Are they casting models, or snuff porn victims?

Bareface talent agency, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has chosen a weird way to promote its services. These ads, by Livingroom, appeared on Ads of The World over the weekend, and I'm still bothered enough by them to post here. 

Yes, I get the idea of the models being pulled every which way by fashion industry objects as representing being "in demand". But this is the freaking UAE. Women are already treated like chattel there. Accordig to Amnesty, "women in the United Arab Emirates continue to suffer the impact of discriminatory laws and practices which affect most aspectsof their life, including marriage and the choice of marriage partner, dissolution of marriage and child custody, and inheritance." Not to mention the threat of being arrested for adultery if they are victims of rape.

Not to mention the danger of foreign models being scammed and abused by unscrupulous recruiters. Or trafficked into prostitution.

So why have the models looking like they are being strangled? Even if unintentionally violent, these images are really not the best way to promote a more westernized fashion industry.

The Models are Revolting!

Well, not really. They're just organizing.


The Model Alliance Video Campaign from The Model Alliance on Vimeo.



Not quite a union, it seems, but a not-for-profit advocacy group that lets models report violations of labour laws and worse.

Here are The Model Alliance's goals:

1. Provide access to affordable health care.
2. Promote greater financial transparency.
3. Ensure that existing child labor laws are enforced.
4. Establish a grievance and enforcement system for issues of sexual harassment.
5. Draft a code of conduct that sets industry-wide standards for castings, shoots and shows.

They've even drafted a modelling bill of rights. It's a good idea. Even the minor-league models I've known over the years have been subject to poor working conditions and sexual harassment.

Sure, you might think of awful supermodels and be unmoved. But think of the thousands of anonymous men, women, boys and girls who are chewed up and spit out by an industry that is the very definition of superficiality. They could use a rescue network.

Via Jezebel

Homeschooled child is a puppet against equal marriage

What a bizarre thing this is. With no visual, and prompted by some creepy-sounding dude, a 14-year-old girl reads what seems to be a prepared statement (you can hear the paper script crinkling in her hands) asking Maryland legislators to vote against equal rights for same-sex couples.



Manipulating kids for political ends. Nice one.

Iranian actress banished for boobies

Golshifteh Farahani is an Iranian actress who has appeared in Western movies with Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe and Isabella Rossellini.

But most recently, she has become known as the latest woman from the Muslim world to be condemned for daring to bare her body for art.

Barely, that is.  She appeared partially nude in Jean-Baptiste Mondino's 'Corps et Âmes' (below) as well as in the French magazine Madame Le Figaro (above).




No big deal, right? Not in Iran.

From The Telegraph:

"The Paris-based actress left Iran last year in protest against restrictive Islamic codes that the Iranian cinema industry has to follow under Ahmadinejad's conservative cultural policies.

Now she said the government has sent a communication telling her not to travel back to her homeland.

"I was told by a Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guide official that Iran does not need any actors or artists. You may offer your artistic services somewhere else", Farahani said."

Following the Nude Photo Revolutionary scandal in Egypt,  I continue to wonder if these individual acts of protest are any indication of a simmering desire for sexual revolution among the women of the conservative Muslim world. If it is, I wish them well.