From the blog Women in Media and News (WIMN):

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Ain’t nothin’ hotter than a dead girl. That’s the take-away message from this week’s episode of America’s Next Top Model, in which Tyra “I care so much about my girls” Banks & co. created the most brazen bit of ad-industry misogyny ever to grace the reality TV genre: an entire episode presenting a gaggle of underfed model wannabes as the mutilated, mangled and murdered epitome of beauty.

The lithe lot of ‘em are arrayed in awkward, broken poses, splayed out in cold concrete corridors, lifeless limbs positioned bloodily, just so, at the bottom of staircases, bathtubs and back alleys, mimicking their demise via stabbing, shooting, electrocution, drowning, poisoning, strangulation, decapitation and organ theft (!), to judges’ comments of “Gorgeous!” “Fantastic!” “Amazing!” “Absolutely beautiful!” and, of my favorite, “Death becomes you, young lady!”

For decades, media critics such as pioneering advertising theorist Jean Kilbourne have argued that ad imagery equating gruesome violence against women with beauty and glamour works to dehumanize women, making such acts in real life not only more palatable and less shocking, but even aspirational.

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Several years ago, I was a writer/broadcaster in current affairs at CBC Fredericton. In central New Brunswick, a 16-year-old girl had been murdered. Her 18-year-old boyfriend was about to go on trial.

Every time the girl was mentioned in news stories, it was noted that at the time of her death, she'd been wearing a pink angora sweater and tight jeans -- symbolizing at once vulnerability and sexuality. Every time her boyfriend was mentioned, it was noted that he was a cadet at a military college studying engineering.

The producer of the program I worked for decided to send someone from our program to cover the trial -- an unusual move, which I questioned.

"The news department covers trials; we usually don't," I said.

"Ah, but this murder is different," he said slowly, with mock lasciviousness. "This is a murder with sex appeal."

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The attraction of mainstream media to sexy murders of women is nothing new -- both in news and elsewhere.

For example: in a recent memoir about his life in journalism, New York Times columnist Russell Baker wrote about covering the police beat in Baltimore in the '30s and about which murders rated with his editors.

"Any number of things could elevate a little murder into a good murder," Baker wrote. "...Could the rewrite man justifiably describe the victim as 'statuesque', the universally understood code word meaning 'big breasts'? If so, good murder, especially if the murderer was still unknown and the cops could be persuaded to hint at sexual motives behind the crime..."

For example: Esquire, a magazine which subtitles itself "Man At His Best", did a cover story this year on "Women We Love." The picture used to illustrate the story was of Laura Palmer, the dead girl from the television series Twin Peaks.

For example: Advertising layouts in such upscale magazines as Vogue and Vanity Fair commonly show women -- if not dead or suffering -- in attitudes of implicit and somewhat anonymous distress.

Women as natural victims. Women as natural sex objects. How convenient when both can be captured in one image.

The eroticized pain and suffering of women has been normalized by the mass media; thus, violent pornography becomes acceptable as simply being the medium at the end of a continuum, falling in rather naturally behind news, advertising, fashion and entertainment.

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The Globe and Mail itself once did a fashion spread that involved an image of a woman in a bathtub, bleeding and unconscious. The editors made noises about how it was to showcase the dress she was wearing.

But a group of female staff -- led by Judy Steed (who's now with The Star) -- went enmasse to the editors and demanded that all such images be purged from the section.

Anna Nicole Smith Finally Reaches Target Weight

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS—Former stripper turned Playboy Playmate turned reality-TV star Anna Nicole Smith has overcome her longtime struggle with obesity, at last reaching her target weight of 125 pounds, sources said Monday.

"Anna's been through a lot," said Florida Circuit Court Judge Larry Seidlin, who became visibly emotional as he spoke to reporters. "But I think it's fair to say that she hasn't been this happy in years."

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"The last several weeks have been particularly rough for Anna, but thankfully she's turned a corner," said attorney Richard Millstein, the legally appointed guardian for Dannielynn. "At least some good has come out of this sad and sordid tale."

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On one show the girls were yelled at for not being able to walk the runway in 10 inch heels (one girl sprained her leg). Other girls are berated for having normal emotions, like crying for a lost friend or family member while on location. "Buck up and be a model. Models don't have feelings. Models do what they are told" (they are human clothes wracks).

Attempts to paint Tyra as a nice women who believes in girl power are so out of whack as to be insane. Tyra's goal is exploitation of the very people she pretends to empower, and her ego is the size of 10 football stadiums.

[ 27 March 2007: Message edited by: Stargazer ]

These aren't just gorgeous dead women -- these are images of great violence and torture.

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Nigel: 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.

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Originally posted by Sharon:
I regret to report, this is not a new phenomenon.

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I completely agree. The eroticization of death and violence inflicted on women is nothing new in the media, and neither is its criticism. If anything, it seems to me that there has been an increase in its depiction, despite public criticism and outcry around these kinds of portrayals of women. Why is this?

Here are a few of the blogs/articles that have been spawned from the America's Next Top Model episode.

America’s Next Top Disemboweled Corpse

America's Next Top Controversy: ANTM Features "Murdered" Models

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As Broadsheet noted, the decision to feature "dead" models is made even worse (if such a thing is possible) by the fashion industry's recent eating disorders controversy, in which several models died from anorexia. Classy move, guys! Jennifer Pozner over at Women In Media & News offered this insight about the show (which she described as "a series that traffics in bottom-feeder humiliation, objectification and degradation of women in the name of fashion, fun and beauty for the deep profit of integrated marketers"

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America's Next Top (Dead) Model