Modeling Sounds Awesome

Kate Moss is on the cover of the latest issue of Vanity Fair, and in the story she talks about what it was like to be a teenager in the modeling industry: "I had a nervous breakdown when I was 17 or 18, when I had to go and work with Marky Mark and Herb Ritts...It didn’t feel like me at all. I felt really bad about straddling this buff guy. I didn’t like it. I couldn’t get out of bed for two weeks. I thought I was going to die. I went to the doctor, and he said, ‘I’ll give you some Valium’...Nobody takes care of you mentally. There’s a massive pressure to do what you have to do...I didn’t like it. But it was work, and I had to do it...I see a 16-year-old now, and to ask her to take her clothes off would feel really weird. But they were like, If you don’t do it, then we’re not going to book you again. So I’d lock myself in the toilet and cry and then come out and do it. I never felt very comfortable about it...That picture of me running down the beach—I’ll never forget doing that, because I made the hairdresser, who was the only man on the shoot, turn his back.” 

So let me get this straight: It's largely illegal for two people of the same gender to marry. For the most part, it's illegal to possess marijuana. We in this society love to express our outrage over sex trafficking in other countries. But it's perfectly normal to coerce a 16 year-old into taking her clothes off, being photographed topless, and then allowing the world to ogle her callow, naked body? Makes sense. Keep up the good work, adults! Special thanks go to Kate's parents and modeling industry professionals, of course, but let's all take a look at the advertisements we support. If we buy products peddled on images of sexualized children, we are part of this, too. And, yes, that includes me. I have a pair of Abercrombie & Fitch sweatpants, which is the capitalistic equivalent of donating money to NAMBLA. But, you know...my ass looks so cute in them, you guys!