MODEL
CITIZENS AESTHETICS + AFTERMATH
“SAYING THAT YOU WANT TO BE A MODEL WHEN YOU GROW UP IS AKIN TO SAYING THAT YOU WANT TO WIN THE POWERBALL”
CAMERON RUSSELL LOOKS ARE NOT EVERYTHING CAMERON RUSSELL has spent the last decade modeling. A Victoria’s Secret favorite, she has appeared in multiple international editions of Vogue as well as in ads for brands like Ralph Lauren and Benetton. But she feels at her core that image isn’t everything. In October of 2012, Russell stepped off of the runway and onto the stage of TED admitting that she had won a “genetic lottery”. In this fearless talk, she takes a wry look at the industry that had her looking highly seductive at barely 16-years-old. Entering the room in a somewhat revealing dress – far removed from the apparel of her fellow TED lecturers – Russell notes the discomfort and anxiety immediately felt in the air based purely on her attire. “I feel like there’s an uncomfortable tension in the room right now, because I should not have worn this dress.” The revealing dress is instantly covered by a long skirt and a longsleeved cardigan, in what is the first ever outfit change on the TED stage.
“If some of the women were really horrified when I came out, you don’t have to tell me now but I’ll find out later on Twitter. I’d also note that I’m quite privileged to be able to transform what you think of me in a very brief ten seconds. Not everybody gets to do that. So why did I do is powerful. But is superficial. I transformed what of me in six seconds.
that? Image also, image just totally you thought
And of course barring surgery, or the fake tan that I got two days ago for work, there’s very little that we can do to transform how we look. And how we look, though it is superficial and immutable, has a huge impact on our lives.”
“ HOW WE LOOK, THOUGH IT IS SUPERFICIAL AND IMMUTABLE, HAS A HUGE IMPACT ON OUR LIVES.”
HONEST ANSWERS 1
HOW DID YOU BECOME A MODEL? I always just say, “Oh, I was scouted,” but that means nothing. The real way that I became a model is I won a genetic lottery, and I am the recipient of a legacy, and maybe you’re wondering what is a legacy. Well, for the past few centuries we have defined beauty not just as health and youth and symmetry that we’re biologically programmed to admire, but also as tall, slender figures, and femininity and white skin. And this is a legacy that was built for me and it’s a legacy that I’ve been cashing out on.
2
CAN I BE A MODEL? The first answer is, “I don’t know, they don’t put me in charge of that.” But the second answer, and what I really want to say to these little girls is, “Why? You know, you can be anything. You could be the President of the United States, or the inventor of the next Internet, or a ninja cardio-thoracic surgeon poet, which would be awesome because you’d be the first one.” If after this amazing list they’re still, like, “No, no, Cameron, I want to be a model,” well then I say, “Be my boss.” Because I’m not in charge of anything, and you could be the editor in chief of American Vogue or the CEO of H&M, or the next Steven Meisel. Saying that you want to be a model when you grow up is akin to saying that you want to win the Powerball when you grow up. It’s out of your control, and it’s awesome, and it’s not a career path. Unfortunately after you’ve gone to school, and you have a résumé and you’ve done a few jobs, you can’t say anything anymore, so if you say you want to be President of the United States but your résumé reads, “Underwear Model: 10 years,” people give you a funny look.
WHITE SKIN Some may be inclined to disagree with Russell’s claims of pale skin as a social perception of beauty when models of varying ethnicities such as Naomi Campbell, Tyra Banks and Liu Wen step onto the catwalk. However in 2007, a PhD student of the New York University counted all of the models who had been hired on the runway. Of the 677 models that were hired, only 27, less than 4%, were non-white.
OF THE 677 MODELS THAT WERE HIRED, ONLY 27, LESS THAN 4%, WERE NON-WHITE.
THESE ARE NOT PICTURES OF ME. THEY ARE CONSTRUCTIONS.
HONEST ANSWERS DO THEY RETOUCH ALL PHOTOS? Yeah, they pretty much retouch all the photos, but that is only a small component of what is happening. I hope what you’re seeing is that these pictures are not pictures of me. They are constructions, and they are constructions by a group of professionals, by hairstylists and makeup artists and photographers and stylists and all of their assistants and pre-production and post-production, and they build this. That’s not me.
THIS IS ME.
3
53% OF THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD GIRLS IN THE UNITED STATES ARE UNHAPPY WITH THEIR BODIES
BY THE AGE OF SEVENTEEN THIS NUMBER GROWS TO
78%
HONEST ANSWERS 4
DO YOU GET FREE STUFF? I do have too many 8-inch heels, which I never get to wear… but the free stuff that I get is the free stuff that I get in real life, and that’s what we don’t like to talk about. I grew up in Cambridge, and one time I went into a store and I forgot my money and they gave me the dress for free. When I was a teenager, I was driving with my friend who was an awful driver and she ran a red and of course, we got pulled over, and all it took was a “Sorry, officer,” and we were on our way. And I got these free things because of how I look, not who I am, and there are people paying a cost for how they look and not who they are.
IN 2011, OF THE 140,000 TEENAGERS THAT WERE STOPPED AND FRISKED, 86% WERE BLACK AND LATINO, AND MOSTLY YOUNG MEN. There are only 177,000 young black and latino men in new york, so for them, it’s not a question of “will I get stopped?” But, “how many times will I get stopped?”
HONEST ANSWERS 5
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A MODEL? I think the answer they’re looking for is, “If you are a little bit skinnier and you have shinier hair, you will be so happy and fabulous.” And when we’re backstage, we give an answer that maybe makes it seem like that. We say, “It’s really amazing to travel, and it’s amazing to get to work with creative, inspired, passionate people.” And those things are true, but they’re only one half of the story, because the thing that we never say on camera, that I have never said on camera, is, “I am insecure.” I’m insecure because I have to think about what I look like every day. If you ever are wondering, “If I have thinner thighs and shinier hair, will I be happier?” you just need to meet a group of models, because they have the thinnest thighs and the shiniest hair and the coolest clothes, and they’re the most physically insecure women probably on the planet.
“I AM INSECURE.”
DOVE REAL BEAUTY SKETCHES “At Dove, we are committed to creating a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety. So, we decided to conduct a compelling social experiment that explores how women view their own beauty in contrast to what others see.”
ONLY 4% OF WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD CONSIDER THEMSELVES B EAUTIFUL
Women are their own worst beauty critics. Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful according to one of the world’s leading personal care brands. In 2013, Dove employed a Forensic Composite Artist to help compare how women view themselves as opposed to strangers see them.
Gil Zamora was trained at the FBI Academy in 1993 in composite art, and worked for the San José police department as the police artist. The women who took part in the experiment spoke of the process: “ I showed up to a place I’d never been and walked into this big warehouse, and at the very end was a guy with his back to me with a drafting board.”
The artist and guest had a curtain between them, so that Zamora couldn’t see them. He would then begin asking the guest to describe herself to him, answering questions such as “What would be your most prominent feature?” and “Tell me about your hair.” “I didn’t know what he was doing but I could tell after several questions that he was drawing me.”
“We sort of realised: Oh, man, now I have to talk about myself and think about my looks.” Following the initial sketch, the guest leaves and the artist is still unaware of their actual visage. “All I had been told before the sketch was to get friendly with this other woman, Chloe...”
That other woman would then enter the warehouse and sit in place of the first guest. Zamora then began asking general questions about the face of the first guest, whom they had just met. From this, the stranger’s description, a second sketch was produced. “The [first group of] women were really critical about moles, or scars or things like that. And yet they [the strangers] were just describing a normal, beautiful person.”
REAL BEAUTY SKETCHES THE OUTCOMES
“ I have this whole thing about having dark circles and crows feet around my eyes, and that was not part of the sketch at all, that the stranger did. The stranger’s was a little more gentle.”
“ I have some work to do on myself... Chloe’s perception was so clearly different. Her picture looked like somebody I thought I would want to talk to and be friends with, like a happy, light, much younger, much brighter person. It’s troubling.”
“ It’s pretty different... Just looks strange... She looks closed off and fatter. She just looks kind of shut down, sadder too. The second one is more beautiful. She looks more open, and friendly and… happy. I’ve come a long way in how I see myself, but I think I still have some way to go.”
FINAL WORDS “ I hope we all feel more comfortable acknowledging the power of image in our perceived successes and our perceived failures.” “ I should be more grateful of my natural beauty. It impacts the choices and the friends that we make, the jobs we apply for, how we treat our children… It impacts everything. It couldn’t be more critical to your happiness.” “ Our self-perceptions are generally kind of harsh and unbecoming when really that’s not how the world sees us. We spend a lot of time... analysing and trying to fix the things that aren’t quite right and we should spend more time appreciating the things that we do like.”
YOU ARE MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN YOU THINK
www.alexanderjward.com Kela (2013) Dove Real Beauty Sketches. Dove.com [video] Available from: http://realbeautysketches.dove.com Melinda (2013) Dove Real Beauty Sketches. Dove.com [video] Available from: http://realbeautysketches.dove.com Florence (2013) Dove Real Beauty Sketches. Dove.com [video] Available from: http://realbeautysketches.dove.com Zamora, G. (2013) Dove Real Beauty Sketches. Dove.com [video] Available from: http://realbeautysketches.dove.com Russell, C. (2012) Cameron Russell: Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model. TED.com [video] Available from: http://www.ted.com/talks/cameron_russell_looks_aren_t_everything_believe_me_i_m_a_model.html
“ Most of the time we don’t do those things to make ourselves happy, we do them for someone else. I think we should start talking about that.” - Cameron Russell
Women are often worried about how they look and that’s not superficial. We know that our appearance has nothing to do with how smart, creative, or hardworking we are, but it plays powerfully into what society decides we are worth.