When scrolling through stories on http://www.ew.com/ I came across a story on America’s Next Top Model. You can take a look at the story at http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20164649,00.html . What struck me about this story is the way the caption is written. It has an interesting play on words in the cutline, although it seems insulting to the model. The caption reads: “Barbie Dull: Chantal needs to add some drama to her glama.” The caption does two things by creating word play and altering the word “glamour” into “glama” and changing “baby doll” into “Barbie Dull”. Although “glama” is grammatically incorrect, it works here as it creates a rhyme with “drama” capturing the reader’s attention. By placing the two concepts of glamour and drama simultaneously in the reader’s mind, makes the reader question if the model, who although beautiful, has anything to offer as a person. Overall, I felt that the cutline, although creatively written, is belittling to women. By changing the word “Doll” to read “Dull” creates the impression that a model, who is expected to be glamorous, is boring and lacks personality. Further, I find the word "baby" as sexist in itself and changing it to “Barbie” gives the impression of the model as a dumb blonde who is nothing but an object. As I read through the story itself, the writer is throwing out many questions to the reader, asking if the girl referred to in the picture and caption even deserves to be in the top three. The headline including this play on words: “The great fall of China” is demeaning as well as the story points out that there is no chance in Beijing that this model is going to win this contest. The whole story appears to be thrashing this poor model, and reading it made me think of how many young girls watch this show and look up to these models. The play on words of comparing a woman to a doll, which is in itself an object and then saying she is dull, is a double insult to both her appearance and inner qualities. What are your thoughts on the use of this caption and headline? How do you think reading this article may affect the reader?