Death Becomes Her

Last week the photo challenge on America's Next Top Model had a crime scene theme. While this type of photo spread is still seen as "edgey" it's been done before, and plenty of feminists have written about how this devalues women, eroticses violence, ect ect. There's an entry on Women in Media and News that has more details about the whole to do.

My big beef, especially after spending a weekend at a conference on the language used to describe sexual violence, was one of the criticisms the judges had about a particular picture.

Regarding Felicia's photo shoot Nigel said:

All the other girls managed to have some sort of spark even in this sort of morbid situation. I think I look at you in this picture, and you actually just look dead. One of the simplest things, like acting dead, can be the most challenging. The problem is that you didn't do anything. You just gave up and thought that that was being dead.

News flash Nigel, being dead is just that, dead. When you're dead the spark of life has been extinguished from your body. You're a giant piece of rotting meat no matter how in season your shoes are. Death is not glamorous.