Top model vain
photographic depth
reel-crisp resolution
black white
editorial
The masses kneel at the surface
of the image you create
glossy full color contemplation
lipstick, liner, lashes, lush
Stilling spectacle into high fashion gloss
broad lights flash into image
designed to entice
to imprint attraction
to reel people in
projecting perfection
creating a world
dotted with disfigured figures
starved to matchsticks
tormented, then dormant
Top model dead.
Brenda Warren 2012
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Process Notes: The words from The Sunday Whirl this week were vain, dotted, dormant, reel, kneeling, surface, still, spectacle, depth, resolution, contemplate, broad, and crisp. Occasionally, I watch America’s Next Top Model on television with my daughter, the photo shoots are often visually stunning. All of the girls are competing for a modeling contract….fulfilling a fantasy.
I do not believe that all model’s are vain, but the word vain is what compelled me to consider the modeling industry. In addition to that, one of the speeches I watched at a speech meet this weekend was an original oratory piece written by a young survivor of anorexia. Anorexia is complex and disturbing. This is a surface treatment of the disease.
Ana Carolina Reston died at the age of 22. If you google her name you’ll find pictures of her. You may recognize her. The difference between her face in those pictures, and the picture below, is astounding. I found the picture below at Wendy Mag.
Ana Carolina Reston
undercaws 
Wow Brenda – so powerful and unsettling.
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A
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Brenda – a beautiful poem – with vibrant imagery on an incredibly important issue – this poem and the accompanying tribute photograph begs a much wider audience – Bravo!
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Brenda, as a short, curvy, never-gonna-be-a-top-model woman, I appreciate this cautionary poem so much. We allow fantasy and fakery to form our self-images in this media-driven culture; it needs to stop.
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Terrible sad poem. It is very hard to treat Anorexia. I watch program on that, couple months later , found out that one the girls had kill herself.
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There’s also plastic surgery. In Asia, there seems to be young women who’d undergo surgery to look like anime. Physical perfection seems to play such a big role in how women feel about themselves thanks to pop culture. I note, another piece that’s social commentary! I love watching America’s next top model. It’s fashion + photography = art (mixed with reality TV).
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dotted with disfigured figures – totally agree..Like Cheryl says, I do not envy models at all.. Your piece is powerful..
Sorry to change the emotions here – But I could always photoshop myself if really needed –
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Oh that is funny. Thanks for sharing, and for your comments.
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That is funny !!! They are doing that with regular photograph too. Something is not prefect , you can fix it in Photoshop. It’s alright to fix minor mistake but total changing everything is not right. Besides, it starts looking fake too.
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“Hydro-jargon microbeads” – fantastic! Thanks for posting this. It’s funny because it speaks truth. We allow media trickery to influence our perceptions of self image far too much.
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Lush, stunning images, especially when seen in contrast to the photographic image. It’s frightening, isn’t it, what we do to our bodies to achieve some imaginary or imposed ideal of perfection. And I wonder sometimes how anyone can (as a fellow human being) bear to photograph – and especially, publish – photos like that… when the girls so obviously need help.
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I agree, Ruth. Thank you for your thoughtful comments.
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I like the same lines Laurie does and agree with Mary that the words disappear into the poem. What angers me is the photographers, the editors, the fashion people, anyone who looks at someone like this and photographs them instead of refusing to photograph them unless they start seeing a doctor. That’s a sad commentary.margo
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Absolutely, Margo. That this photo was taken is astounding. I do not know the context of the shot….if it was an anti anorexia piece, perhaps….but anything else is criminal.
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This is a painfully honest look at the world of fashion photography. Brilliant commentary, Brenda. Your last stanza is especially powerful! It is troubling and so very sad.
And by the way, thank you for your comments about sidewalk poetry. I just added the link to my blog a few days ago. It’s such a remarkable concept, isn’t it? And I feel so blessed to have one of my poems out there! There has been a wonderful, positive response to the concept. If you click on the photo of my sidewalk poem, you can read it in it’s entirety. 🙂
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Thank you for your thoughtful comments, Marianne.
Sidewalk poetry is such an inspired idea, I absolutely love it. I’ll go read the piece, thanks. 🙂
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That’s pretty sad. I’s so glad I’m not so thin! I didn’t want to be a top model… just me.
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I’m with you there, Annell. Thank you for stopping by and sharing your thoughts.
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You have woven the wordle words into a powerful and insightful piece. So much truth in your words.
“The masses kneel at the surface
of the image you create
glossy full color contemplation
lipstick, liner, lashes, lush”
Really nice writing too!
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Well said…sobering truths! Impressive eye!
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You weaved your words into a sad commentary. This world has such a strange relationship with food and consumption in general. Thought provoking writing.
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Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Teri.
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As a former sufferer of anorexia, this spoke to me on a very deep level, Brenda. Well done.
Pamela
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Thank you, Pamela. I’m glad they touched you.
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Wow,Brenda, the wordle words got lost in your poem, which made a needed statement. What price ‘beauty.’ (And in whose eyes?) What a horrible price to pay to gain theonly prize there can be at the end of such a journey….death.
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The pictures may be works of art, but the models are travesties of feminity. I’m sure regular sized models would sell more clothes – to normally sized people. A very clever wordle, emotionally powerful.
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Yes, Viv. The skinnier models are not healthy, and promote a false image of beauty. The photo here is disturbing, to say the least.
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OMG- this is amazing…
creating a world
dotted with disfigured figures
starved to matchsticks
tormented, then dormant
Top model dead.
…the picture, too. Such a sad and misunderstood disease that I fear may have more victims in the future with all this stress on dieting.
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I enjoy reading Vogue and Vanity Fair for background colours and textures to add to my collages. I do not envy models. Your poem is enlightening.
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Some of the pictures are works of art in themselves, too. I like those magazines, too, and find myself picking them up from time to time, just for the photographs. Thanks for stopping, Cheryl. Great idea using textures in collage. You just might have inspired an afternoon activity. 🙂
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