Has Tyra Banks made ANTM “Less Gay” to appeal to a wider audience?

After the season premiere of America’s Next Top Model Cycle 19, I couldn’t help but notice that the first episode was “less flamboyant” than the previous cycles.

Cycle 19 came with sweeping changes. Tyra Banks not only decided to get rid of the infamous Nigel Baker as a main judge on the panel; replacing him with rumoured boyfriend Rob Evans; but she also decided to replace the very flamboyant Creative Consultant Jay Manuel with the “more masculine” Johnny Wujek.

Let’s not forget Miss Jay (Jay Alexander); who is known for his exceptional runway walk and over the top “effeminate” demeanour; was also given his walking papers with no viable explanation other than…”new changes for the new season”.

Cycle 19 opened up with the same old format, but alot of camera time was given to male model and head judge Rob Evans. Some fans felt that he really played up the “alpha male” role and it didn’t sit well with them. We also saw Johnny Wujek directing the girls’ first photo shoot and it was almost as if he was down playing his true personality. He was very monotonous and according to some, too “straight acting”, which was a completely different approach to the more eccentric Jay Manuel.

According to a report previously done by The Advocate

What’s disconcerting to LGBT viewers is that Top Model has always been at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of inclusive casting, not just in the contestants (several lesbian and bisexual women, including Azmarie who got booted last week, and one transgender woman have competed on the show) but in the regular cast of judges like Manuel and Alexander. Manuel, who debut his own women’s fashion line last year called ATTITUDE Jay Manuel, has already parlayed his work with Top Model to become a fixture in the fashion circuit on Style and E! networks, but having his gay presence on the show weekly offered one of the most consistent gay images on reality TV for nearly a decade.

Alexander has pushed the boundaries even further, giving transgender, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming individuals their rare role model on TV. That’s because the label-free Alexander technically is queer, is technically male but presents himself with a decidedly female gender expression and is known worldwide as Miss Jay. Many refer to Alexander with female pronouns, and even his Wikipedia page calls him a she. All of which has always delighted Alexander, as well as audiences and contestants, and what was awkward in those early Cycles (with contestants whispering, “Is that a man or a woman?”) has actually pushed TV viewers further in understanding the complexity of gender and a world in which some people can be both or neither

Is Tyra Banks somehow trying to get more fans to tune in by making ANTM “less flamboyant”?

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