My goodness, that could be at age 70(or even older!)
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The tough part of being a model and what makes a model different from any of us is they are suppossed to look beautiful. (Keep in shape, do your hair properly, take care of your skin, have white teeth, etc). If they don't look good then..gee whiz...hire me...I can point to prizes really good! But please...ignore the fact that I don't look good.
And my point is that "looking good" has more to do with how you take care of yourself and less to do with your waist size, which is what this all started with. I don't think it would be awkward at all to have models who are more advanced in age, or who are larger than size 0, provided that they have done the things you so eloquently pointed out - stay in shape, do their hair, skin care, teeth, etc). Those are WAY more important than weight or age.
My human nature is that I want to see beautiful things...especially beautiful women. It's pleasing to the male eye. (Ziegfield became rich and famous for his beautiful women in his follies).
And because I want to see beautiful women on television does not mean I think less of women who are not beautiful.
Simply hinging beauty on looks means you think less of women who aren't "beautiful" (by that definition). Wouldn't you want to be judged not just by your looks, but also your accomplishments, which are directly related to the amount of pride you take in yourself?
Demerolguy is exactly right. Of course almost anyone can successfully smile, point at prizes, and flip price tags. But just as it would be awkward to have a 300 pound woman modeling prizes, it would be equally weird to see an 80 year old woman modeling. I'm not saying it couldn't be done, it would just be weird. Unlike hosting, having a modeling job does take place in a very narrow age window. Now, Janice and Holly were successfully able to widen that window by aging well and taking care of themselves, but at some point, it's just not gonna work anymore.
Would I have liked Janice and Holly to stay with the show a little longer? Sure. Do they both look good for their ages now? Sure (especially Janice.) But unfortunately, modeling can only go so far. It was necessary to bring in Brandi, Rachel, Lanisha, et al, because they're young, fit, and attractive. And eventually, they'll have to be replaced too. In the modeling world, that's just the way it is.
First, this isn't runway modeling. There is much more to it than smiling, flipping tags, etc. I daresay that not
every model could do Price because Price is more performance than modeling. It takes a certain personality to do it successfully (just look at the many threads around here). So long as Janice, Dian, and Holly (or the current cast, for that matter) keep the performance going, and take pride in their presentation (both personal appearance and performance), they should have been (and should be) allowed to continue.
Further, I also understand that having an aging cast might negatively contribute to the desired demographics of the show, in that people relate to others of their own age moreso than those of other age groups. However, it would have been easy enough for the producers at the time to bring in one or two younger models and start a rotation (like we have today) without completely casting aside anyone. I'm sure in the beginning, nobody even thought of Price lasting 37 years, or they probably wouldn't have signed long term model contracts anyway. Many of these factors contributed to the decidedly negative way some of the original models cycled off the show.
Ultimately, sex sells. That doesn't mean it's right or just.
