Chasing Beauty: Deepening Analysis

Noble, Jynsyn

Jynsyn Noble
5 min readOct 28, 2016

10/28/16

When you think about fashion and the modeling world you think of beauty, perfection, glamor, labels ,fame and fortune. Even though there is a lot of beauty with the fashion world it also has a very ugly side. The documentary “Chasing Beauty”, by Brent Huff was filmed in 2013 and it shows the not so glamorous parts of the modeling and fashion business. The documentary follows many young models and shows their struggles, such as student loans, air fare, hotel bills, eating disorders, and personal issues. They all meet with countless designers where they wait for hours to be told how much weight they have to loose or if they even fit the designers look. Also many models work non stop without any sleep or time to themselves. Models are turned away everyday because they don’t have the right look which brings on many insecurities that models have to deal with in the modeling industry.

The documentary has helped me deepen my analysis on what a models life is really like by showing me the ugly perspective of the modeling world; an industry that gives off the persona of perfection but might not be as beautiful as it seems.

One factor from “Chasing Beauty” is that many people in society perceive models as just a mannequin basically implying that they don’t contribute to any type of work ethic. Although in the documentary it helped illustrate that models actually have to work 24/7 to build their reputations which can cost more than what most people would think. A former model named Gretchen that was interviewed for the documentary had to sacrifice her living situation and her schooling opportunities to pursue her modeling aspirations.She decided to take her modeling career into her own hands with no help from an agent or family to make it further in the modeling industry. In a way models are deemed as hardly working and just posing but really they have a lot of work and pressure that is put on themselves to be recognized.

The ideal perfect look or persona for models in the modeling industry revolves around a variety of different factors which contributes to the way society views what models should consist of.In a survey done in the documentary it was shown that 23% of people who want to be a model would rather loose their ability to read than loose their figure. Throughout the documentary many models that were interviewed stated that they would go to extreme lengths to not gain any weight like not eating, strict dieting, and most had eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia. As well as weight age is also a major factor in the modeling industry. It was stated that if you were older than 25 your modeling career was practically over. Most young models that were furthering their career as a professional started at the age of 12. It was shown in the documentary that professionals developed a face mask of what a perfect models face should consist of. The modeling industry has a look already in place which pressures many people who dream of this career to aspire to be this perfect computerized face mask.

When analyzing “The Backfire Effect”, from Maria Papova while watching this documentary I found that the back fire effect did not affect my outlook on this topic. Defined in the article “the backfire effect defends you when the information seeks you, when it blindsides you. Coming or going, you stick to your beliefs instead of questioning them”(Maria Popova). As I was watching the film I slowly started to understand the various pressures that models go through everyday to become that perfect ideal person. Before I watched this film I knew models did undergo harsh criticism from time to time just like any other job but I did not realize how drastic the pressures were to be perfect all the time. In the article “The Mind of a Flip Flopper”, the article says “ calling someone a flip-flopper is a way of calling them morally suspect, as if those who change their minds are in some way being unfaithful to their group”(Maggie Koerth-Baker).I would be considered a flip flopper pertaining to this topic although I do agree with the article that this word is nonsense because people are allowed and do change their minds everyday. In my opinion changing your mind over a specific subject is just being more open to other peoples opinions and life situations. Both of these articles helped me realize that changing your thoughts about certain life decisions is okay to do because in my opinion it leads to new thoughts and aspirations in life.

With that through this documentary the word beauty and what beautiful means in the modeling industry was a major controversial topic which brought the stigma of modeling not being a real career. In a way the modeling industry has an ideal look already in place which pressures many people who dream of this career to be the perfect computerized face mask. If thats the case then beauty is already defined in the fashion industries mind and that beauty is unattainable to any human. I believe this because the fashion industry wants perfection and everlasting youth, when in reality no human can ever obtain that attribute.

Works Citied

Popova, Maria. “The Backfire Effect: The Psychology of Why We Have a Hard Time Changing Our Minds.” Brain Pickings. N.p., 2016. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.

Baker, Maggie Koerth. “The Mind of a Flip Flopper.” New York Times. N.p., 15 Aug. 2012. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.

Chasing Beauty. Dir. Brett Huff. Hulu. N.p., 2013. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.

Photo Credits: Google images

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Jynsyn Noble
Jynsyn Noble

Written by Jynsyn Noble

Hello my name is Jynsyn I'm 21 years old and I study at SFSU. My major is Apparel, Merchandising, and Design. With this I hope to evolve the fashion industry.

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