This impressively insightful young woman is proof, should we need it, that models are not, by definition, stupid but they are defined by their image. As she points out, we all are, in this wacky ‘legacy’ we’ve created.
My heroine Jo, in Rules are for Breaking is not a model, but she uses the same expression – ‘winning the genetic lottery’ – to describe her looks. She’s not boasting; it comes up in the context of how it has emphatically NOT led to the glamorous and happy love life that people expect.
carolynpageabc
What a wonderful, articulate and courageous young woman…!
Imelda Evans
I thought it was great. She was brave to get up and make the distinction between worth and luck, between a human person and looks. I think in a way, although they benefit from it in some ways, those who win that particular lottery are as trapped by the ‘legacy’ as others are. I’m sure it makes genuine connection hard sometimes.
Mr. Wapojif
Indeed, there’s far too much emphasis placed on the pure biological lottery of looks in this world. I can’t stand how people judge others on whether they’re “fit” or not. Personality is key (and cake baking abilities). I’m currently reading Keith Moon’s biography and he married a young model called Kim Kerrigan (he was 18, Kim 16! Rod Stewart was also after her) as she was pretty but hugely naive and innocent. Obviously it didn’t end too well with Moon’s drunken lunacy in subsequent years. Lots of young folk will expect modelling to equal fame, glamour, moolah. Beware!
Imelda Evans
Baking abilities are indeed important. Apart from anything else, they improve with time. Or, to consider something else, as a dear friend is wont to say, beauty fades, but stoopid is forever.
There’s nothing wrong with admiring beauty – I love to do so myself, in both genders and indeed other species – but when it replaces all else as a measure of worth, something has, as you say, gone horribly wrong.
Resa McConaghy
What an interesting young woman.
Imelda Evans
I thought so! She’s got guts to take on the ‘legacy’ that employs her. And I loved the way she changed her outfit, proving what an enormous effect clothes have on our perceptions. She was intimidating in the frock and heels, normal-looking in the skirt and jumper (sweater). I’ve always been interested in the transformative effect of clothes, but I don’t think I had considered quite how much of that effect was constructed in me by conditioning!
Resa McConaghy
Yes, she is normal looking in the skirt and jumper.
For some reason I’m thinking of the idea that we wear clothes, clothes don’t wear us.