Research Proposal on Fashion Models

Research Proposal on Fashion Models

In this research proposal, the mistreatment in the modeling industry is presented, especially those affecting women. In an interview with Dr. Giulia Mensitieri, she explained a number of claims on the exploitation of models by their industry. She stated that the exploitation of women was on the rise in the previous years, and there has been a growing concern over the unhealthy weight of models to be specific. From the interview, I understood that body criterion set by the modeling industry is not easily attained by models who are regularly asked by their agencies to lose weight. Therefore, models resort to unhealthy and harsh methods of dieting, and some even forcibly starve themselves. Thus, many models suffer from eating disorders, including anorexia. The immense pressure on these models to be thin caused the death of 28-year-old Isabelle Caro, 22-year-old Luisel Ramos, and many other models. All these fatalities were linked to malnutrition (Lauzen, 2016). Brief, there is no doubt that the models are at times subject to rough working conditions, constant pressure to lose weights, and immense stress, which could at times lead to drugs and alcohol. However, no one should deny the various advantages that the modeling industry offers to its models by granting them a once in a lifetime opportunity to expand their career horizons and fulfill their dreams.

The research will also explain how the Women who represent ‘Beauty’ in ads are almost exclusively white, which paints an image to minority women that white is the way to beauty (Mensitieri & Lehrer, 2020). It is one thing to have only white runway models however, when the majority of advertising models are white, it has a stronger impact on society. Models of color have even reported that at photo shoots and runway shows, makeup artists aren’t trained or equipped to work on their skin (Sneider and Doty, 2016). This shows the lack of diversity and unwillingness of the modeling agencies to adapt to the needs of minority models cast into their company.

Furthermore, the lack of diversity in fashion shows creates the need to use white models to represent trends of other cultures. Cultural appropriation has consistently plagued the fashion industry. When models on the runway wear garb from different ethnic backgrounds as costumes, the culture related to those backgrounds are often offended. Religious and culturally significant clothing should not be reduced to a costume (Smith et al., 2014). Instead of casting a model of African descent to portray a hairstyle of their culture, he decided to use the same trend on a white model and turn the style into a costume. This act insists that the original wearers of this trend were not worthy enough to have their beauty shown to the world.

These realities may not be obvious to the general public at first; however, when given some thought, it is easy to come up with multiple examples. The subtle and brazen details incorporated into beauty statements are what shapes the minds of people in society. Finally, Cosmopolitan showcased the other 17 ‘bad’ beauty looks; no women of different ethnic backgrounds were used to demonstrate the cosmo-approved ones (France, 2017). Black models were only used to show the ‘dead trends, with the acronym ‘R.I.P’ superimposed on their heads. This spread in cosmo discriminates against people of color and white people subliminally insisting that white people have stylish trends and people of minority backgrounds do. If companies only associate light or white skin with beauty products, then so will the people.

In sum, just as any other career within a certain industry, modeling requires a lot of hard work and carries numerous challenges behind the scenes. One should always keep in mind that the modeling industry is similar to any other business. Not all models succeed or suffer the same. This industry offers an exciting and thrilling career as it bears numerous benefits to young girls. This sector is highly known for providing models with a celebrity lifestyle as they travel across the world, especially to the fashion capitals such as New York, London, Milan, and Paris.

Annotated Bibliography

France, L.R. (2017). Female Directors Becoming Rarer in Hollywood. CNN. Cable News Network. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/12/ entertainment/women-directors-Hollywood/.

Lisa France’s article focuses on the noticeable drop in numbers of female directors working in Hollywood as of January 2017. She skims the surface of this blatant gender inequality being observed within the Hollywood system and cites supporting data from an extensive study of women behind the camera in Hollywood, which was released by San Diego State recently. She also acknowledges an unchanging “boys club” environment that festers within the industry and the tendency for old, white, male directors to take young, white, male directors under their wing, leaving women directors to fend for themselves.

Lauzen, M. M. (2016). The Celluloid Ceiling: Behind-the-Scenes Employment of Women on the Top 100, 250, and 500 Films of 2016. Women In Tv/Film. Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, San Diego State University. Retrieved from http:// womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/wpcontent/uploads/2017/01/2016_Celluloid_Ceiling_Report.pdf.

Recording 19 years’ worth of female employment in the film industry, Martha Lauzen’s research is presented in three different categories which break down her findings into percentages of women working in different jobs behind the scenes on film sets and how female employment in 2016 compares to employment in the past 18 years. This source will be useful to me as a way of establishing the fact of female underrepresentation in Hollywood because a majority of the data is presented as percentages of women in specific jobs on films each year for 19 years.

Mensitieri, G., & Lehrer, N. (2020). The most beautiful job in the world: Lifting the veil on the fashion industry. London, UK ; New York, NY, USA : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, Bloomsbury Publishing PLo, Print.

This book explains that the fashion industry is among the most powerful in the world. It accounts for up to 6% growth and consumption. It has become the face of capitalism, causing prestige, beauty, power, and covering a central part in media.

Molina-Guzmán, I. (2016). #OscarsSoWhite: How Stuart Hall Explains Why Nothing Changes in Hollywood and Everything Is Changing. Critical Studies in Media Communication, Vol 33, No 5. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. Retrieved from http://nca.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15295036.2016.1227864 scroll=top&needAccess=true. 23 Apr. 2017.

Molina-Guzmán’s scholarly article reflects on the lack of diversity within

Hollywood’s internal structure and why racial and gender discrimination has been able to persist within the industry for so long, seemingly uncontested. This piece builds on Stuart Hall’s theories of culture, representation, ideology, and hegemony and how they can be used to explain why the Hollywood industry has hardly been challenged on their significant lack of employed minorities working on film and television sets.

Smith, S. L., Choueiti, M. Scofield, E. & Pieper, K. (2014). Gender Inequality in Popular Films: Examining On-Screen Portrayals and Behind-the-Scenes Employment Patterns in Motion Pictures Released between 2007-2012. Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, University of Southern California, 2014. Retrieved from http://annenberg.usc.edu/sites/default/files/MDSCI_Gender_Inequality_in_600_films

Stacy Smith and co-authors wrote this paper about the gender inequality they

discovered from their research over five years (2007-2013) from the 100 top-grossing films released each of those years. In her conclusion, she suggests that ideally, this problem could be solved by hiring more women on film sets, thereby influencing the representation of women on screen. In reality, there has been little to no change in nearly five years, so the battle for equality continues.

Smith, S. L. (2017). “The Data behind Hollywood’s Sexism.” TedTalksWomen. YouTube, Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kkRkhAXZGg.

The data on female representation in the film industry, as well as Smith’s two suggested strategies for correcting the absence of women in movies and behind the camera, will be a helpful starting point for my paper, which will examine why the Hollywood system has been relatively unchanging and historically less inclusive of women. Although not a source that is as credible as a scholarly article, the data presented by Smith could be useful to me as a starting point for asking questions about why there is a lack of female employees in Hollywood.

Sneider, J., and Doty, M. (2017). 20th Century Fox, Paramount Have No Female Directors Through 2018. TheWrap. Retrieved from http://www.thewrap.com/20thcentury-fox-paramount-have-no-female-directors-through-2018/

Jeff Sneider and Mariah Doty’s article deals with the upcoming number of female

directors attached to films set to be released over the next couple of years. They break the article up into different sections dedicated to specific film companies and their upcoming films/directors. They found that films scheduled to be released up until 2018 from Paramount and Fox have no female directors attached to any of the movies.

References

France, L.R. (2017). Female Directors Becoming Rarer in Hollywood. CNN. Cable News Network. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/12/ entertainment/women-directors-hollywood/.

Smith, S. L. (2017). “The Data behind Hollywood’s Sexism.” TedTalksWomen. YouTube, Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kkRkhAXZGg.

Research Proposal on Fashion Models

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