Di Fiorino Mario, Alexinschi Ovidiu. Del Debbio Alessandro
Summary A recent event, represented by the publication on Mediapart on August 2021 of a journalistic investigation, brought to light the dimensions of sexual harassments towards models acted by a known Parisian fashion photographer. The investigation started from the messages of accusations of models posted like ephemeral states by another famous Parisian fashion photographer in his Instagram page. The topic of sexual misconducts towards models had been addressed on 10th October 2020 in a webinar conference, entitled Prelude, by the Bridging Eastern and Western Psychiatry’s scientific association. About the other issues on which Bridging drew attention (the risk of extreme thinness and the substance abuse in the fashion world) exists an extensive literature, reported in this review. Bridging, however, urged, also with an article that appeared in one of the most authoritative Italian newspapers during Milan Fashion Week, to implement prevention practices, to avoid that the codes of conduct remain a dead letter, which does not affect the real world of Fashion.
The Authors propose that fashion models have to be addressed as a “special” population, which will continue to be a focus of research, interventions to reduce the risk of extreme thinness, substance abuse and to be exposed to sexual misconduct for the overcoming of professional barriers have to be hoped and sustained.
Introduction
The association of psychiatrists “Bridging Eastern and Western Psychiatry” on 10th October 2020 in a webinar conference, entitled Prelude with 4 speakers from Portugal, Italy, Romania and Poland, launched a campaign “Stop sexual abuse of fashion models”.
Recently Di Fiorino wrote an article in the Italian newspapers Il Sole 24 ore promoting, after the Milano Fashion Week, a campaign for the implementation of prevention practices for models, considered a population at risk for extreme thinness, substance abuse, sexual misconducts (Di Fiorino, 2022).[1] Otherwise, the Code of Conduct of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion (CNMI), like that of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), the chamber of American fashion, ends up not affecting the real world.
“Bridging” requested more frequent checks of the body mass index (BMI), verification of certified
data, with the survey of weight and height, urine sample tests for the search for substances (such as
cocaine) during fittings and before fashion catwalks, especially on the occasion of events such as the Milan fashion weeks, dedicated to women’s and men’s collections. Di Fiorino also recommended sample interviews to verify compliance with professional barriers. When these barriers between professional and personal life are crossed, you are walking down a slippery slope. For many models, even after the harassment, it is difficult to break away from the fashion world, which offers them expectations of success and social advancement. They develop very sensitive “antennas”, they immediately notice unprofessional attitudes, but remain ambivalent, frightened and hesitate to report harassment, for fear of being labeled listless or uncooperative and marginalized in the environment.
The use of alcohol and drugs can take place with the autotherapeutic illusion of alleviating anguish of a different nature.
Fashion fades. Also Fashion knows courses and resorts. Undoubtedly, every now and then the tension towards extreme thinness resurfaces, which affects girls more, with models reminiscent of the Etruscan votive statuette “Shadow of the evening”, or with a less suggestive image a “hanger”. Among the male models on the waifish type, an English term that we could translate as very thin, emaciated, the bigorexic seems to prevail today: polarized on physical fitness and the tone of muscle mass. In both cases, hyperactivity is accompanied by the adoption of unbalanced diets.
Anorexia in Fashion world
A growing body of research has linked the readership of beauty and fashion world with the development and perpetuation of anorexic behaviors (Preti et al., 2008; Di Corrado et al., 2021). Much of the research that explores the fashion world’s influence on Eating Disorders (EDs) symptomatology focuses on the effects of frequent exposure to messages and images that perpetuate a “thin-ideal” stereotype (Volontè, 2019). By inundating young women with a steady barrage of messages, both visual and editorial, that suggest to be attractive, happy, and successful one must be ultra-slender, the media’s emphasis on appearance is believed to lead many young women to internalize unrealistic and unattainable physical standards of beauty and to develop high levels of dissatisfaction with their own bodies (Harrison & Cantor, 1997; Levine & Smolak, 1996; Myers & Biocca, 1992; Silverstein, et al., 1986; Stice, et al., 1994). Studies have investigated whether in fact the prevalence of eating disorders (ED) and/or use of illicit drugs is higher among models than among other groups of females. According to Santonastaso et al. (2002), who investigated 63 professional fashion models of various nationalities compared with a control group of 126 female subjects recruited from the general population, fashion models were found to weigh significantly less than controls, but only a small percentage of them used unhealthy methods to control their weight. The current frequency of full-syndrome ED did not differ between the groups, but partial-syndrome ED were significantly more common among fashion models than among controls. Other italian authors (Preti et al., 2008) compared a group of 55 fashion models born in Sardinia to a group of 110 girls of the same age, with comparable social and cultural backgrounds. They found no significant differences between the two groups when compared on three self-report questionnaires (Eating Attitude Test, EAT; Bulimic Investigatory Test Edinburgh, BITE; Body Attitude Test, BAT). However, by means of the Eating Disorder Examination interview, models reported significantly more symptoms of eating disorders and a higher prevalence of partial syndromes than controls. A body mass index below 18 was found for 34 models (54.5%) as compared with 14 controls (12.7%). Three models (5%) and no controls reported an earlier clinical diagnosis of anorexia nervosa. Authors concluded that the pressure to be thin imposed by this profession can be more easily accepted by people predisposed to eating disorders.
Di Corrado et al. (2021) investigated a sample of 300 females, including 100 aspiring fashion models, 100 athletes and 100 students (controls), between 15 and 24 years of age. They found that the aspiring fashion models had significantly higher body dissatisfaction index, perceived stress, and risk of eating attitude disorder, and lower self-efficacy and internal locus of control than athletes and controls; moreover, they reported a BMI below 18, the cut-off for under-nutrition. Authors observed that fashion models are chosen for this profession, because they have a constitution that lies at one lower level of the normal distribution of body types, to conform to the very restrictive shape and weight requests, without necessarily the risk of developing a nutritional disease.
Ralph-Nearman et al (2020) measured body mass index (BMI) and Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) responses in United Kingdom professional fashion models, and nonmodels, finding that models exhibited lower BMI (but higher fat-percentage and muscle mass); moreover, on the EDE-Q, models had higher Restraint, Global, Eating, and Weight Concerns, and similar Shape Concern scores compared to nonmodels. According to this study, lower BMI was not indicative of worse eating disorder symptomatology in models or nonmodels. Authors concluded that using a low BMI cutoff (<18.5) may not be an appropriate single index of health for detecting elevated eating disorder symptoms in models, suggesting that different policies to protect models’ health should be considered.
Other authors (Castellano et al., 2021) examined whether stress mediated the relationship between body dissatisfaction and eating disorders in 112 aspiring fashion models aged between 15 and 24 years (M = 19.5, SD = 2.08) from 32 different countries of the world during an international contest. It was found that higher scores on body dissatisfaction, stress level, and eating attitudes disorder resulted among the group of fashion models compared to the control; more, body dissatisfaction appeared to be partially mediated by stress level on eating disorders. Authors commented that, especially in the aspiring fashion models, there are often many possibilities that competitive stress causes candidates to exacerbate attempts to maintain their body weight below normal weight/height parameters, so indicating that appropriate intervention for the management of stress level could possibly defend against the negative impact of body dissatisfaction on eating disorder symptoms in the field of fashion.
Swami and Szmigielska (2013) studied 52 professional fashion models compared with a matched sample of 51 non-models from London, England, on indices of weight discrepancy, body appreciation, social physique anxiety, body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, internalization of sociocultural messages about appearance, and dysfunctional investment in appearance. They observed that professional models only evidenced significantly higher drive for thinness and dysfunctional investment in appearance than the control group; in other words, models, who are already underweight, have a strong desire to maintain their low body mass or become thinner.
Park (2017) aimed to quantify the body types of professional Korean fashion models (90) compared to that of 100 females in the general population. Results showed that biceps, triceps, subscapular, and suprailiac areas of professional fashion models were significantly thinner than those of women in general and that their waist size was also significantly smaller. Moreover, the first had body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, and body fat (%) significantly lower than controls, while their body density was significantly greater, due to the taller stature. An effort on the part of fashion models to lose weight in order to maintain a thin body and a low weight for occupational reasons has to be underlined.
The extreme thinness
The current fashion for extreme thinness among models unnecessarily puts their physical and psychological health in jeopardy.
Starvation disrupts growth and reproductive function and can have profound and persistent effects on brain development.
The Minnesota Starvation Study has shown the consequences of staying underweight for a few months. It was a clinical study performed at the University of Minnesota (1944, 1945). on the physiological and psychological effects of severe and prolonged dietary restriction (the starvation period) in volunteers selected from the ranks of conscientious objectors. The diet of each man was adjusted to produce roughly a 25% total weight loss over the 24-week period. Participants exhibited a polarization on food, reduced sexual interest, social withdrawal and isolation, a decline in concentration, comprehension and judgment capabilities.Record and Austin (2016) suggest that, given the prevalence of starvation in the modelling industry (BMI typically < 16) and the health harms that models suffer as a consequence, BMI is a necessary indicator of being dangerously underweight.
At the level of the press it has always been considered the influence exerted by images of anorexic models on body image satisfaction of vulnerable subjects for the power of imitation. For example, Turner et al. (1997) studied the influence of the exposure to fashion magazines on women’s body image satisfaction in a sample of 39 undergraduate women of a college: it was found that those (half of the sample) exposed to the view of fashion magazines, by completing a body image satisfaction questionnaire, revealed their aspiration to weigh less because they were less satisfied with their bodies, more disappointed about their weight and more afraid of getting fat compared to their peers who viewed news magazines.
These risks are particularly profound in young women who, in a binge priming environment, may be more prone to develop other addictive behaviour a skeletal frame was essential to the look the designer had created. Indeed, the fashion industry refers to its top models as clothes hangers-the less mass within the outfit, the better the display, the better the employee. Not surprisingly, this takes a toll: models have died of starvation-related complications, sometimes just after stepping off the runway.
France moved to criminalize this trend, prohibiting designers and agents from employing models with a body mass index (BMI) under 18.
Similar measures exist in Israel, Milan, and Madrid, but France may become the first to be able to affect change. A skeletal frame was essential to the look the designer had created. About the media’s influence on body image, many research have considered the power of imitation. The current societal standard for thinness may be much influent (Fallon, 1990). Heinberg and Thompson (1995) observed higher levels of depression, anger, weight dissatisfaction and overall appearance dissatisfaction in a sample of women who were exposed to the view of videotape that contained images reflective of thinness and the importance of attractiveness.
There is an increasing evidence about the role of media on body image disturbances (Thompson and Heinberg, 1999). In a research on collage females a 3-minute exposure to 12 photographs of thinner models from popular women’s magazines was associated to transitory increases in depression, stress, guilt, shame and body image dissatisfaction, compared to controls who viewed shots of average size models (Stice and Shaw, 1994).
According to Meyer et al. (2007), fashion models reported slightly lower need satisfaction and well-being and well-being and greater personality maladjustment (personality disorder features).
Substance and alcohol abuse
Historically, in the 90s the dark side of fashion world has been characterized by the use of heroin in models; this trend has been called “heroin chic”. The term “heroin chic” came to be popular in the fashion world because of the idea that the use of heroin was one was associated with certain features in top fashion models, including pale skin, dark undereye circles, and being thin and androgynous. Some of the most famous models were victims of this movement, including Kate Moss, who became known for her extremely thin and waif-like figure (Weber W, 2021).
Current substance use or alcohol abuse was reported by 35% of fashion models and 12% of controls
The findings suggest that fashion models are more at risk for partial ED and use of illicit drugs than females in the general population (Santonastaso et al., 2002).
It has been observed that stress can play a substantial role within ill health via related behaviors such as smoking, substance abuse, and inappropriate eating in aspiring fashion models (Castellano et al., 2021).
Sheuerman (2015) reported that, according to the Model Alliance’s industry statistics (the Model Alliance is a New York-based nonprofit organization that aims to promote fair treatment, equal opportunity, and more sustainable practices in the fashion industry) around 68% of models suffer from anxiety and/or depression, 32% have had an eating disorder, and 25% have had or think they have had a drug or alcohol problem. It has been observed that cocaine occupies a special place within the fashion industry because it changes the body’s metabolism in a way that keeps a person skinny regardless of what they eat. In the environment where body shape and weight play a major, sometimes life-turning role, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to see people sacrificing their health for good looks.
Taking cocaine, for instance, is seen as a fundamental part of fitting in. It’s a powerful stress reliever. In the environment where body shape and weight play a major, sometimes life-turning role, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to see people sacrificing their health for good looks (Poulsen T, 2020).
Also marijuana use that has been legalized for medical purpose represents a conduct widespread in male models (described as a “moonlight”), especially in USA (medium.com).
Fashion world and sexual misconduct
The modeling industry is not as glamorous as it seems – we know this. Models are often subjected to exploitation and sexual violence throughout their careers. This has been an issue, unfortunately, since the dawn of fashion shows, commercials and photoshoots. Models are objectified, exploited, or worse, assaulted by those in positions of authority. Behind the glitz of the catwalk there have long been whispers of predatory photographers exploiting vulnerable young models. The industry’s dark side has been thrust into the spotlight after some of its biggest stars have finally started speaking out about the seedy underbelly of sexual abuse and exploitation.
Reports of sexual assault in the fashion industry have come to light in recent years. According to trade group Model Alliance, 87% of models say they’ve been asked to take off their clothes without warning, 30% have encountered inappropriate behavior on the job, and 28% have been propositioned for sex at work. Federal law prohibits sexual assault in the workplace, protecting those employed by companies of at least 15 employees. Unfortunately, this law doesn’t always apply to those in the modeling and fashion industry who are often employed as independent contractors or freelance agents, not protected by standard labor laws.
Edward Siddons 2016 in Newsweek[2] denounced that many models complain of inappropriate touching and sexual advances by photographers, casting agents, editors and fashion designers.
“Teenage models referred by their agents to powerful photographers, often in their 40s or 50s. worry that resisting norms could result in being blacklisted or viewed as difficult.”
Sexual abuse and harassment and abuse in fashion models can have a traumatic impact: memories and their processing are central. In the dissociative manifestations of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) it is common to experience the trauma again, to have the impression of reliving it (Di Fiorino and Figueira, 2003).
Unfortunately for many models, even when they realize the harassment they suffer, it is difficult to detach themselves from the fashion environment, which has given them expectations of success and social advancement. They develop very sensitive “antennas” (they immediately realize unprofessional attitudes) , but remain ambivalent, scared frightened and hesitate to report harassment, for fear of being labeled listless or uncooperative and marginalized in the environment.
This continuous exposure to harassment makes them more and more demoralized, feeling weak with the self-therapeutic illusion of getting stoned with alcohol and substances (mostly cocaine during fitting).
The position of power of photographer on the model, he can make a young person work, it is evident how is asymmetrical the relationship between a young model and a famous photographer, who can make him work.
As it is well known, if these barriers are not respected, you set off on a slippery slope.
The messages made public in Internet permit us to watch the behaviors of photographer and model and we can get an idea of the use of nude photos.
The photos that the photographer obtain from the young model, then circulate: they are sent (screen shot n. 1[3] screen shot n. 8[4], screen shot n. 12[5]) or posted on the net, often without the name of the model and the agency, because in violation of the ethical code of the agencies, which requires prior authorization for nudity or ambiguous poses.
The nude photos are then exchanged as a trophy of conquest and to facilitate the availability in young models.
The sex creates a bond of complicity between photographer and model, who expects to establish a privileged relationship, for working and receiving help in his career. As we see in screen shot 15 the photographer proposes a fashion contract if the model sleeps with him.
So the photos are a way to express the predatory perversion of these photographers, who theorize the right to seduce models, boys who need to work and are quite frail.
The photographer uses elements of the subculture to which he belongs: with regard to sexual orientation the ideology of the canvas circulates in the environment. The models are like canvas to allow the artist to unfold his art. In this way, the model feels it is passively adhering; with the illusion of limiting its own experiences of humiliation, due to the compulsion to sexual intercourse, sometimes even in violation of one’s sexual orientation. In this regard, the young heterosexual male is warned to give up the “toxic” masculinity[6], for which he must accept the advances or the ambiguity of clothes or herrings.
In this way, the illusion of remaining oneself is cultivated, even having to model oneself on the photographer’s expectations that are very different from one’s own idea of oneself. To avoid cognitive dissonance, one ends up accepting habitual behaviors, rationalizing them and modifying one’s identity little by little.
It is difficult to document sexual misconduct because the position of power of photographer on the model is evident. It is sufficient for the photographer to say that the model does not cooperate much or does not like it, because the model is then rejected in the casting and loses work opportunities. It is clear that in order to be able to parade and be photographed dressed the models must agree to go to the photographer’s apartments and sometimes to pose nude, for private shots, but also quietly for photographed books.
For this reason, young models tend to avoid reporting abuses.
Unfortunately for many models even when they realize the harassment they suffer, it is difficult to detach themselves from the fashion environment, which has given them expectations of success and social advancement. They develop very sensitive “antennas” (they immediately realize unprofessional attitudes) and are very ambivalent, scared but unable to leave fashion. This continuous exposure to harassment makes them more and more demoralized, feeling weak with the self-therapeutic illusion of getting stoned with alcohol and substances
The last wave of sexual harassments
In the last years we have had a wave of sexual misconduct accusations regarding fashion models: the case of Alexander Wang in USA, of Mr. Nygard in Canada and of Stéphane Gizard in France.
In December 2020 in Dailymail.com Megan Sheets and Karen Ruiz wrote an article on “Acclaimed fashion designer Alexander Wang has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by multiple individuals” .Owen Mooney, a model and graphic designer, came forward with his story in a pair of TikTok videos that went viral. In the first video Mooney alleged that he’d been ‘touched up’ by a ‘really famous designer’ while he and his friends were watching rapper CupcakKe perform at a club three years ago (Sheets and Ruiz, 2020).
In the same month of December also the Canadian fashion executive Mr. Nygard, 79, was arrested in Canada at the request of U.S. authorities (Edwards, 2020) . He was accused of having used his company’s influence, its money to recruit adult and “minor-aged female victims” over a 25-year period for the sexual gratification of him and his associates.Mr. Nygard would have sexually exploited teenage girls. assaulted or drugged others “to ensure their compliance with Nygard’s sexual demands.”
‘Let’s be clear: The fashion industry’s lack of transparency and accountability leaves all models vulnerable to abuse, regardless of their sex or gender identity.’
Stéphane Gizard and «…le temps de la recherche de soi et de la fragilité »
Last summer, a Parisian affair turned the spotlight on this point: we refer to the journalistic investigation by Yasmine Sellami and Hervé Bossy, which appeared in August on Mediapart.
In the article “Sexual violence Investigation #MeTooGay: young models break a taboo” the journalists wrote: “For several months Mediapart met young men, amateur and professional models, who report having been confronted with comments and gestures of a sexual nature with a photographe. But they found it difficult to make themselves heard”
Starting with complaints on Instagram, the investigation reported the allegations of sexual harassment of 16 models, some minors, against the Parisian photographer Stéphane Gizard .
Mediapart has managed to win the omerta, supporting the voices of victims.
Two of the five models who have agreed to publish, with anonymity, their encounter with Gizard were minors at the time of the sexual misconducts.
Xavier, at the time, 16 years old, claims to have received messages from Stéphane Gizard, 35 years old, on Hornet, a gay dating app. “The photographer said he wants to take my picture and tells me about his job”.
Stéphane Gizard would have invited Xavier to his home and him would have asked to go bare-chested for the rest of the shooting. The photographer would then have offered to have a drink. “He sat down on the sofa next to me then he lay on top of me, I was paralyzed”.
The other teenager, Florian, was at the time (2015) 15 years old, when he met the photographer, via Instagram. Gizard would have complimented on his physique by private message.“ I was in high school, it made me happy to see someone take an interest in me.” Aged 38 at the time, the photographer would have invited him to his home, he would have liked to “get to know him, show his creations”. For a month, Florian would have joined regularly Gizard at home. “About four or five times,” he says, and then they would have “slept together”, reports Florian. He indicates that, from the height of his 15 years, he has “accepted” while having “undergone” it. ” I did not understand not what was going on. I didn’t say no, either » Florian believes that he was then “too young” to do well know his body and his sexuality.
The journalistic investigation started after reading some messages[7] in Instagram. On 22 December 2020 a famous photographer, Quentin de Ladelune, replied to a message of a colleague, Thomas Angeli, denouncing a sexual abuse by a photographer:
“Hey, I saw your stories (if you ever repost anonymously), I had the same problem with Gizard I think its important to educate people about some people who like him give a very bad experience for people who start in modeling etc, because between the extremely inappropriate remarks (where he asks for example if I would have slept with him being of age) and I speak from a personal experience especially while being a minor (-18) it can be very frightening or scary on the moment. Even tho his picture are good the man himself is very problematic to say least“.
The photographer Stéphane Gizard, born in 1977, was known for his work for Fashion agencies and some portraits of young people.
In 2006 he published "Dress code" with photographs of teenagers met in the streets of Paris.
Also the photo books Modern Lovers (2013), New faces (2017) and We removed your post because it doesn’t follow our community guidelines (2020) are dedicated to teenagers, mainly males.
In 2020 Gizard also published Paris Silence, with a city desertified by the pandemic
He wrote to prefer models in that “decisive phase between the end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood, that moment of life characterized by the search for oneself and fragility[8]“
“…an intangible fragility “
In “tendencias.tv [9]” seems that Gizard is seduced by the teenager model
More than ten years photographing mainly in Paris the beauty of young people between 17 and 20 years old. Stéphane Gizard is a French photographer fascinated by a youthful of seduction and who bears direct witness to a generation that is uninhibited and full of strength. An age that he considers decisive, fascinating, on the border between adolescence and adulthood, characterized by an intangible fragility and an inner search that explodes in front of the camera. Modem Lovers is an intimate and personal book that takes us on each page to a fascinating world full of sensuality.[10]
The photographic service in Ibiza
Before the publishing of the accusations by Quentin De Ladelune in Instagram on 22 December 2020 there was another event : Vanity Teen on August 23, 2020 publishes a photographic service by the photographer Stéphane Gizard. with photos taken in Ibiza (Spain) of Jass Reemann[11], then eighteen years old,
In the same period many other photos, appeared in Instagram, show the overrunning of barriers between the photographer Stéphane Gizard : and the fashion model Jass Reemann: so the photographer-model relationship slips from a professional into a personal relationship. with speedboat rides and hospitality in the flat of the photographer[12]
Also the authographed dedication to Jass of the Gizard’s signed book “We removed your post because it doesn’t follow our community guidelines” was published on Instagram. In the dedication, dated in those days of August, Gizard calls Jass “my Muse”, female name, and writes to him “love”. In the book, printed in March 2020, with many photos of male nudes, also with erect penises, there are also photos of Jass Reemann.
In Fashion magazines is also well known the relationship between the photographer Quentin De Ladelune and the model Jass Reemann. Quentin De Ladelune described in gmaromagazine (2019) his huge crush for Jass, although he calls it “professional”.
"I had a real attachment toward the model. It was a huge professional crush with this Estonian model. He perfectly understood what I wanted and he knew how to express that through my lens. I will never thank him enough for trusting me with this project."[13]
It is certain however that Quentin De Ladelune on 22 December 2020 published in Instagram an accusation regarding sexual misconducts of Stéphane Gizard towards young male models.
Regardless of the reasons that prompted him, Quentin de Ladelune teared the veil, a tabou that had hitherto protected sexual abuses towards the male models, who until then had not been listened to.
The result was a journalistic investigation conducted by Hervé Bossy, who published an article on Mediapart on August 10, 2021, in which 16 male models confirm these sexual misconducts by Stéphane Gizard.
Some trends in Fashion: androgyny, bigorexia and toxic masculinity
As Siddons noticed the male catwalk modelling encourages extreme muscularity or waifish androgyny (Siddons, 2016).
Fashion also knows courses and resorts. Undoubtedly, every now and then the tension towards extreme thinness resurfaces, which affects girls more, with models reminiscent of the Etruscan votive statuette “Shadow of the evening”, or with a less suggestive image a “hanger”. Among the male models on the waifish type, an English term that we could translate as very thin, emaciated, the bigorexic seems to prevail today: polarized on physical fitness and the tone of muscle mass. In both cases, hyperactivity is accompanied by the adoption of unbalanced diets.
‘Androgyny is certainly not a passing trend, but one that is going through another cycle with a new generation’ notes the manager Tom Kalenderian.[14]
Models of both genders, waifish male models and boyish female models alike,were wearing silhouettes, fabrications, and items of clothing that traditionally appear in womens wear collections.
Gender-bending is not new in fashion neither in pop culture. Let’s think to a young Mick Jagger, David Bowie, and Marc Bolan toyed with feminized looks in the late 1960s
But today, thanks to a troupe of contemporary designers this theme of gender-neutral dress has been reimagined.
In a photo of the model Jass Reemann by the photographer Andrew Yee, he wears huge and mocking earrings, leaning into his androgynous side from Cable magazine.
The same model must wear in a photographic service the “Tits out cardigan” by Ludovic de Saint Sernin
Tops with ridiculous holes in the chest area, showing nipples, according to a vision which emasculates young men
High fashion nowadays is moving towards gender neutrality
The model can have the illusion of remaining himself, but he behaves in order to work as the photographer impose to him. And for avoiding the cognitive dissonance, the model will end up accepting the usual behaviours, rationalizing them, and changing little by little his own idea of self.
The photographer considers the model as a canvas on which to develop his creativity. This idea favors an attitude of complicit passivity of the model, which must please the artist. Sometimes models get used to molding themselves on the photographer’s expectations, yet they carry all sorts of secret reservations and resentments. They transfer this modality into their lives, living “as if” risks consigning them to inauthenticity.
Some conclusions
Moreover, a growing number of models are victims of misconducts including sexual abuse.
The journalistic investigation conducted in Paris made it possible to show the dimensions of the phenomenon of sexual abuse of models, which also affects minors.
Journalists reported that these adolescents were unable to make their voices heard. Among other things, the way in which the veil was torn is particular. Only when another photographer began to publish the heartfelt complaints of the models on Instagram, did the Mediapart investigation start, and despite the fact that minors are involved there is no news of the intervention of the Judiciary.
As imposed by fashion world’s rules, skeletal frame is essential to the look the designer creates. The fashion industry refers to its top models as clothes hangers (“Are skinny models really the best hangers for clothing? “), indeed the less mass within the outfit, the better the display, the better the employee. Consequently and not surprisingly, this pushing have lead models to develop starvation-related complications, sometimes just after stepping off the runway, sometimes until to death.
An imitative effect of anorexic behaviour has been recognized in fashion industry.
Not only for eating disorders, fashion models are also considered to be at risk for substance abuse
Addressing fashion models as at-risk population is supported by research investigating well-being, psychological need satisfaction and personality adjustment, affected in this population.
In conclusion, we propose that fashion models have to be addressed as a “special” population which will continue to be a focus of research; interventions to reduce the risk of extreme thinness, substance abuse and to be exposed to sexual misconduct for the overcoming of professional barriers have to be hoped and sustained.
References
“Androgyny is in: Men’s fashion is headed for a gender-bending moment” National Post August 7, 2015 https://nationalpost.com/life/fashion-beauty/androgyny-is-in-mens-fashion-is-headed-for-a-gender-bending-moment
Castellano S, Rizzotto A, Neri S, Currenti W, Guerrera CS, Pirrone C, Coco M, Di Corrado D. The Relationship between Body Dissatisfaction and Eating Disorder Symptoms in Young Women Aspiring Fashion Models: The Mediating Role of Stress. Eur. J. Investig. Health Psychol. Educ. 2021, 11, 607-615.
Di Corrado D, Coco M, Guarnera M, Maldonato NM, Quartiroli A, Magnano P. The Influence of Self-Efficacy and Locus of Control on Body Image: A Path-Analysis in Aspiring Fashion Models, Athletes and Students. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18: 1-12.
Di Fiorino, M. and Figueira, M. L. (Eds), Dissociation. Bridging Eastern and Western Psychiatry, Voi 1, No. 1, 2003
Di Fiorino M. Lo sguardo di uno psichiatra dopo le sfilate di Milano. Il Sole 24 ore 20 January 2022
Edwards V. Disgraced fashion mogul Peter Nygard, 79, is arrested in Canada on sex trafficking charges for a ‘decades-long pattern of luring girls and young women into sex acts with him’, Dailymail.com 15 December, 2020
Fallon AE. Culture in the mirror: sociocultural determinants of body image. In T.F. Cash &T. Pruzinsky (Eds.), Body images: development, deviance and change 1990 (pp. 80-109). New York: Guilford.
Heinberg LJ & Thompson JK. Social comparison: gender, target importance ratings and relation to body image disturbance. Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality, 7, 335-344.
Kalenderian T. National Post August 7, 2015
Park S. Comparison of body composition between fashion models and women in general. J Exerc Nutrition Biochem. 2017; 21(4): 22–26.
Poulsen T. The Dark Side of Our Fashion Industry: Drug Abuse. Anne of Carversville (AOC) Model Archives 2020.
Preti A, Usai A, Miotto P, Petretto DR, Masala C. Eating disorders among professional fashion models. Psychiatry Research 2008, 159 (1–2): 86-94.
Ralph-Nearman C, Yeh H, Khalsa SS, Feusner JD, Filik R. What is the relationship between body mass index and eating disorder symptomatology in professional female fashion models? Psychiatry Research 2020;293: 113358
Record KL and Austin SB. “Paris Thin”: A Call to Regulate Life-Threatening Starvation of Runway Models in the US Fashion Industry. America Journal of Public Health, 106(2): 205-206.
Santonastaso P. Mondini S. Favaro A. Are Fashion Models a Group at Risk for Eating Disorders and Substance Abuse? Psychother Psychosom 2002;71:168–172.
Scheuerman M. The Fashion Industry: A Globalized, Neoliberalist Force. December 1, 2015
Sheets M. and Ruiz K. Dailymail.com 13:51 EST 30 Dec 2020
Siddons E. The Hidden Dangers of Male Modeling. Newsweek, 6/7/16
Stice E, Shaw HE. Adverse effects of the media portrayed thin-ideal on women and link-ages to bulimic symptomatology. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 1994; 13:288-308.
Swami V, Szmigielskaa E. Body image concerns in professional fashion models: Are they really an at-risk group? Psychiatry Research 2013; 207(1–2): 113-117
Thompson JK, Heinberg LJ. The media’s influence on body image disturbance and eating disorders: we’ve reviled them, now ca we rehabilitate them? Journal of Social Issues 199; 55(2): 339-353
Turner SL, Hamilton H, Jacobs M, Angood LM, Hovde Dwyer D. The influence of fashion magazines on the body image satisfaction of college women: an exploratory analysis. Adolescence, 32 (127), 1997.
Volonte´ P. The thin ideal and the practice of fashion. Journal of Consumer Culture 19: 252-270.
Weber W. Heroin Chic. The Recovery Village, 2021.
High Fashion: Inside the world of NYC’s male models that moonlight as weed dealers. https://medium.com/@viccsilver/high-fashion-inside-the-world-of-nycs-male-models-that moonlight-as-weed-dealers-ec245a9185e3
[1] Di Fiorino interviewed Jass Reemann, a 20 year old Estonian model, who works in Milan, photographed by Andrew Yee with huge earrings for Cable magazine and again with the “tits out” cardigans by designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin, suggestive photos for androgyny. The model immediately distanced himself from a discussion on this theme, evoking the “canvas doctrine”: he feels like a canvas, on which the photographer’s art is expressed. In this way, the illusion of remaining oneself is cultivated, even having to model oneself on the photographer’s expectations that are very different from one’s own idea of oneself. To avoid cognitive dissonance, one ends up accepting habitual behaviors, rationalizing them and modifying one’s identity little by little, sometimes with a sort of secret mental reserve and with resentment. But by living “as if”, they risk an inauthentic existence. The model behaves in order to work as the photographer imposes to him. He will end up accepting the usual behaviours, rationalizing them and changing little by little his own idea of self, sometimes with a sort of secret mental reserve and with resentment. But by living “as if”, they risk an inauthentic existence.
[2] “The Hidden Dangers of Male Modeling”
[3] In the first screen shot aphotographer told the writer of the post [Shitmodelmgmt, Thomas Angeli)),: “stuff he’d like to do to me” and sent videos of him with other men…”The boy replied informing to be 16 years old, but the photographer answered he didn’t care about the age.
In the second part of the message another photographer, F. M., according to the allegations, after some information about modelling “ ..continuously messaged me every morning, asking if I could talk dirty to him, send him nudes and make him c..!”
[4] Screen shot n.8 11.38 am
A répondu à votre story
Même experience avec F. M.
II te parle tous les jours en espérant t’avoir dans la poche (video a caractère sexuelle et photos de d’AUTRES MANNEQUINS NUS!!!) Néanmoins une fois que tu poses les limites, il disparaît. Preuve qu’il ne te parle pas pour les bonnes raisons! [translation in English] Responded to your story
Same experience with F. M. He talks to you every day, hoping to have you in his pocket (sexual
video and photos of OTHER NAKED MANNEQUINS !!!) However once you set the limits, he disappears. Proof that he’s not talking to you for the right reasons!
[5] Screen shot n 12
Stephane Gizard et F. M: ! Les deux sont des pointeurs ! Moi la bite de F. M. je l’ai reçu plusìeurs fois en photo ! Et beaucoup de mes amis aussi. Meme qu’on on lui explique qu’on est pas très intéressé Stephane Gizard lui. il m’a contacté pour des photos j’ai accepté j’avais 15 ans à ce moment là, Arrivé chez luì ìt a essayé de me toucher et je suis parti prétextyant que j’avais une urgence
[translation in English] Stephane Gizard and F. M.! Both are pointers!
Me, F. M.’s cock, I have received several pictures of it! And a lot of my friends too.
Even when we explain to him that we are not very interested
Stephane Gizard him. he contacted me for pictures I accepted I was 15 at the time, got to his place and tried to kill mand I left pretending that I had an emergency
[6] This concept has been used also by Stephene Gizard. In media discussion there is a refer to certain traditional stereotypes of men, with related traits of misoginy and homophobia ( meant as a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality,a culturally produced fear of or prejudice). Toxic for the risk of sexual assault.
[7] In this article we comment on the transcription of some screen shots of messages published, then made public, on the pages of Instagram by the photographer Quentin de Ladelune, with messagges also by Thomas Angeli and boysinthemoonlight .They represent a privileged opportunity to see what happens in the fashion world with regard to sexual misconduct, the abuses in the relationship between stylist and model and photographer and model.
[8] Depuis 10 ans, il photographie une tranche d’àge (17/20 ans) qui, à ses yeux, est « l’étape decisive entre la fin de l’adolescence et le début de l’àge adulte, le temps de la recherche de soi et de la fragilité ». « Stéphane Gizard annonce la sortie de son 3ème opus en édition limitée ! » [archiye], sur 9 Lives Magazine, 31 mars 2020 (consulte le 18 juin 2020)
[9] https://tendencias.tv/diarv/art/modem-lovers/
[10] “Mas de diez anos fotografiando principalmente en Paris la belleza de jóvenes entre 17 y 20 anos. Stéphane Gizard es un fotògrafo francés fascinado por una juventud que rebosa seducción y que da testimonio directo de una generación deshinibida y cargada de fuerza. Una edad que considera decisiva, fascinante, en el borde entre la adolescencia y la edad adulta y que se caracteriza por una fragilidad intangible y una bùsqueda interior que explota delante de la càmara. Modem Lovers es un libro intimo y personal que nos traslada en cada pàgina a un mundo fascinante y lleno de sensualidad. “
[11] It is emblematic the story of the young Estonian model, Jass Reemann, studying Psychology at the Catholic University in Milan, and working as a model for the Estonian SAGE management agency
The SAGE agency, also publishing the shoot on its website, did not deal with accommodation of the model.
[12] Among the numerous shots and photographs of this stay in Ibiza, it is then seen the same
rock that appears in a nude photo of Jass, which is published by the model only after 15 months, without the indication of the photographer.
[13] https://www.gmaromagazine.com/exclusives/2019/6/29/gmaro-magazine-interview-amp-quentin-de-ladelune.
[14] “Androgyny is in: Men’s fashion is headed for a gender-bending moment” National Post August 7, 2015https://nationalpost.com/life/fashion-beauty/androgyny-is-in-mens-fashion-is-headed-for-a-gender-bending-moment
Discussion about this post