When we think of the fight for labor rights we often think of images of blue-collar workers being taken advantage of by "the man." Cesar Chavez's farm workers, or even the fictional "Norma Rae" come to mind. Rarely do we think of those working in glamorous professions in which the highest earners can make tens of thousands of dollars a day. Yet on the heels of New York Fashion Week it was announced that British Trade Union Equity has developed guidelines to ensure "safe and healthy working conditions" for models participating in London Fashion Week, which just wrapped up. The move is a watershed moment for the fashion industry that for years has gone unregulated, at times with disastrous results for its workers worldwide, many of them underage girls.
The new documentary film Picture Me chronicles the lives of several young models who have worked with top tier designers. Some of the stories are disturbing, to say the least. In a recent interview about the film one model recounted being burned by a photographer's bulb that rendered her unable to work for months yet she had no health insurance and received no worker's comp and was advised not to cause problems by litigating. There are also tales of models being sexually harassed and even raped by prominent men within the industry and being advised not to expose such behavior because it will harm their careers. (It is widely acknowledged that supermodel Stephanie Seymour had a long-term sexual relationship with John Casablancas, the former head of Elite, one of the largest modeling agencies in the world, that began when she was 16 and he was 41.)
The casualties from the industry are too numerous to name. For every Linda Evangelista there are countless girls the industry has chewed up and spit out. Some of the high profile ones include former model Beverly Peele who was on a major magazine cover by 14, burnt out by her twenties and has faced legal problems since. Even supermodels Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, who began modeling in their early teens and are two of the biggest modeling success stories of the last two decades have faced their own share of substance abuse and personal problems.
But also disturbing are stories like those of Gerren Taylor who is featured in the documentary America the Beautiful. After being discovered walking down the street Taylor walked in her first fashion show at the age of 12 and was strutting for high profile designers like Tommy Hilfiger by age 13. Her career, however, was short lived and by the age 14, she was being told she had become "too obese" for runways. Taylor's measurements at the time? Six feet tall and a size 4. Now back in school she has since struggled with her self-esteem and body image. (To hear Taylor discuss the impact of the industry on her self-image click here.)
Taylor's harrowing tale hits upon one of the fashion industry's dirtiest and worst kept secrets, namely that the industry not only overlooks unhealthy behaviors among its models, but actively encourages them. (The film Picture Me also includes a young model discussing her agent advising her to eat a rice cake or a half of a rice cake a day to stay thin.) It's not surprising that so many models would have body image issues when so many start modeling women's clothing when they are girls. Then when their bodies begin to change -- the way they are supposed to when they become women -- they are told there is something wrong with them, not that there is something wrong with the industry that is exploiting them. An employer can't legally tell you to do something that will knowingly cost you your life, like stand in oncoming traffic, so why should we allow an industry that tells girls they can't work unless they are actively starving themselves to death? The answer is we shouldn't.
Bowing to pressure from advocacy groups dedicated to eradicating eating disorders, and the media spotlight cast by the deaths of models who had battled anorexia, Madrid put guidelines in place to ban dangerously thin models from its runways. The new health checkups required for models before they were allowed to walk the runways resulted in 30 percent of models who had walked in previous shows being turned away.
At the time critics said that Madrid would suffer from the move and other countries would never follow suit. But now London is stepping up to the plate and putting its own labor guidelines in place for the industry. Among them, no models under the age of 16 allowed to participate in London Fashion Week and models must be warned in advance if any nudity will be required for the job, which should hopefully curtail any compromising surprises at the hands of powerful men within the industry. But most importantly employers must agree to take responsibility for the health and safety of any model they employ. This is significant, because while there is no weight specification mentioned in the guidelines it seems that if an employer asks a model to starve herself to unhealthy proportions to get a job, he or she will be in violation of the new guidelines.
This is certainly a good start but as one of the global leaders of the fashion industry and of the labor rights movement, it is a shame that America has not taken a lead on this issue. As I mentioned on MSNBC's The Dylan Ratigan Show, maybe it will take a high profile, homegrown supermodel to take the lead, and become the Norma Rae of American fashion. After all, the same week that it was announced that models participating in London Fashion Week would receive labor protections, it was announced that California marijuana growers had joined the Teamsters.
They could teach the fashion industry a few things.
This post originally appeared on TheLoop21.com for which Goff is a political blogger.
Follow Keli Goff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/keligoff
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Where else but modern times could we invent "disorders" for people who refuse food when others have none? Or worse, consume it, then DELIBERATELY purge it?
We are paying these stains for this and then they cry victim later.
Exactly. Fanned.
first of all: you don't have to have this job. this is america, you can do practically anything you want. the only reason you want this job is that it pays $10,000/day and for the love of money you're willing to take this abuse and because these guys are paying your $10,000/day they will give it to you. you do not have to have this job.
secondly, start your own agency. you seriously cannot find someone in this industry that is aware of this abuse that wants to form a modeling agency that does not abuse its clients? then you have worse issues than the abuse.
thirdly, you need a blog that lists the abuse and you need to list the clients that pay for the pictures. is it A&F? then you need to write on your blog: A&F buys modeling work from ABC Modelers who openly abuse their models. Here is the proof.
Stand up for YOURSELF! you don't need a union. a union is not going to get rid of the abuse. the union will take away your nice paycheck and then tell you the abuse is part of the job.
This is AMERICA! Stand up and do something. You're taking the abuse for the paycheck. You're going to have to sacrifice that nice wage for some ethics if you really want to eliminate model abuse.
i would say most models are probably in good health. was she about 25 years old? she could have gotten a great plan for about $80/month which is $960/year. So for 1/10 of one day's salary she could have bought a great health insurance plan.
she doesn't need a union. she needs a parent and an insurance broker. both of those are free.
I would also like to see runway models wearing shoes they don't regularly fall off - loafers are very comfy. And some nice, sensible clothes that keep their poor, bony chests (and knees) warm. Modeled by women of healthy proportions.
Then they might actually have something to smile about.
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No feminist worries about the glass floor below which women cannot sink but men certainly can. No feminist demands equality among the homeless, or equality among the mentally ill or equality among the prison population or equality among those executed by the state. No feminists says we should be firing more women because in this recession 80% of those losing their jobs are men.
Of course they are sexist even at the levels of wealth they do discuss. Why talk about models? Jockeys have to conform to even tighter dietry restrictions than models but of course they are only men so their pain doesn't count for anything. You won't catch the
Most of the fashion designers are designing for drag queens...and I'm not being homophobic, I'm being honest. The girls who are chosen to model have very slim hips and very small breasts. They look like young boys, basically. The clothes are designed to hang from the shoulders and god forbid a curved hip should interrupt the line of the drape.
Most designers (with the exception of someone like Betsy Johnson) can't design for women who are built like women.
Until talented designers take that step toward sewing for women, prepubescent girls who are built like boys will continue to walk the runways...and countless numbers of women will continue to starve themselves to capture the look of that aesthetic.
Is it also their fault when they develop eating disorders because their employers tell them they're getting too fat to work, even though they're clinically underweight already?