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nebraskanwriter's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.0
Speechless. I’ll let the quotes speak for themselves….
“I want to calculate my beauty to protect myself, to understand exactly how much power and lovability I have.”
“I liked to tell friends that the French word for model is mannequin. “So,” I’d say, shrugging, “I’m a mannequin for a living.”
“As the number on my scale went down, the number on my checks had been going up. The agency had taken notice.”
“In my early twenties, it had never occurred to me that the women who gained their power from beauty were indebted to the men whose desire granted them that power in the first place. Those men were the ones in control, not the women the world fawned over. Facing the reality of dynamics at play would have meant admitting how limited my power really was—how limited any woman’s power is when she survives and even succeeds in the world as a thing to be looked at.”
“The stylist, their assistant, the client or the editor, the other models, and sometimes the photographer will stand right in front of you and wait as you strip. You understand that your body is a means for them to accomplish what they’re here to accomplish: to make an image to sell whatever it is they’re selling. They’re in charge of it now, not you. Now hand it over, they seem to say. Your body is why you’re here and we need it. Now.”
“I look down at my body and it doesn’t feel like my own. It feels like something, but not me. They can look at me all they want, because they’re right; my body is just a tool.”
“The world celebrates and rewards women who are chosen by powerful men.”
“I want to calculate my beauty to protect myself, to understand exactly how much power and lovability I have.”
“I liked to tell friends that the French word for model is mannequin. “So,” I’d say, shrugging, “I’m a mannequin for a living.”
“As the number on my scale went down, the number on my checks had been going up. The agency had taken notice.”
“In my early twenties, it had never occurred to me that the women who gained their power from beauty were indebted to the men whose desire granted them that power in the first place. Those men were the ones in control, not the women the world fawned over. Facing the reality of dynamics at play would have meant admitting how limited my power really was—how limited any woman’s power is when she survives and even succeeds in the world as a thing to be looked at.”
“The stylist, their assistant, the client or the editor, the other models, and sometimes the photographer will stand right in front of you and wait as you strip. You understand that your body is a means for them to accomplish what they’re here to accomplish: to make an image to sell whatever it is they’re selling. They’re in charge of it now, not you. Now hand it over, they seem to say. Your body is why you’re here and we need it. Now.”
“I look down at my body and it doesn’t feel like my own. It feels like something, but not me. They can look at me all they want, because they’re right; my body is just a tool.”
“The world celebrates and rewards women who are chosen by powerful men.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Grief, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Medical content, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Body shaming, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Toxic friendship
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