Netflix’s “ANTM” doc sparks the Tyra Banks “lack of accountability” meme

A new meme featuring Tyra Banks has taken over a corner of the internet thanks to the new Netflix docuseries, Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model.

The new series dove into the often controversial history of the modeling reality TV series that began in the early 2000s. It felt uncanny to many, as it resembled revisiting old reality TV habits with modern language, but without today’s standards.

America’s Next Top Model controversies followed Tyra Banks

While the original show, America’s Next Top Model, was billed as a competition for cash and modeling contracts, many of the show’s challenges aged poorly. Not only that, Tyra Banks and the rest of the production were called out for the dangerous conditions for the models.

Throughout the new docuseries, Banks framed herself as a disruptor. She repeated her past statements that she specifically cast models that the industry excluded, including Black, queer, and plus-size contestants. However, the show still enforced narrow beauty standards on the women, often against contestants’ wishes. Two women were even told to undergo permanent dental procedures or risk being eliminated.

More troubling incidents also resurfaced in the docuseries. In the second season, production filmed and aired Shandi Sullivan’s intoxicated encounter in Milan, which she later described as sexual assault. When questioned, Banks deflected responsibility to production, despite her executive producer role. In the docuseries, she apologized on camera for not protecting Keenyah Hill from the unwanted sexual advances of a male model on set.

"Hindsight is 20/20 for all of us," Banks said. "It just so happens that a lot of the things that are 20/20 for me happened in front of the world."

Social media memes framed Tyra Banks as gaslighting viewers

Screenshots of Banks from the docuseries spread across social media. Although she appeared apologetic in interviews, viewers read her tone as evasive. Consequently, the images became a meme template about denial and gaslighting.

One version of the meme by @msnetik paired her face with the line, "There is no war in Ba Sing Se," referencing Avatar the Last Airbender.

@jusLikeMike911 joked, "Me in the elevator watching the doors close while somebody jogging towards it."

In yet another, a Facebook user wrote, "Carmen Sandiego disappearing when her friends needed her."

@newreligionmagazine shared a video clip from the interview, writing, "Just know if I send you this after we've argued, it means I ain't apologising!"

Meanwhile, comedian Yuri Lamasbella Godinez (@yurilamasbella) dressed up as a messy version of Banks and recorded a spoof of her interview.

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