Shooting Disability

Forget the social model, Emma Bowler’s been taking a look at a TV series which puts eight disabled models in the picture and up against each other. 

The early signs are that BBC Three’s ‘Britain’s Missing Top Model’ [BMTM] has a lot of what it takes to make a great series – competition, bitchiness, drama, tension, tears and some big characters. Feeling like a bit of a cross between Big Brother, The Apprentice and I’d Do Anything, the series looks promising.  I’m sure as it progresses we’ll get to know – love or hate – the eight contestants and pick our own favourites.
 
For those of you on holiday on Planet Mars at the moment, BMTM [part of BBC Three’s ‘The Beauty Season’] is a six-part series that pitches eight disabled women against each other for a prize of a fashion photo shoot to be featured in top women’s glossy magazine, Marie Claire. 

Contestants have to complete a series of challenges designed to show their ability to ‘cut it’ in the fashion industry and win over the judges as they battle it out to win.

The eight contestants have a range of impairments, some more visible than others, but their motivation for wanting to do the series is broadly similar, as Lillie, one of two deaf contestants, explains: “The public think that a disabled person by nature could not be a model, I think the purpose of this show is to prove them wrong.” 

Wheelchair-user Sophie explains how she was up for the challenge: “The fashion industry is very shallow, it’s everything people imagine it to be but I feel it’s something to crack and I’ve always wanted to see a wheelchair-user on a catwalk. I thought the series would be groundbreaking, something that challenged people's perceptions and I wanted to be a part of that.” 

The calibre of the ‘experts’ involved in BMTM shows it isn’t mickey mouse television, and the series includes some well known names from the world of fashion including industry expert Jonathan Phang - who helped launch the careers of Jodie Kidd, Jerry Hall and Naomi Campbell; plus the four judges, Wayne Hemingway - co-founder of fashion label Red or Dead and Hemingway Design, Marie O’Riordan - Editor of Marie Claire magazine, Mark Summers – casting director and Lara Masters - disabled actor, presenter and writer.

Some, like Wayne, just ‘get’ the whole disability thing; for others it was a whole new ball game as Jonathan, the girls' mentor, explains: “I’d not had much contact with disabled people before, and no experience of disabled models apart from one deaf girl. I had been very dismissive of disabled people and I realised how I had limited myself only working with stereotypically beautiful people.”
 
Because of this he had doubts about taking part in the series. “I was in two minds as to whether to do it, people would say "who are we trying to kid that an agent will take on a disabled girl?"  People said I was crazy, they said it would be gimmicky. But something told me I should do it, there was a need in me to explore the issues.”

He said he found the journey cathartic which I somehow doubt casting director Mark Summers will, clearly picked to be a cat amongst the pigeons. Wayne says it was inevitable that there would be clashes on the judging panel.

“They knew me and Lara would go against the other two judges; we wanted it to be more political, they [Mark and Marie] wanted a reality program where the end result is that someone gets their photo in a magazine. We wanted to question an industry which is morally bankrupt. I’ve left the industry so I wasn’t afraid to say what I thought, but they were still in it.”

I liked watching people who were unfamiliar, or even uncomfortable, with disability tip-toeing or fumbling around, trying to get things ‘right’, attempting to say the right thing. I think people might learn from that. There’s also a lot of honesty - about the difficulties people will have making it in the industry and personal comments about the girls looks. Whilst this isn’t necessarily positive it’s the nature of the competition and it would be far more patronising if people didn’t say what they thought.

Inevitably there will be things that people won’t like about the series, for example, “suffers from” had crept into a voiceover referring to one of the girl's disability, by it’s very nature the series will be somewhat voyeuristic and there are a few cringe worthy moments. Then of course will the end result be satisfying? In the first programme Lara is seen arguing. “I think it’s really important that the disability is obvious in some way, I don’t think there’s any point in having a disabled model that non one knows is disabled,” she says. Quite. But whether she gets her wish we’ll have to wait and see.

Early critics of the BMTM idea suggested it should challenge perceptions of beauty, but as Lara explains, that wasn’t the point of the series: “I disagree with the people that say that we should have challenged perceptions of beauty by having larger women or people with facial disfigurement in the competition; it wasn’t about finding a disabled woman, it was about finding a disabled woman who fits the model criteria - slim, beautiful, photogenic and charismatic - and therefore would have a chance at career success.”

Whether the series winner will have career success remains to be seen but at least this series looks set to show that this wouldn’t be because of lack of beauty or personality but more because the world of fashion is too insular to open it’s eyes to greater possibilities.