The “party life” of a fashion model creates new risks for sexual harassment and the modelling sector which focuses on “production of goods and services chiefly for their aesthetic value,” presents significant challenges as predominantly young girls work in this field dominated by powerful men, says a new study.
The Study: The study by Rutgers University-New Brunswick defines the party life as participation in specific types of social networking activities such as informal meals, coffee meet-ups, clubbing, private home get-togethers, formal dinners, and the like.
- Although sometimes these events may include drugs and alcohol, they do not have to involve them and may simply consist of two or more people within the industry physically coming together as part of what is seen as integral to being successful in the job of fashion where knowing the “right people” is key.
- It is this party life that creates new risks for sexual harassment that scholars need to more fully integrate into their theoretical frameworks of gender-based power in employment settings in order to comprehensively understand the existing problem here and in related industries more broadly.
Entrepreneurial labour: Female fashion models must engage in networking entrepreneurial labour to obtain employment, keep their jobs, and secure future work, leading to incidents of sexual harassment with both personal and professional consequences, says the study.
- The study, authored by Rutgers Public Policy Professor Jocelyn Elise Crowley, was published in the journal Women's Studies International Forum.
- Deeply rooted in the cultural economy where there are no legal structures to protect its participants from the hazards of sexual harassment, finding modelling work can be a traumatic, sexualised nightmare.
- To assess sexual harassment risks for models while networking, Crowley designed a qualitative content analysis using Instagram data collected by supermodel and activist Cameron Russell.
- In October 2017, an Instagram post by Russell spoke of a young model who said she was assaulted by a male photographer.
- Over the next three days, Russel shared stories from an additional 78 people working in the industry. Respondents' occupations included models, photographers, make-up artists, and a showroom assistant.
- Several individuals offered more than one account for a total of 97 incidents.
What they said:
The most important insight of [this study] is the addition of entrepreneurial labour as one of the chief mechanisms at work in facilitating significant sexual harassment" in the fashion industry. When entrepreneurial labour happens in the form of 'the party life' …sexually harassing behaviour can emerge in an extremely insidious form.
— Jocelyn Elise Crowley
Professor, Edward J Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
Rutgers University-New Brunswick
