It really breaks my heart to see a timid, humble, sweet, soft-spoken and kind person like Alexis have to deal with all sorts of misconceptions surrounding her character. There are many viewers out there that felt that Alexis was “shallow”, “commercial”, “fake”, “slutty, dirty”, “not staying true to herself” for following the judges “advice” to be “dirty” (check out this blog post:some proof showing that the judges mistakes cost Alexis some popularity and attached a stigma to her character ). Now I find this to be completely absurd and downright unfair

Firstly, even IF a contestant literally follows the advice the judges give them and it ends up costing them dearly, we STILL should put the majority (if not all) the blame on the judges themselves. We cannot blame a contestant for taking the judges’ advice, especially if they single him/her out FROM DAY ONE and repeat, emphasize and push that advice on him/her on national TV. They are professionals who have worked with the best in the biz and they should be leading these singers down paths that will HELP and not HURT them. These kids look up to the judges as mentors and you would expect the contestants to consider and take their advice, especially if they continue to repeat and emphasize it. In fact it would be even arrogant for the contestants to NOT take the judges’ repeated advice. One cannot blame the mentored for following what SHOULD be good advice for their mentors; that’s like blaming a child for doing something bad that their parents taught them to! It's the mentors themselves who are at fault for misguiding those who they are mentoring! Also keep in mind that in the early rounds the JUDGES pick who go through to the voting rounds... so if the judges' push advice on a contestant ...  she may be actually sabotaging her chances of making it through if she does NOT take it!

Secondly and most importantly:

Alexis wasn’t even following the advice that some viewers THOUGHT she was.

The judges advice was vaguely and poorly worded; what does "dirty it up" mean anyway? To become slutty? (the literal meaning) To become more sassy, edgy, confident? (a figurative interpretation)? Alexis, being a smart girl, interpreted the advice figuratively so that she could extract some meaning from that terribly worded advice; thus, she attempted to become more sassy, confident, edgy, charismatic and so on (see her interviews). There is nothing wrong with trying to become the aforementioned. Virtually all AI contestants make attempts to become edgier, sassier, more confident etc (and that is expected since AI is about personal growth and star quality development); in fact, contestants NEED to go through those changes if they are to be successful, not only on AI, but post AI as well. Kris became more confident; Allison became edgier, sassier, and more confident; Danny became edgier etc. So these changes actually made her better. The problem, however, is that by choosing to use vague and poorly-worded terms like "dirty it up, be dirtier, you're a naughty girl" over and over on national TV when "advising" Alexis, they left open the possibility that people would misinterpret Alexis' very appropriate changes in a manner that would reflect negatively on her character; and alas, some thought the advice was literal (to dirty it up) and thus they thought she was "fake, shallow, slutty, not staying true to herself, commercial" etc for following what they thought the advice was. This essentially handicapped her and put her in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation: if she refrained from trying to more confident, edgy and sassy, she would be hindering her personal growth as an artist and she would be preventing herself from improving her stage presence and star quality (while her fellow competitors were free make such improvements); if she did try to be come out of her shell, be confident, sassy or make any other changes, it may be (and was) (due to the judges repeating and overemphasizing their "advice" to "dirty it up" on national TV) misinterpreted in manner that would reflect negatively on her personality.

Assuming the judges themselves were trying to be figurative, it was totally unnecessary and unwise for them to phrase their advice as "be dirty, dirty it up" and overemphasize and repeat that advice on national TV. It would have been much more rational to simply outline the advice in literal terms and tell her to be more confident, sassy, edgier, charismatic etc. This way they get the message across and don't leave room for interpretations that could sabotage Alexis' chances. This way she would be free to make the improvements she did without having it hurt her at the same time. They outlined advice literally with the other contestants (ie telling Kris to behave with more star quality and to be more confident, telling Danny to be edgier, telling Allison to believe in herself more etc)... they did not choose to single out any other contestant with potentially detrimental word-usage. It was unwise (a mistake) to do what they did... it put Alexis in a lose-lose situation... and it ended up costing her... all when it could have (and should have) been avoided.

Had it not been for the poorly worded "advice", the viewers would have simply seen Alexis' changes on idol for what they were; she was trying to be more confident, edgy, sassy and charismatic in an attempt to improve her stage presence and star potential, something that is perfectly normal, acceptable and expected on a show like AI where contestants try to improve themselves as artists/performers. Would you call someone “fake” or “shallow” for trying to be more confident or edgy? Would you question their character for trying to improve their charisma, stage presence and star quality? Surely that would be absurd; you may as well question the characters of virtually every AI contestant in history Ultimately Alexis was NOT "fake, shallow, not staying true to herself and so"... these misconceptions were a product of the judges’ terrible mistakes to use, repeat and emphasize the terms “be dirtier/dirty it up” when advising Alexis. These mistakes attached a stigma to Alexis’ character in the minds of some viewers and thus cost her some popularity and most likely the cost her the tour itself. So THEY are to blame.

So where does this leave us? Remember that AI is a popularity contest and people vote for who they like, and the factors that typically determine who they like are talent, personality and looks. If some voters feel that that contestant has a personality flaw (due to a stigma for example) then, if given the choice to vote for that contestant or others, they would typically vote for the others who do not possess those perceived character flaws. Ultimately the judge-induced stigma on Alexis’ character cost her some fans and thus it automatically must be considered as a potential necessary cause of her elimination (ie without that stigma, she may not have been eliminated); we can't simply ignore a factor that was working against her and only her. So even without contemplating on whether this stigma was the most likely cause or a necessary cause of her early elimination... you have to agree that it was, at the very least, a contributing factor, and therefore it was a potential necessary cause.

That being said, I prove that this judge induced stigma WAS the most likely cause of her elimination in this blog post:

why AI should add ALEXIS GRACE to the tour; why she has been treated more unfairly than anyone else in AI history.

scroll to the section called: Why that judge-induced stigma was the most likely cause of her early and unjust elimination