So yeah, one of the contestants on the next cycle of Tyra Banks' home movie series America's Next Top Model is transgendered. (Or "tranny," as they prefer to be called. Much like Native Americans prefer "Injun.") There was a big splashy announcement about it on Us Weekly this morning, all in the hopes, I'm sure, that people will come lumbering up to their screens when the show airs so they can point and heehaw at the strange thing. Gender politics aside, it seems like sort of a dopey blunder to air this information before the show airs, doesn't it? Why not let the drama unfold organically, letting the audience figure it out at the same time as the other contestants. I mean it would probably come finger snapping out after like three seconds because these girls always love to talk about their damn issues, but still. At least then it wouldn't seem like this big gimmicky thing, like having a plus sized model win a fixed competition last go around. Now it's not so much of a "surprise tranny! so what? what're you gonna do about it?" like it could be. It's just a "hey hey hey! look look! weird person! whole lotta weirdness going on between the legs! wait look back at me I'm still Tyra!" and great googly moogly that is a tiresome old trope. And the pre-arranged shock value is only going to be good for one episode this way. Ah well. Meet the whole cast at Jezebel.