MODELING: 0% Fat & 100% Violence
Pop culture is also one of the many influencers that degrade a girl’s body type and looks, as these images edit and mask an unbelievable body figure. From anything that consumers can buy, society is still facing a heavy division between the two genders. The market is solely based upon the patriarchy, as it supports the male desire of female beauty and ideals. Not only do they criticize the body physically, but also change individuals mentally and emotionally. Underage women and unexperienced women in this fashion industry do not realize the harassment they are receiving, in order to succeed in the industry, they comply with these norms of abuse. Even so, there is absolutely no representation of women of color in this industry and we lack to understand how this could heavily influence our future generation of women.
#MyJobShouldNotIncludeAbuse was created by model and activist Cameron Russell to publish a range of sexual harassment allegations to rape from models who were pressured to do so in the fashion industry. Most of the stories referenced photographers telling the women to take their clothes off and escalating more than what was asked, in settings such as sketchy hotel rooms. Photographers like Terry Richardson have been openly accused of sexual harassment, but is still currently working in the fashion industry.
She added: “There are many Weinsteins in our industry, they aren’t hard to spot. If you know one, act now. Don’t wait for 30 years for a New York Times exposé. — Cameron Russel (The CUT)
As you read within the endless page of screenshots from the victims, you start to see a pattern of sexual abuse and harassment against these vulnerable women. Even so, these high-profiled photographers, designers and celebrities take advantage of a unexperienced and more specifically, underaged. Many models are considered independent contractors, so they lack the protections compared to full-time employees, resulting to vulnerability exploitation. They don’t have the same rights as full-time employees, which result to becoming the “problem” and less likely to get hired.
In 2012, a Model Alliance study found that 29.7 percent of female models had experienced inappropriate touching at work, and 28 percent had been pressured to have sex at work.
Secondly, the industry does not celebrate natural beauty and a diversity of girls. We are only allowed to appreciate white, skinny female figures and are expected to confine with those beauty standards as minority women. In the NY Times article, many models of different color and body type describe their experiences as models that create a type of conversation about appreciating their own skin. These minority women are oppressed, while our standards of beauty are privileged.
I actually started a movement called Black Models Matter, which pushes diversity in the industry. There are casting directors who won’t want black models and literally write, “Don’t send models of color” or “We already have a black girl.” I noticed I would go into rooms and I would be like the most exotic thing in there, I would be the darkest thing in there, which was just crazy to me because we live in such a diverse city and you see all types of everything. — Ashley B. Chew (NY Times)
Similar to Kimberle Crenshaw’s article, Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color, she coins the term intersectionality to discuss the employment difficulties of women of color, more specifically black women. It is the concept of violence against women and how the industries fails to diminish the discrimination faced toward the minority groups. It is the means of identity through race and gender, structurally and politically. Even if the industry hires many minority models, they only use them in so many advertisements and are considered the token model. Even in their natural state, they are forced to comply to Western beauty standards and are unable to represent their race and class.
Like the Vogue cover pictured above, it received heavy backlash because of the lack of diversity and its efforts in doing so. There is only three minority group women pictured and one plus-sized model on the outside of the center. Why is it so hard to bring a fresh and meaningful representation of women in a Vogue cover? Having only a limited representation of women surrounding the rest is viewed as inclusive. It does not help the fact that the rest of the women are tall and slim; it does not fully represent the well-rounded women we have in today’s society.
The issue we now face with this industry is creating a force of action to protect these women from being over-sexualized and submissive to male dominate figures. Even though this industry is a female-dominated environment, we still question why we are not fighting back towards this cause of diversity and equality. Society is demanding higher and impossible expectations for women. Women are expected to gain qualifications, show they are worthy of respectful positions, and show their enthusiasm to work, but they are forced into the position to submit to society’s standards of femininity, if wanted to be desirable to men. The patriarchy does not help to make this happen, because it allows only limited number of powerful women to step up into control. Gender is used to rationalize domination and we still continue to see an unbalanced scale of gender inequality.
