Ok, I’m not sure who watched the new 90210, but all I can say is wow (well, actually I can say more than that). I’m not going to comment on the plot, the acting or how different it is from the original show. What I was most concerned about was the size of the girls on the show. Sure, Kelly and Brenda were super thin when the show originally aired in 1990, but nothing like this. I’m not thin-bashing or accusing any of those girls of starving themselves; I’m simply pointing out that the definition of thin 18 years later is even thinner (which is not something I could have conceived of when I first started watching 90210). It just illustrates the point that the ideal keeps getting thinner and thinner. As one of our readers pointed out yesterday, “The perfect size is dropping like a rock!”
Not to mention how young and “hot” the adults of the show were (the woman in the yellow dress in the top photo is the new “Cindy Walsh” of the show). The new version of the Walsh parents (the Wilson’s) are strikingly different from their original counterparts. Not to mention the guidance counselor (Jennie Garth an original cast member), the English teacher and the drama teacher all look like the stepped out of a fashion magazine.
This article does a brilliant job of comparing and contrasting the new 90210 and the old 90210.
In borrowing from the theory of Susan Bordo, the women from both shows demonstrate how in a very short but increasingly mediated point in history, women’s and girls’ bodies are shaped and inscribed by the culture surrounding them.2 Through pilates, cosmetic surgery, low-carb diets, hair straightening, skin lightening, Botox, and so many other means, women have mirrored media representations of “perfect” women and shaped their bodies to fit the representation. While Photoshop almost certainly plays a role in the perfection process of promotional photos, however, it does not stop women and girls in reality from attempting to alter their bodies and faces to conform to this fantasy portrayal.
The old and new versions of 90210 exemplify this idea perfectly. And in the new version, all of the female bodies portrayed must be old/young/perfect enough for this cultural moment to enable a plot that allows audiences to feel enticed without feeling dirty, guilty or simply disgusted.
This show is just another example of how out of control our cultural beauty standards are getting. It’s just not okay.
tiffabee.wordpress.com 
omggggg!!! *hahaha!* Thank you for posting that picture of the original cast…they look so ~ wholesome ~ to me now!
That is so funny.
When that show started, part of the plot was that these were the daredevil, carefree spawn of moneyed Californians, except for Brandon and Brenda, the newcomers from MN.
whoa…
I loved the first season of the OC but then grew to despise it.
Now I tune in to Gossip Girl for my guilty-pleasure-tv fix.
The kids these days….ehh…they just get skinnier and develop a higher tolerance for sex drugs & alcohol. *heehee!
AND: we keep wanting to blur the line between teenagerhood and adulthood…why??
In taking a closer look at these pictures, i’m also very disturbed by the difference in body shape/size diversity. Even in height. In the new cast, everyone looks to be tiny both in weight but also in height. Which makes me think they’re a bunch of malnourished children.
The “teens” in the new cast also look a lot older than the “teens” in the original cast (not that they were teens at the time!)
ugh, what a horrible photoshopping job! The poor girl in the middle has a deformed left arm (the one on our right), and looks like her elbows are embedded into the people behind here. And the height thing was a photoshop artifact -> here’s a “real” photo:
I guess in the world of photoshop, normalizing heights makes people more perfect? Ugh.
I’d like to note, humorously, that everyone’s clothes are awful. I’d also like to note how much less clothing is on the new cast’s women than on the old cast. There’s so much about all of this that’s wrong, wrong, wrong.
well…the girls are wearing heels in the new 90210 pic, but flats on the old cast.
Mr. 3rd-from-the-right has lost his arms, here in the 21st century…or one of the characters is a hipster amputee!
I’m very glad that you ended up writing this, because after watching the season premiere, I could help but be quite disturbed by what you described. I wanted to very much to write something, but couldn’t find the words withing myself to do so. I don’t even feel like that picture illustrates how incredibly thin the cast was, because actually watching the show, I found was an experience I’m not sur eI want to repeat.
I wonder what Stacy and Clinton of “What Not To Wear” would say about the old cast photo! Gotta love high waists and baggy pants! 🙂
Seriously, though, your post was right-on. And another blast from the past . . . Sweet Valley High books are back and revamped. Elizabeth and Jessica, the former perfect-size-6 twins? Now they are a “perfect size 4.” Vanity sizing. But what a sad commentary on how young girls are forced to idealize THIN.
Have the Dove commercials done NOTHING?!?!
http://www.barefootinhighheels.wordpress.com
It is so sad that they seem to more and more pick people who “look good” (whatever that means) over real talent. I thought that acting was a profession and you have to know it and do it well not “look good” for it. Also it sends a really sad message to the older adults that in order to mean something they also have to be skinny. When we know that you gain weight for your health as you get older.
The only character that I really loved in the new 90210 was the grandmother: the one who is oldest, wears the most clothing, and has by far the best lines and delivery. Someone somewhere else commented on the skinniness of the girls in the cast, that he was afraid they might break every time another character touched them. Sigh. The undergrads have come back to campus, and I see these super-fragile looking girls in tiny shorts everywhere, with legs that look like toothpicks. Then I turn on my TV and see more of them. It’s an awful cycle.
The premiere was way over the top (a “Pretty Woman” jet to SF date? Seriously?), but the premiere of the original was over the top for its time as well, then it toned down and made the characters a wee bit more real. Maybe the new one will do the same. Somehow I don’t think we’ll see a “horrors of diet pills and recovery by ice cream with popcorn and slumber party” episode in this incarnation, though. Sad.
That IS scary. I cant believe how stars these days are even thinner than back then. I thought it was leveling out. Im shocked. How much further can it go!!!!!!!
Hey Tiffabee-
Would love to find out from you who you think are the worst offenders this year on TV, movies, etc of our body image work! (And why) Would you send me an email or comment on http://www.BosyImageBlog.com and let me know your thoughts? I’m interested in writing something up on the topic.
Looking forward to hearing from you-
Dr. Robyn
omg! and the new people are all wearing high heels! it is kinda disturbing and sad.
hey!
90210 is really cool i use to watch the old one and now i watch the new one it’s really nice. I wish i could play in it cause everyone seems so nice. I watch it every sunday night at 19:00 on mnet series and nobody can move me from that tv. Keep it up!! 90210 ROCK!!