The Modeling Industry Is Creating Untold Profit

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The modelling industry is generating so much profit for the club industry. These unpaid women in the modelling industry, theyare also generating huge, like, untold profits all these other industries that benefit from their presence in the clubs. So i thinktat there could be some case to be made that unpaid fashioned models are doing enormous unpaid labor for all these other hugely profitable industries where disproportionately the profits are going to men. But if you can't talk them out of what they're doing, give in everything you know. I think that exploitation works best when it's pleasurable and when it's made meaningful....

Ashley Mears is a former fashion model turned academic sociologist, and her book Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit is one of Tyler’s favorites of the year. The book, the result of eighteen months of field research, describes how young women exchange “bodily capital” for free drinks and access to glamorous events, boosting the status of the big-spending men they accompany.

Ashley joined Tyler to discuss her book and experience as a model, including the economics of bottle service, which kinds of men seek the club experience (and which can’t get in), why Tyler is right to be suspicious of restaurants filled with beautiful women, why club music is so loud, the surprising reason party girls don’t want to be paid, what it’s like to be scouted, why fashion models don’t smile, the truths contained in Zoolander, how her own beauty and glamour have influenced her academic career, how Barbara Ehrenreich inspired her work, her unique tip for staying focused while writing, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded May 8th, 2020 Other ways to connect

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