This is hot, right?

I can't bring myself to link directly to the America's Next Top Model site. The blogging world is buzzing about the recent "corpse episode" where the competing models posed as if they were murdered, raped, and their bodies dumped.

Lovely.

Here are the judges' comments regarding the photo to the right:

Twiggy: That is a powerful photograph, my goodness. This is excellent.

Nigel: She's totally upped her game. This is a great shot for Natasha.

Guest Judge Photographer Mike Rosenthal: It was freezing, and she still did a fantastic job.

In response to the photograph on the left, I think "Miss J" best summed up the scummy scene:

These are broken-down dolls. These are busted up, broken-down dolls, marionettes.

Though I can't tell if her tone is sad and disgusted, or merely a commentary on the "art."

Here's part of my initial ranting on Feministing:

Portraying someone as a dead corpse just laying where she died makes her inhuman. If her body was "tended to," like if it was a funeral scene and she was cleaned up, it would still be disturbing, but there would be evidence that other people cared about her.

I don't even think you could argue that any of them even look like they committed suicide. Not that portraying suicides would be any better, but you could make an argument that taking your own life is an empowering act, like Kate Chopin-style.

Why, why, why is that "hot"?

It kinda reminds me of the whole "heroin chic" fad from the 90s.

This "dead beauty" phenomenon is psychologically sick, but for women it manifests dangers that are very real. There is a ubiquitous, latent desire to kill women in our society, and it is a potent cocktail when you mix it with sex.

I think these images exist not only to satisfy the "rape-and-kill" fantasy, but also to frighten women into submission as well. And by having TV shows and other media glorify these images, you not only have men wanting to act out these scenes, you tell women that they should want to become a beautiful, albeit dead, girl.