juicy booty

This has been a fairly monumental news week here in the US. But while others may focus on the groundbreaking decision to legalize same sex marriage in California, that's so last year here in Boston. (Actually, we've had it for four years.)

No, for me, the truly astonishing event happened Wednesday night, when Whitney Thompson took home the top honors on the guilty pleasure reality show America's Next Top Model. Thompson is the first "plus size" model to do so; normally the competition is won by women who resemble coat hangers with lips.

Although larger models have appeared on the show in past seasons, they have all been eliminated early on, not unlike anonymous Star Trek crew members who beam down to a mysterious planet with Captain Kirk.

Thompson’s size was a constant topic of conversation on the show, and more than once, references were made to the fact that she had a juicy booty. While this term is always positive, its synonym junk in the trunk can be used both positively and negatively. Annette Mcleod writes in the Toronto Sun, "There I was, hurtling towards middle age, packing some extra junk in the trunk…and no one was looking at me the same way they looked at those girls." On the other hand, Will.i.am admires bandmate Fergie's junk in the trunk in the Black Eyed Peas song My Humps.

Though Thompson was far fleshier than her rail thin competitors, it’s worth noting that she is not what most people would call fat. She is 5' 10" (178cm) and says that her size fluctuates between an 8 and a 10. In contrast, the average American woman is 5' 4" (163cm) and wears a size 14.

A. C. Kemp | May 15, 2008