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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
reflective
fast-paced
An interesting read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Grief, Pregnancy
I’m happy to hear Ratajkowski tell (part of) her story in her own voice. It’s refreshing to see artists, and especially models, try to take back their bodies, voices, images- tangible and otherwise, etc.
A moment that seems to capture so much of what is wrong with the industry (and also its very essence) is when she says she was paid $150 to pose for a shoot and then a couple thousand when the magazine came out. A photo from that shoot would then cost $80,000 later, after some douchebag hung a blown up print in his living room. Gross-but therein lies the issue: being a successful artist requires someone else looking, listening, watching, and capturing your image, your talent. They decide that they like what they see (and so will others $$$$). She only profits off of her body, her writing, her voice if other people decide it can be packaged and sold.
For all of her candidness, I think she struggles to fully clarify and reconcile the conflict & hypocrisy there. How to continue making money off her image without…selling herself.
Maybe she is Jia Tolentino’s “cyborg” in her essay “Athleisure, Barre, and Kale: Tyranny of the Ideal Woman”. In it, Tolentino shows us rebellion in the form of a woman who can admit she is artificial as she continues to build and profit off of her personal brand. I’m not sure how successful either are in their efforts to rebel or reject or change the very system they stay in. In Rata’s case, I think her openly conflicted moments in this collection are of value, nonetheless.
To start this essay collection with beauty lessons she learned in childhood and end it with the birth of her son is a fitting and bold choice. Ratajkowski laments how men see womens’ bodies as a life cycle that starts with sex object and ends with motherhood. This collection doesn’t necessarily change the end of that life cycle, but tries to reframe it. In her last essay, Ratajkowski shows us a mother’s body that is powerful, in charge, aware, trusted, peaceful- everything she felt her body wasn’t before. This ending felt like real, personal resolution for her and other women, even if “the industry” remains broken.
A moment that seems to capture so much of what is wrong with the industry (and also its very essence) is when she says she was paid $150 to pose for a shoot and then a couple thousand when the magazine came out. A photo from that shoot would then cost $80,000 later, after some douchebag hung a blown up print in his living room. Gross-but therein lies the issue: being a successful artist requires someone else looking, listening, watching, and capturing your image, your talent. They decide that they like what they see (and so will others $$$$). She only profits off of her body, her writing, her voice if other people decide it can be packaged and sold.
For all of her candidness, I think she struggles to fully clarify and reconcile the conflict & hypocrisy there. How to continue making money off her image without…selling herself.
Maybe she is Jia Tolentino’s “cyborg” in her essay “Athleisure, Barre, and Kale: Tyranny of the Ideal Woman”. In it, Tolentino shows us rebellion in the form of a woman who can admit she is artificial as she continues to build and profit off of her personal brand. I’m not sure how successful either are in their efforts to rebel or reject or change the very system they stay in. In Rata’s case, I think her openly conflicted moments in this collection are of value, nonetheless.
To start this essay collection with beauty lessons she learned in childhood and end it with the birth of her son is a fitting and bold choice. Ratajkowski laments how men see womens’ bodies as a life cycle that starts with sex object and ends with motherhood. This collection doesn’t necessarily change the end of that life cycle, but tries to reframe it. In her last essay, Ratajkowski shows us a mother’s body that is powerful, in charge, aware, trusted, peaceful- everything she felt her body wasn’t before. This ending felt like real, personal resolution for her and other women, even if “the industry” remains broken.
Truly one of the best memoirs I’ve ever read. Emily ratajkowski’s brilliance and vulnerability shine through in these essays about the commodification of her body. Also highly recommend the audiobook - hearing it read by Emily herself was so powerful.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
informative
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
Listened to on Spotify.
A smart inside look into how this supermodel rose to fame, her family life, and how she has experienced being an object of beauty in the public eye, as well as how she conceived of her beauty from an early age. She is really smart, and this reads oddly academically as a piece on self-worth, body image, sex and beauty, and consent. Does she own her body if its image is the very thing she is selling? There is certainly a feminist power in owning your body yourself and having the freedom to use your body and feel proud about its beauty as well as its sexual nature, but there’s a very fine line to walk between power and promiscuity, between using your body yourself and letting others use it. I think this book is going to be remembered for a long time, perhaps even when/if Emily herself leaves the public eye. I could see this book being read in women’s studies classes and discussed in academic spaces, if it hasn’t been already.
A smart inside look into how this supermodel rose to fame, her family life, and how she has experienced being an object of beauty in the public eye, as well as how she conceived of her beauty from an early age. She is really smart, and this reads oddly academically as a piece on self-worth, body image, sex and beauty, and consent. Does she own her body if its image is the very thing she is selling? There is certainly a feminist power in owning your body yourself and having the freedom to use your body and feel proud about its beauty as well as its sexual nature, but there’s a very fine line to walk between power and promiscuity, between using your body yourself and letting others use it. I think this book is going to be remembered for a long time, perhaps even when/if Emily herself leaves the public eye. I could see this book being read in women’s studies classes and discussed in academic spaces, if it hasn’t been already.