I’m appalled. This is all over the Internet right now – I picked this up first from DollyMix – but, have since been over to Open Source Sex/Tiny Nibbles to read/view Violet Blue’s recount of what happened:
Via Tiny Nibbles:
“* Tyra (the person) read my Oprah article and based a show on it. That’s the first thing she said to me. Onstage. (Tyra does not mix nor mingle with the
helpguests.)
* Tyra (and TyraShow) gravely underestimated Oprah.
* TyraShow hates tattoos, even ones you can’t see.
* I was threatened in increments five different ways to cover the tattoo on the back of my neck.
* I was told I was going to be the show’s for-women, “porn expert”. I was thrilled. But no one would give me segment specifics for talking points.
* When I was about to go onstage in front of the studio audience, a staff member presented me with a list of pre-planned questions they’d had all along.
* The answers to all of those questions — my answers — were also included. The staff member who had me review them confessed to having cut and pasted the responses from my Oprah article. I said, “I know. I can recognize my own writing.”
* The segment notes included showing me a clip of “porn for women” — from a movie made in 1997.
* Onstage, Tyra didn’t ask me the scripted questions, but instead asked me about how I review porn, and then the most bizarre question I could ever imagine being asked by a supermodel on TV.
* After the weird question, she abruptly changed the segment.
* By the time I got back to the green room, I saw on the monitor that she was then telling the audience what she loves about being famous. “
It’s no secret that I’m a little bit smitten with Violet. I have been since I first read her essay in She’s Such a Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology, and Other Nerdy Stuff. I am an avid reader of both her blog and her SF Gate column.
I think it’s so refreshing and inspiring to read such sex-positive perspective – from a woman – mixed with humor/geekiness. And, honestly the quality of writing which Violet does (in blog, column, books) is a model of quality which I look to as inspiration in my own writing.
I have to say in response to what happened to her on Tyra that I am appalled; but, not surprised in the slightest. Though, I am surprised that O! magazine was hip enough to pick up her article in the first place… Oprah never struck me as one to represent the voice of real women. But, maybe I was wrong.
This is just one more reason why I won’t watch the Tyra Banks Show; or, America’s Next Top Model. Blargh.
Here’s my voice from this little corner of the blogosphere: Violet, you ROCK! Eff that wig on a stick, anyhow… you’re too good for that show!
5 Comments
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
i watched her vlog earlier this morning.
tyra is an idiot…but i cant lie and say i wont watch ANTM.
Violet Blue is pretty rad though. Its weird though. In SF…people dont really think about the tattoo being an issue. its our own bubble.
Yeah, I know Tyra is an idiot… I won’t watch ANTM, though. I lost my taste for it a couple of years ago.
I know, people in SF don’t think about tattoos as issues; but, reading that def made me think about those cherry blossoms creeping up my wrist… I dunno if I’ll live in SF forever. Guess I’ll invest in a lot of schwank long sleeve shirts.
Thanks for the comment, LJS!
[...] Apparently my post about Violet Blue’s experiance with Tyra Banks has been picked up by Boxxet. I’ve never heard of this thing, Boxxet. I consider myself [...]
Tyra Banks is revolting with her phony voices and her overacting UGLY mugging for the camera. She looks like a dejected old drag queen. Worse than the freak she has on her show…that Miss Jay NiggyBoo….what a nightmare….wouldn’t you just scream if you met that hideous troll in a dark alley? Spook eyes and hot pink lipstick are all you would see! Did anyone EVER tell Tyra “EX-model”
( read: rejected ) to LOOK IN THE MIRROR and SEE what you look like while speaking? Tyra pulls the most homely faces. Her voice and fake accents are so played too. Is she THAT insecure that she cannot speak in her own real voice? I question Tyra’s IQ after watching her talk show. All she ever talks about is HERSELF! That’s all she seems to know anything about! She could never BE another Oprah ( not that anyone needs or wants more OPRAH….so over marketed…….) Tyra doesn’t have the backbone and the brains. Just because she is BLACK AND LOUD and high on herself doesn’t make her GOOD! I’ve noticed with the blacks now, they seem to think all it takes is SHOUTING OUT LOUD how good THEY think THEY are…what a real diva/princess/ghetto thug/rapper/model/idol THEY THINK THEY ARE…and their mammys told them too….
and automatically that makes it true. The Nigs always want a free ride and a pass….and if they don’t get it…the KKK is out to get them. Check out the mammy on Hell’s Kitchen right now….loud and crude and expecting a free ride even though she is nothing but a nasty blimp hood rat!
MESSAGE TO TYRA: WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU…. DISAPPEAR FOR AWHILE-GO GET SOME MAJOR FACELIFTS, MORE BOTOX AND STARVE YOURSELF TO A BAG OF BONES AND YOU CAN GET A SPOT ON THE SURREAL LIFE LIKE THAT VILE, UGLY, DISTORTED, ADDICTED JANICE DICKENSON! How I would LOVE to see another D-lister Has Been/Never Was crumble in public. Janice Dickenson reduced herself to a piteous deplorable caricature and she looks like Natasha from Boris and Natasha of Rocky and Bullwinkle Fame! Google a photo of Natasha and Old Janice and check out the resemblance! Scary!
This is quite a up-to-date info. I think I’ll share it on Twitter.