Hot Or Not
True Beauty And The Fight For Acceptance.
Last night Kelly Knox was “crowned” Britain’s Missing Top Model on the BBC Three programme of the same name. We were both elated as we thought that the other finalist Sophie was going to win because of her often stated views about the title being a platform for her to change people’s perceptions of disability and become a role model for others. See her interview on BBC News here.
To be perfectly honest Sophie had really begun to wind me up. I started off wanting her to win because she seemed motivated and has looks that are beautiful, and yet accessible. Over the course of the series it became apparent that she was totally preoccupied with whether or not other contestants were (in her eyes) qualified to represent disabled people in the modelling world. I’d go so far as to say preoccupied to the point of obsession, if it weren’t for the fact that the girls were all under pressure. I’ll put it down to displacement behaviour due to the stress of the competition.
But of course modelling can be stressful and until Sophie learns to deal with life and other people in a more constructive manner she will be a handful on-set. She went from someone I wanted to win because of her conviction that she could change attitudes for the better, to the contestant who I didn’t want to listen to. As an ambassador for disability she will need to be persuasive rather than pedantic. I am absolutely in favour of equal rights and treatment for disabled people, but despite Sophie’s aims being the same her approach made me mentally switch off to the idea.
So back to Kelly Knox. I was thrilled she won, she’s strikingly attractive straightforward honest and … now I’m having second thoughts.
She is so good looking and capable that except for the fact that her left arm terminates just below the elbow she isn’t obviously disabled. I want her to be a top model and believe she can be, but is she the right ambassador, would annoying Sophie have been better?
Luckily I think a lot of the girls, Sophie included will have their careers kick started by the programme so it’s not all down to Kelly. And the programme did its job it made me think and I hope it made a lot of other people think about their concept of beauty and disability.