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This is a surprise, eh?

Christy Turlington, one of the world’s most recognised supermodels, has accused the fashion industry of being “surrounded by predators” as it braced itself for a slew of sex harassment claims in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

Ms Turlington broke cover to denounce the business for leaving vulnerable young models – both female and male – at the mercy of “some creepy playboy type”.

Vast numbers of would be wannabes, all chosen for looks, and a limited number of places…..

18 thoughts on “This is a surprise, eh?”

  1. Not news. And I expect we’ll be hearing something from Darcey Bussell about what goes on in ballet, where dancers sleep with sponsors, in a day or two.

  2. Actressing and modelling is about selling sex. It is hardly a surprise that sex sells . Just a shame that some of the buyers are also “gatekeepers” in the (especially ugly) parlance of our times.

  3. So far we’ve had a slew of middle-aged and older women complaining about how sexual abuse is rife in various industries, and to get anywhere you have to sleep with someone. But other than Harvey Weinstein, nobody is naming names. Could this be because, as they’ve practically admitted, most have slept with one of these men, possibly several of them, and possibly multiple times? Beneath all the stories of sexual abuse, I think the real secret they want to keep buried is how much of it was consensual.

  4. Tim N
    “I think the real secret they want to keep buried is how much of it was consensual.”

    I believe a large part of the ‘outrage’ at Mike Pence’s policy of not having dinner with any women alone was a direct slap in the face of any women who uses sex to gain.

    These women are perfectly aware of the rules of the game, and the vast majority still want to play for first prize.

  5. Pingback: Amid the sexual abuse, how much consensual sex is there? | White Sun of the Desert

  6. I believe a large part of the ‘outrage’ at Mike Pence’s policy of not having dinner with any women alone was a direct slap in the face of any women who uses sex to gain.</em?

    I think the outrage was because Pence basically said "I'd not have dinner alone with a woman because a good portion of them would be looking for a shag in order to advance their careers", and the sistas knew he was right, but because of the way he put it, they couldn't directly deny it.

  7. @Tim N

    “So far we’ve had a slew of *middle-aged and older women* complaining about how sexual abuse is rife in various industries, and to get anywhere you have to sleep with someone.”

    It’s almost like they are being passed over for roles in favour of younger actresses!

  8. There was a story by one young and very famous actress about how a female producer got loads of unknown actresses naked and told her to lose weight. She noted one girl was sent home for not doing so.

    I sat there thinking. Well did she lose the weight or not. That could tell us something about why certain people make it and others don’t.

    One doesn’t like the idea of all this harsh manipulation existing within these industries but I can’t help thinking that those who made it may have benefited from these conditions wiping out more talented rivals who were as compliant?

    Acting, modelling and singing is a tournament process. Unless these industries are destroyed I don’t see how there will be any change to these behaviours and examples of abuse.

  9. People in professions which are only one step removed from sex work (and historically weren’t even that) are complaining about sex being involved.

    If it’s non-consensual – and an implicit understanding that getting the job is dependent on screwing the producer/director/whoever does fall in to that category – then that’s a problem and needs to be addressed.

    Anything else, including offering the producer/director/whoever favours in return for the part, isn’t and can be ignored.

    The heart of the matter is who is making the offer and that’s where it is going to get murky since that comes down to which side you choose to believe.

  10. A cynic might point out that if you have large numbers of attractive young people willing to barbecue their grandmothers for a break, the surprising thing would be if there wasn’t any exploitation going on.

    The appropriate question now for any hectoring actress is “and when did you stop sucking the devil’s dick?”

  11. Roué le Jour

    “The appropriate question now for any hectoring actress is “and when did you stop sucking the devil’s dick?””

    That made me chuckle, I’d love to see the reaction to that one….perhaps Ashley Judd would give us another poem?

  12. Judging by the sort of men who run the fashion industry it’s the boys who are in more danger than the girls.

    Anyway, the fake horror and outrage over all of this is really beginning to get on my tits.

  13. The worse a picture these articles paint, the more I wonder why a few less-grabby producers didn’t put Weinstein out of business…

  14. NielsR: Why, it must just be because folks who don’t anally rape 13 year olds, like Roman Polanski, or give 7 year olds the bad touch, like Woody Allen, or make 14 year olds give him ‘footjobs’, like Dan Schneider, just can’t make it in the business. Because of their lack of talent. It’s not nepotism, it’s just that you can’t produce popular content unless you’re nasally gifted.

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