Body Image Activist, Eating Disorders mamaVISION

Tipster Tina led me to a great article in Forbes about the path to SuperModel Fame. This entire story reminded me of something I have been wanting to do for a while.

First, let’s set the record straight on a few things regarding my oh-so-glamorous past;

Yes, I was recruited to be a model in Paris, France at age 16. Let me tell you what this means – nada. It doesn’t mean squat. To the outside world it’s like “wow, you modeled in Paris! Holy crap, you were big time!”

I wasn’t big time, I wasn’t even small time. I wasn’t even one kernel on the cob (my husband came up with that analogy, we are cracking up as I write this).

It’s best to compare my status in the modeling world to the structure of Corporate America. 

You’ve got your big wig Chairman of the Board, phone ringing incessantly, crackberry glued to his palm, as he watches the company stock….tick, tock, tick, tock.  The A-Hole is filthy rich, and doesn’t give two shits about other human beings. His day is about money, fame, and prestige.

Cut to the dude in the company mail-room. In the basement, sorting through stacks of random envelopes. Mr. Mail sets out for his big day, delivering packages to coworkers backs, as they cower in their tiny cubicles, just too busy to turn around and greet this fellow coworker.

Mailroom dude doesn’t mean squat to Mr. Bigwig - not even on the damn radar, and never will be. He doesn’t exist.

As a model, I was mail-room guy.

This must be understood, so you all stop dreaming about being “America’s Next Top Model.

I was just one little girl, plucked out of my rinky-dink hometown, being used by one dirty old Modeling Agent to sell stuff. Sell sex, sell beauty, sell anything he could get away with. That was me and about 4o other “chosen ones” during the summer of 87′,  all random beauties trying to make a go of it in the big city.

Me, as a kid.

Sure, I posed for some catalogs, and magazines, a couple runway shows here and there – but who cares? The mags land in the garbage within a month and getting to that point was hell on wheels.

Pretty damn glamorous huh? It was a pile of crap I tell you, a total and complete pile of crap. Ahhh…I feel better getting that out, thanks for listening. 

On to the Forbes Top Ten Ways YOU! Can Be A Supermodel!:

1. Stop eating. Grow.
2. Be photogenic
3. Get signed.
4. Be quiet.
5. Don’t party. Don’t be a diva.
6. Befriend powerful people.
7. Date celebrities.
8. Expand your brand.
9. Now you can talk.
10. Don’t gain weight, ever.

mamaV’s add ons:

11. Take your clothes off.

12. Sleep with your modeling agent and/or booker.

13. Be serious arm candy.

14. Wear teeny tiny skirts to castings.

15. Get a boob job.

16. Sell your soul.

Ok that last one was dramatic, but I’m in a mood.

Still want to be a model?

God help ya.

-mamaV

P.S. song for the day

Hila weighed 60 pounds. My 7 1/2 year old daughter weighs 50.

A fashion model stricken with an all too familiar disease of anorexia. But this time, a friend was at her side. Adi Barkan documented Hila’s struggle, and sent shock waves out to the fashion world, by showing the reality of this situation in one still photograph.

Fashion photographer Adi Barkan is shown cradling Hila Elmalich in a still from a video shot when the model fell ill. (Gil Sadan/Tamar Golan Film)

See full news story and video here

There’s not much more to say here. Either the fashion industry is going to step up to the plate and make changes, or they are going to continue on their merry way in this deadly game they are playing.

You know what I thought when I saw this photograph?

How, for the love of god, can one be a part of an industry so full of themselves? How do you sit in an audience and stare up at these young women who are clearly not well, and focus on the clothing? Why do clothes, and prestige, and beauty mean this much in our society?

Bless Mr. Barkan’s heart for leading the effort in Israel to change fashion standards for the past three years. Your friend will not die in vain, she will be with you as you carry on in her name.

-mamaV

This baby face is what caught the NY modeling agents attention. But this baby face was too fat. 

“Try these face exercises” my booker said, as he contorted his face for demonstration, “Big yawn…blow a bubble. Yawn….bubble, good. Again.”

I sucked it in like the word of God.

 My mom was at my side my first two weeks in Paris, those weeks flew by and it was time to let me go.

Just last night my mom and I talked about it. The memory engrained in our heads. Thinking about it chokes me up today as a 37 year old woman, my mother 68.

The wave goodbye from the taxi.

I sat on the curb outside our Paris hotel, as my mom got in her taxi headed home. She crained her neck to the back window to desparately catch the last glimpse of me, both of us waving feverishly.

Alone. 16. Paris, France. No idea of what lied ahead.

My mom in her cab. Alone. Back to the Midwest. No idea of what lied ahead. Resisting the urge to run back and take me home.

Baby face shrunk down to half her size within a year, the cigarette & baby food diet will do that to you.

This glorious effort lead by the notorious Paris modeling agent, Claude Haddad. I looked up the old asshole, but I think he is dead. I never got a chance to give him a piece of my mind as an adult woman, so I will tell you;

You lived a pathetic life Claude. A life focused on maniplating young girls with your power and prestige. How full of yourself you were.

Did you die a happy man? Or did the shame of molesting young girls eat at your soul? I wish you no peace.

Do you remember telling me to be more sexy? As you rubbed your grotesque hands over my childlike frame, all the while watching in the full wall mirror in your stately big man office. 

The thought of this scene over twenty years later makes me sick. But I let you get away with it, because after all, it was you who gave me the opportunity to live every girls dream.

Ahh, your cohorts Douglas and Pascal. You trained them well. The three musketeers on top of the Paris scene, laughing as you brainwashed us into believing we needed to starve our bodies and our minds of independent thoughts.

I remember when you told me to stop making so many friends. Go on castings alone, you commanded, you’ll stand out that way. Keeping us separated was another of your sick control tactics. Boyfriends? Hell no, when I found my first one, I was shipped off to Milan within a matter of days.

Usually people’s faces fade overtime, but not you. You moved like Mick Jagger, surrounded by your harem, always watching with your prowling eyes waiting to give me the familiar nod to come sit by you at the dinner parties. Always had to have the jewels on your arm.

You may be gone, but there are several who gladly took your place. Stalking the States and Skandanavia for fresh meat. Why does the world look the otherway?

I may be gone, but my clones abound. Never a thought to turn you down. To be a model is to be a goddess.

 mamaV

The tragic death of the Ramos sisters is the topic of Chasing Beauty this week. Iliana, the 18 year old sister of Luisel Ramos, 21 followed in the anorexic footsteps of her sister. Models, anorexics, heart attacks take their life just six months apart.

Here more about it on Chasing Beauty Podcast, click here to play.

Download from ITunes here.

A teenage model has been found dead only six months after her model sister, Luisel died at a fashion show of complications arising from anorexia, as reported by Times Online.

Eliana Ramos, 18, was found dead in her bedroom in Montevideo, Uraguay, by her grandmother, with whom she was staying. She is believed to have had a heart attack.

She is the sister of Luisel Ramos, dead from a heart attack. She also starved herself to fit the fashion industry standards.

HOW MANY GIRLS ARE WE GOING TO KILL BEFORE WE WAKE UP.

I am absolutely livid, so please excuse my emotion and passion. I read this story 10 minutes ago and my heart is pounding out of my chest.

1 Modeling agents and bookers are at the center of this problem. They see the girls daily, they pressure the girls daily, they measure the girls daily, so stop acting like you are not aware of this and this is not a major influence in this problem. I know you have one modeling agent on your panel, how is he playing a part?

2 What size are your clothes that you are producing for your fashion shows? It’s this simple: To be a model, I must fit into your clothes. If my body is to large to fit, I will lose weight to make the cut. End of story.

3 Why do the fashion magazines showcase children as the women? Just stop already.

The findings of a post-mortem examination have yet to be released but local reports suggested that Ms Ramos, who was taking part in the Montevideo fashion week, suffered from “alimentary deficiency”.

Her parents, who were on holiday at the time of her death, were said to be devastated by the loss of a second daughter in six months.

Their father said afterwards that his daughter had been on a diet of lettuce and diet-cola in an attempt to lose weight. Her body mass index (BMI) was found to be below the level considered starvation by the World Health Organization.

Despite her sister’s fate Ms Ramos, nicknamed Elle by family and friends, had decided to continue her modeling career. She had signed with one of Argentina’s top agencies and the blonde, blue-eyed teenager was considered to have a promising career in Europe and the US.

She had been signed up recently by Dotto Models, the agency that represented her sister. Pancho Dotto, the owner of the agency, today dismissed claims that an eating disorder was responsible for Elian’s death.

“She was very healthy, she ate well and played sports,” said Mr Dotto. “She was never extremely thin. It is absurd to talk of alimentary deficiency, anorexia, bulimia and all that. It is clear that the deaths of the Ramos sisters are due to a genetic problem and not an eating disorder.”

At the time of her death she weighed only 6st (40kg).

Please take a moment today to say a prayer for the Ramos family. Their grief must be simply unbearable, and my heart is broken, once again for them.

-mamaVISION