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This week was a major disappointment in my television watching rituals. I had just gotten used to the delight of new How I Met Your Mother episodes when, for some reason, there wasn't any episode this week; plus, my TiVo had some kind of gran mal seizure and didn't record The Biggest Loser. I set my hopes that Tyra Banks & Co would deliver the crazy and then blech, it was a midpoint montage episode show where she narrates the events of the last seven episodes while providing about ten minutes of new footage. My Tyra, my Tyra, why hast thou forsaken me?
 
In some of the unseen footage, we learned that Claire(crow) has been expressing her breast milk, which has grossed out pretty much everyone else in the apartment. Since she can't get the stuff to her baby, she often drinks it, which apparently is supposed to leave the audience scandalized, but I really don't see the big deal. Okay, it's not my tasty bev of choice, but hey, it's not like it's someone else's breast milk, it's Brand Claire. It's kind of like recycling, I guess, but it does make me wonder if it might be a form of cannibalism. And also, is she a vegan? Can vegans drink breast milk? These are the questions I ask myself when I'm watching a strange orange man named Jay Manuel have a hissy fit when a model doesn't know how to pose, or poses too much or is prettier than he is.

The clip show served only to underline how many of the models have body issues. They all are shown measuring their waists and hips with tape measures and then the snarkyness when size 0 Fatima (I so want to give her the nickname "Fats") accuses size 10 model Whitney of harboring a secret plot to make the rest of the models fatter than she is and then tells recovering anorexic Allison that she's got a bigger butt (and a bigger everything) than herself. Wow, if that's just what we have seen in 21 days (apparently a "week" on ANTM is 72 hours long), what was too inflammatory to show?

The other thing I was reminded of is how much I'll miss the refreshing Marvita, who enjoyed displaying her bare nekkid bootay to the other models. In the wild, I believe they call that "presenting" but Stacy-Ann comments "Well, if I had a great body, I would walk around naked all the time too." Hold the phone...if she had a great body? IF? Can someone confirm something for me? The girl beat out countless ANTM hopefuls based solely upon her ability to look gorgeous in and out of clothing, right? This girl? This is Stacy-Ann and apparently she feels like her body isn't acceptable. This is a mofo tragedy! I had such hope for Stacy Ann, since the camera often catches her shaking her head in disbelief at all the pre-model dramas, but clearly even she is not immune to the second-guessing herself.

Thankfully, we still have plus-size model Whitney, who seems to honestly believe that her presence on the show will completely reform the modeling industry. It's so quaint, seeing them before they get totally jaded.  Maybe she'll give Stacy-Ann a pep talk in the coming episodes. One can only hope.