Badge TV & Radio Blog

A debate on disability and beauty, or just trash TV?

Is BBC3's contest to select a disabled model really concerned with the issues, or is it simply an exploitative entertainment?

Britain's Missing Top Model contestant, Jess
Jess (left), contestant on Britain's Missing Top Model. Photograph: BBC/Love Productions

I expected to hate Britain's Missing Top Model. But we are now three weeks into the show, part of BBC3's beauty season, and I'm still watching. In fact, having watched a sneak preview of tonight's show I can confirm I now care who wins. As with every other reality television programme we've had tears, late night squabbles, and a double elimination. In tonight's show there's the "catwalk challenge", the judges fall out and there are yet more shots of creepy "mentor" Jonathan Phang looking wistfully into the distance as he says "I just wonder if the public is ready for a disabled model".

Last week Debbie was booted out for daring to have hint of a stomach, giving the impression that even in fashion, having a disability is one thing, but having curves is another. So far, so very fashion.

Of the five remaining contestants, four are blonde, and all conform to traditional western ideals of beauty. (There hasn't been a single non-white model in the show, presumably because whoever chose the contestants decided that a model who was both disabled and black just wouldn't have a cat in hell's chance so let's not even bother giving her airtime.) And yet there is something compelling about the programme - the trouble is I can't figure out what. Is it because it's good television or because I'm a sucker for trash?

Here is a show with no subtlety, a distinct lack of irony or humour, and in casting director Mark Summers a man so lacking in social skills that he makes Wayne Hemingway look suave. When the judges discuss whether a deaf woman has as much right to be there as a paraplegic contestant, I'm left feeling a bit grubby. Why so? Is this a serious debate about society's attitudes to beauty and disability, or is it just trash TV dressed up as something worthy? And if so, does watching it make me a willing participant in the exploitation of others or am I being exploited myself?

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