
My question is, as I see these beautiful people clinging to their most personal parts, crying and mumbling, "I'm not fat, I'm not fat..." I'm wondering how- in this day and age- verbal harassment and physical abuse works in the professional world- or any world at all! Now, I'm not going to attack Ms Dickinson's physical appearance. That would be far too easy. But forcing a bunch of tweens to pose nude for a senior citizen's art class...somehow I doubt that has anything to do with booking them a shoot and more to do with the fact that Janice's ratings probably required showing blurred body parts of young, beautiful people squirming self-consciously before the geriatrics.
Further, the boasting and bravado Janice has for herself and her work is so inflated, it absolutely reeks of desperation. She continually touts the "well-known"ness of various magazine's she's booking for, even though no one has ever heard of it before. The shoot itself ended up looking more like dime-store soft-core porn rather than front cover fashion.
The artifice of fame, the mad clawing for attention, the pathetic wimper for recognition; it's all of the culture we've created to legitimize our existence without actually producing something from ourselves. This dependancy upon validation from external sources has got to stop. Or we may all end up looking like, or looking toward pleasing, someone like Janice.
I can live in Hollywood. But I'm so damn glad that I'm not of Hollywood.

3 comments:

Amy said...

Can you use this as one of your essays? Perhaps it's not exactly what they're looking for in the celeb/entertainment writing job, but I certainly loved it!

klundtacular said...

Remember, in the 1970's by age 14 Janice was told that she was the end all be all. After awhile, even the most humble person will believe the photographers, agents, managers, sycophants, writers, editors, makeup artists, etc. Frankly, when you look at this http://home.comcast.net/~jandix/ you can see why they'd tell her that. She sold out to the lifestyle and took a TON of drugs, which she admits. But she booked a lot of jobs too so she must have been some kind of professional at least a little.
If there's one thing that reality TV has given us its a second chance for the washed up like Janice through shows like America's Next Top Model. Again, a model thrives on attention and staying as young as possible. She looks pretty good for someone 150 years old even if her face is mostly botox and her body plastic.

Jenn K said...

"The artifice of fame, the mad clawing for attention, the pathetic wimper for recognition; it's all of the culture we've created to legitimize our existence without actually producing something from ourselves." That is a priceless quote. Wow, I may just be quoting you now! -Jennie