Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Tyra Banks has trouble getting dates?!?!

I must have woke up on the other side of a parallel universe because people are calling Tyra Banks fat. Tyra...fat? This sounds way too Sci-Fi for me.

The former Victoria's Secret model was on Larry King Live Monday night talking about fashion, body image, the Janet Jackson interview, her future projects, the infamous tabloid bathing suit picture and how she has a hard time getting dates.

Larry King asked Tyra if guys were lined up around the corner vying for dates with her and she humorously said, no, if you find some let me know. She said that she didn't have much free-time last year because she was focused on getting her talk show up and running, but now that things had slowed down, she was thrilled to have free weekends again. Larry King asked her what she did with her newfound leisure time and she said that on Saturday that she was ecstatic to "sleep in until 2 p.m. and then I went to go see a movie with my Mom." King was astonished to find that the former supermodel didn't have a "hot date" lined up for Saturday night. Tyra went on to talk about how some of the guys she dated have this inferiority complex about her being too successful, too beautiful and larger than life. She then quoted a line from Knotting Hill about her just "being a girl standing before a guy asking him to love her."

You see, Tyra's just like the rest of us ladies.

What's cool about Tyra is that she's out there trying to debunk beauty stereotypes. She's willing to be an example by sharing pictures of herself without make-up and revealing what she looks like without her hair extensions. If I had my pick of celebrities to hang out with for a day she'd be on my top 10 list because she seems down-to-earth and real. The first time I remember seeing her was when she guest starred on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as Will's hometown love-interest. I would have never guessed that she was a supermodel until someone told me.

Another interesting thing she talked about on Larry King was "nighttime Tyra" vs. "daytime Tyra". She said that the "nighttime Tyra" is the fierce role she plays when she's on America's Next Top Model and "daytime Tyra" is just her being herself, talking about all kind of random things like "flatulence" and yes, she actually said that word.

How many women wish that if they were "prettier" or "richer" that things would be different for them? Well, Tyra is "pretty" and "rich" and she still has to endure finding "Mr. Right" and name-calling. Good looks and money are not the end all and be all. A pretty face and a large income can't buy someone love. Just think about how some of the "prettiest" women are caught up in the sex industry and struggle with low self-esteem and get abused by men.

The Holy Bible says "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." (I Peter 3:3-4)

The world will try to paint you as fat, ugly, dumb or any other hurtful label it can in order to tear down your inner beauty. But it's our job to leave all that mess back in whatever warped universe it came from.

4 comments:

Bernadine said...

What a beautiful article Karen! It's so easy to think that those who have fame and fortune have everything. However, they have just as much problems and insecurities as the rest of us.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your fun comments on my blog. I love reading yours too. Who knew about Tyra?

I actually met a male supermodel who dated her (and cheated on her which is why they broke up!) Inside gossip. He's married now, so what the hey - still amazingly gorgeous and I could totally see the two together. She is a very strong personality though.

Anyway, thanks for letting gush!:)
JOY

Anonymous said...

You are a great writer... keep up the awesome work!

~shalea

Reub said...

Wow! This seems so unrealistic because she is so pretty! Great article!