The fashion industry has always had a problem with exploiting young models--they look great and they come with a few perks: you don't have to pay them as much and they're easier to manipulate. Wow, what a deal! (Cue audience "yay!"). However, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a piece of legislature last week, specifying models under 18 to be considered "child performers". What does this mean for the fashion world? Well, it means that they will be subject to standards that they strangely weren't required to follow before--such as limiting the amount of hours they can work, how often they can work, and even implementing a curfew on the models. In short, it's going to be a lot harder to use underage models when Fashion Week rolls around again (Cue audience "disappointed awww").
Of course we should let young girls pursue their genuine interests--if they've got a passion for modeling they should in no way be discouraged. However, they're also technically children--no matter how mature they may look or act. The modeling world is notorious for eating disorders or sexual harassment (in some cases, even rape) by photographers, casting directors, and the like. Nevermind the infamous partying scene, filled with alcohol and hard drugs.
This bill is really beneficial to the well-being of models, but the main concern that I have is how were these young models not protected in the first place? And why was this "okay" with everyone?
You bring up a good point as to why young girls were not protected in the first place. It’s probably because the big people in the industry wanted to make money no matter what. The curfew for young models seems pretty extreme. In my amateur opinion there are still plenty of models for the industry to ‘use’.
ReplyDeleteI think that the cerfew is a really good way of keeping these teen models out of the extreme parties that older models take part of. Even though it sounds good on paper, the inevitable truth is that these teens models are always going to find a way into the mature scene that they don’t belong in. I strongly agree with the senate and their idea of treating teen models like the true kids they are.
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