I want to go on record as saying I love the rise of the cougar. For the first time in modern history, older women are being lauded for their beauty and their ability. Have you noticed that older actresses are no longer automatically assigned to spinster aunt roles? That not all romantic heroines, with all due respect to talented and lovely young Keira Knightly, are under 25. Older women are finally recognized as sexual beings, the same way men have traditionally been allowed to exploit their sexuality until they need a walker (maybe beyond). Coming Sooner or Later: Sean Connery and Megan Fox in the romantic dramedy of the YEAR...

But I digress. The first episode of She's Got the Look season 2 airs tonight, and I'll be watching. A supermodel over 35? The concept is mind-boggling. Imagine, for a moment, the impact that could have on the fashion industry. As a *ahem* large boned woman, fashion frustrates me. I applauded Lane Bryant when they hired Camryn Manheim a few years ago as their spokesmodel. A plus-sized model for plus-sized clothes? Unheard of! Tyra usually has a couple of "plus-sized" models in her Top Model lineup, and they average about a size 12. They may look like rampaging elephants next to the stick figure "normal sized" models, but 12 isn't not, and never will be, plus-sized. Manheim lasted only about a year as a Lane Bryant model. She isn't exactly glamorous. Maybe she tested badly with consumers. But I liked her as spokesmodel, because it seemed like one giant step into truth in advertising. 

Which brings me back again to She's Got the Look. Don't worry, I have a point and I'll get to it eventually. Let's face it, the winner doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of actually becoming a supermodel, no more than any of the Top Model winners have. They have careers, of course, but supermodel is kind of a different category, isn't it? We all know the names...even those without tv shows of their own today. We don't know the names of past Top Models, except from the show itself. But indulge me, just for a moment. Imagine that the winner of She's Got the Look becomes a real supermodel. Fashion is driven by consumer attention, fueled by the artistic interpretation of anticipated consumer whim. What will people buy next season? No matter how talented the designer, if he fails to anticipate correctly, or if he simply cannot express his own vision in terms of commercial design, he fails. People will not buy his clothes if he is not both original and constrained by the narrow confines of today's style...whatever that is. 

With me so far? Now throw in the model. You're asking....how does this all tie together? For that answer, we must consider Twiggy. She characterized a revolution in modeling, and a shift towards clotheshangar models, androgynous, no shape, waiflike. The shift in model bodies influenced a shift in fashion, and generations of women were left feeling fat and inferior because they could never hope to measure up. Recently, shape has come back into fashion, but unfortunately, it's usually acheived by breast implants for the same stick thin models. Overcoming decades of ingrained thought is difficult. Thin worship is an institutional obsession in the world of fashion. I was pretty shocked, for example, when Salome was kicked off Make Me a Supermodel. Week after week she returned the best photo...but they could not get over her big butt. She couldn't lose it, and regardless of her many successes on the show, they decided she could not be a supermodel.

What I'm hoping is that perceptions of beauty change. I'd like to see no less than a radical revolution of thought that allows women who are older, heavier, and just big butted-er to have consideration in the fashion world and the respect they deserve. I love fashion. It offended me when the designers freaked out on last week's The Fashion Show because they had to design for ordinary women and not models. It also confused me a bit when most of them failed in such a spectacular fashion - and even the winning look was pedestrian at best. (Reco was robbed...his design was much more interesting and flattering).

So right now, you're thinking to yourself: OMG, how much reality tv does this woman WATCH?? and the answer is not as much as it seems. I find that shows on Bravo have commercial breaks scheduled at different times than most of the networks, so by switching to bravo during the commercials, I can watch most of the show during my actual tv time...which is generally limited to 9 PM - 10:30. I get up early, so more often than not, I fall asleep on the 10 PM show before it ends. But I will confess to watching marathons of reality shows if i need to take a nap and can't sleep. It's relaxing. I don't have to think much, but it's enough to distract me from worry.