Sigh. Oh the modelling industry makes me so sad. Almost as sad as it is that so many young girls want to be part of it.
On The Tele website, there’s a clip here from last night’s ANTM that shows the above model-wannabe, Demelza, meeting with male model managers in NYC from reputable agencies. Watch the clip. It’s exactly how the industry works. Part creepy, part brutal.
In turn, at different agencies, the men she sees systematically take her body to pieces, describing her arms as “too fleshy” her hips as being “a huge problem that will haunt you” (said with a smirk) and half a dozen other confidence-destroying comments sure to spiral her – and others watching – into a pit of self-loathing.
No matter how successful you are as a model – and only a fraction of a fraction of a percentage of girls will ever be successful – there is such focus on what you’re NOT. Even when you’re stunning, you can still miss out on a job because you’re too blonde, or not blonde enough, or have freckles, or don’t have freckles. Or have boobs, or don’t have boobs.
And no matter what anyone tries to tell you, there’s still only one type of body that’s ever acceptable in the modelling world: thin and tall. So I can’t help but despair to watch girls aspire to join an industry that’s based on making them feel inadequate and insecure.
The modelling industry makes no apologies for what they are: an
industry based 100% on aesthetics. It doesn’t matter if you’re smart or
talented or kind or funny. What matters – ALL that matters – in
modelling is how you look. Last year’s winner was too thin, this year,
Demelza is too fat.
I’m so thrilled to hear that Channel 7 is
doing a new TV show called “Make Me A Model” because that’s what the
world needs, another show encouraging vulnerable girls to define
themselves by how they look.
At least on Idol and Australia’s Got Talent, it’s about what you can DO rather than your weight, height and facial features.
Top Comments
The readers who buy the magazines are the ultimate link in the chain. They are perpetuating the stereotype of 'waif-like' is 'god-like'. If they, en masse, stopped buying this rubbish, it would no longer be published. Well, perhaps till the next up-and-coming bright- eyed, bright-haired spark in editorials thought it would sell!
Mia surely has first hand knowledge of this. As long as it's selling, do the stories get published ? Probably, within reason. Unfortunately that 'reason' is currently drawing a long bow with publications like London's Daily Mail.
OK, so the men apparently were fat balding pigs. But shouldn't we also blame the readers who buy Vogue and other magazines and expect (or put up with) stick models?