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The Unglamorous Side Of The Modeling Industry No One Talks About
Given a chance, many wouldn’t think twice about becoming a model. We look up to them every day and brand them social mannequins of glamour. On billboards, the biggest fashion campaigns and trawl social media, we scramble just to see how perfect they are.
Some may say models are overrated, but the expectations of the industry leave no room for imperfection. It’s a gamble but one has to keep up. Competition is so tight that the smallest glitch in someone’s appearance costs them a lot more than we can imagine.
This obsession with perfection at times makes society forget that these are people just like the rest of us. The work they do makes them appear so unreal and there is no time or space for being human for example having flaws. Their bodies are their work tool, many times one may say they are the most superficial people.
In recent years, while depression and mental health has taken centre stage of more and more people’s concern, focus is only put on some of the most prized personalities of fashion. This is properly explained in a conceptual framework by Dr. Cheryl Woods-Giscombe, where she highlights the ‘Superwoman Schema’. It is presented as a condition that can foster depression. Its four major traits are; obligation to manifest stress, obligation to suppress emotion, resistance to being vulnerable and the determination to succeed with limited resources.
It is a factor that causes many of the most popular faces to care more about what is expected of them than their own selves. This alone exposes how many of the people in the fashion industry cope, among the many other ways. The trauma they are put through to achieve their dreams is far from what people will ever actually see.
Boundaries and work environmental ethics are commonly ignored in the competitive modeling world. Scenarios of sexual harassment, exploitation and extreme living conditions are often imposed on the models. Unsurprisingly, the models persevere because of their passion and desperation to make it big in the industry. The industry, being highly informal, also leaves the models to take some of this mischief to their graves lest risk ruining an entire career.
The best public image counts more than anything else. Being heavier by a unit or so could cause disqualification in a fashion brand which has caused the infamous eating disorders like anorexia. Girls have been known to be left to be scrutinized and harshly judged for their looks with a minimal chance at getting the modeling job.
It is an industry full of travel in luxurious cities but with the little or no pay at all one is expected to cater for oneself via accommodation, travel and food, if any. Casting Director James Scully said in 2017 condemned the industry by revealing some injustices like starving models and hiring young girls from as low as 15 years of age as well as some brands refusing to take on models of color.
Over the years many models have ended up committing suicide mostly because of the depression they go through despite looking just fine. Charlotte Dawson, model from Australia’s Next Top Model Co Stars, confessed to being visited several times by the “depression bogeyman” and disturbed by anxiety from time to time. She had all her model dreams realized as she graced magazines, reality TV shows and walked the runways at all the top fashion places like Italy and France. She once said to the Herald Sun Confidential, “I’m tired of the anxiety that comes with working in media, especially as a woman because you’re scrutinized daily and abused by the way you look.” Indeed in February 2014, at the age of 47, she committed suicide by hanging in her Woolloomooloo home. Other famous models that have committed suicide include Daul Kim in November 2009, Gia Allemand in August 2013, L’Wren Scott in March 2014 and Ambrose Olsen in April 2010.
Adwoa Aboah, a suicide attempt survivor, opened up about her depression that led to that painful decision to commit suicide. She said, “The whole time I just felt more and more tired, but I thought, I’ve got to keep up the pretense, keep it together.”
Recently, Ajak Deng, an Australian-South Sudanese model spoke up about her own battles with mental health and depression. In a January 2019 post on Instagram, the nineteen year old talked about how she spent every day of 2018 crying in the night and every morning and having to smile through the day to make sure she looks great to the world.
Our very own Amito Queen Stacey opened up on social media about having to deal with an anxiety problem that kept her in bed for two days.
As much as the fashion industry portrays only perfection, it is not a bed of roses.
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