The actors of Elite They raise passions every season and Las Encinas must be the institute with the most stereotypically beautiful people per square meter in the world. Can’t you study there if you do not fit into the canon of normative beauty? Apparently not, or so the co-creator of the series claims.
the Netflix series does not shine for its diverse representation of bodies. All the characters of Elite They have very normative bodies, something that squeaks a lot with the movement body positive and that one of the creators of the series has justified in an interview with frames:
“I would tell you that the ‘Elite’ bodies are not normative. They are the opposite. They are bodies that we aspire to, either to look like them or to sleep with them. What are the reasons for showing these bodies and not showing them? Really? Well, the same as counting a Spanish elite that doesn’t exist either. It’s a stylization, an idealization. Just as I show swimming pools and dream houses, I also show dream bodies.”
Carlos Montero, creator of this series, affirms that the casting is totally geared towards being “aspirational”, such as mansions, clothes or locations. But it goes further, questioning the power of characters like Kat (Barbie Ferreira) in euphoria to break stereotypes:
“Notice how naive this seems to me. It’s giving fiction a power that it may have but to a very small extent. I doubt I have the ability to tell a fat man that he’s sexy. I can tell you, but since believe it… But hey, maybe it’s a matter of trying. I’m not closed to anything.”
We couldn’t disagree more. Not only Barbie Ferreira seems like a goddess to us. We also believe that giving a normative body the same aspirational value as living in a beautiful place continues a frustratingly outdated canon of beauty, idealizes a single type of body against the rest and feeds the diet culture. Something that, if you ask us, seems very 2003 and not at all 2022.
Photos | Elite.