Describing nudity and sexual poses in the modeling industry as "horrible and disgusting," 23-year-old super model Cara Delevingne is saying goodbye to modeling and wants to focus on her acting career. The public reception to her upcoming movie Paper Towns will determine if her decision to transition from the catwalk to the Hollywood red carpet is a wise decision.
In an interview with London's Times, Cara Delevingne talked about the ugly side of the modeling industry, touching on the rampant but mostly unreported sexual harassment and exploitation prevailing in the industry, according to E! Online.
"I am a bit of a feminist and it makes me feel sick. It's horrible and it's disgusting. [We're talking about] young girls. You start when you are really young and you do, you get subjected to...not great stuff," she said in the interview.
She added she is "not doing fashion work anymore."
Being new in the industry when she was just starting in the industry as a teenager, Delevingne said she felt she could not say no even when she was asked to pose in sexually suggestive way. The brutally demanding schedule also took its toll on her health, both physically and emotionally. She recalled to have developed psoriasis, a skin affliction that make-up artists covered with foundation to hide its visible symptoms.
"People would put on gloves and not want to touch me because they thought it was, like, leprosy or something. It is a mental thing as well because if you hate yourself and your body and the way you look, it just gets worse and worse."
Modeling Made Me Shallow
In the interview, Delevingne revealed modeling made her "feel a bit shallow for a while. "It didn't make me grow at all as a human being. And I kind of forgot how young I was ... I felt so old," she was quoted by MTV as saying.
She further explained, "I was, like, fight and flight for months. Just constantly on edge," and even referring to the body-shaming Miley Cyrus recently opened up about from her days as a youth thrust under a spotlight of extreme expectations. "It is a mental thing as well because if you hate yourself and your body and the way you look, it just gets worse and worse," said Delevingne.
In an article written by former model Sara Ziff for The Guardian, she said that "sexual abuse is a pervasive problem." She wrote, "Consider just the last few years: in 2008, fashion designer Anand Jon was found guilty of rape and multiple counts assault on aspiring models, who ranged from 14 to 21 years old. Last year, models began to speak out in numbers against Terry Richardson, one of the industry's most powerful photographers, who has been accused of pressuring models to disrobe at castings and conducting shoots that involve what he claims are consensual sex acts performed on him by models. (Among Richardson's regular clients are H&M, Vogue, and GQ.)"
Ziff continued, "What is worse, in an industry where the majority of models start their careers before age 16, most working unchaperoned and far from home, the incentive to say nothing in order to keep your job creates an unconscionable environment of coercion."
Moving forward, Cara is hopeful that the next chapter in her life will erase the bitterness she felt in the modeling world and eventually give her the happiness she was looking for.
"It didn't make me grow at all as a human being," she said of her life in the fashion world. "And I kind of forgot how young I was. I felt so old. I am very good at standing up for myself now, and for other people. If there is injustice I will flip out. If someone is crossing a line, they will know about it and so will everyone else."
