Tatiana the Anonymous Model explains at Jezebel (actually now a former model) explains
I worked two months in Australia last year, after agency fees and the rent were deducted, nearly AU$5,000 worth of earnings became AU$690.90. Less than the cost of my airfare, certainly less than the cost of the food and subway passes I’d had to charge during the trip. I left Sydney in November. I didn’t get my $690.90  $413.70, after wire transfer fees and currency conversion  until this April. “At least,” said the agency accountant, “you worked!”
I had to get used to living however, and wherever, I could. Like in a tiny Washington Heights studio. Milan was a single room in a long-stay hotel with a hot plate, a bar fridge, and two other models. I still don’t know how much I paid for that; I was too afraid to ask my booker at Elite Milan.
That sounds about right. What’s wiggy, and what I think helps perpetuate the low wages and, consequently, the high stress, uncertainty, and meager rations that surely lead to “desired” low weights and pasty completions, can be summed up in that line by her booking agent’s reply when she complained about how awful the pay ends up being: “At least you worked!”
Very glamorous.
Submitted by 3075 (not verified) on Tue, 2009-07-21 19:58.
Part of the problem is that too many people want to model, too badly. I don't know the modeling world but I've had some grazing contacts with the film acting one, and conditions and pay for non-union actors suck because there are so many eager kids willing to work for pennies or free. The kids might not be good at the job, but marginal producers (often being suckered themselves into putting up their own time and money because this project is different and special and will totally make their name) don't care. The constant influx of starry-eyed newcomers working on spec and mom's money means that the price on real talent is artificially deflated.
I've been to (worked at, actually, and I'm going to Hell for it) a convention where aspiring models and their parents paid four-digit sums just to get looked at by agents. Can you imagine what this kind of thing does to the labor value of a newcomer who'd like to actually receive money for their work?
Too many people think the attention and glamor itself is the payment, and when they wise up and realize you can't buy groceries with glamor, they're too easily replaced.
Submitted by 3075 (not verified) on Tue, 2009-07-21 20:19.
I don't think, incidentally, that keeping 'em skinny has any relation to the low pay--impoverished people are more likely to live on mac-n-cheese and less likely to afford gym memberships, and besides, the weight requirements in fashion are no secret--why play games when you can just tell someone to her face that she's five pounds away from unemployment?
The exploitation doesn't come from manipulation but from the absolutely insane supply and demand ratio of non-celebrity models.
Submitted by 3075 (not verified) on Tue, 2009-07-21 22:58.
"Part of the problem is that too many people want to model, too badly....and conditions and pay for non-union actors suck because there are so many eager kids willing to work for pennies or free."
Funny. This explains the shameful pay situation in a lot of creative fields, all the way down to the "At least you're working." I'm so sick of this expectation that you ought to be delighted for the opportunity to provide free or nearly free labor because there are 30 people in line behind you if you say "no."
Substitute the word "write" for "model", the word "journalists" for "non-union actors" and you have much of the effects of the financial disarray the news business is in. I have a freakin' master's degree and I'm competing with people ten years younger than I am for unpaid internships. Jobs that pay? I have to compete with people ten years older than I am who have 20 years more experience.
I detest this economy.
Submitted by 3075 (not verified) on Tue, 2009-07-21 23:18.
I'm so sick of this expectation that you ought to be delighted for the opportunity to provide free or nearly free labor because there are 30 people in line behind you if you say "no."
I think the idea is that you should provide free or nearly free labor because you'll do it for the one project that turns out to be a huge sleeper hit and it'll make your name. And once you've got a name the supply and demand ratio is totally reversed, because the supply of Brad Pitt is exactly one so he can set his price.
It's lottery odds, but that's the dream that keeps fresh meat flowing in.
[Agreed with you and TLT, Holly. Lines like "at least you're working" have been current since at least the bad old days of Madison Avenue and extend through acting (yup), art, athletics, music, modeling as in this example, etc. And TLT's right that interning, which was a blazingly cool idea when it first emerged for non-doctors back in the 1970s, has become a way to extend the practice into all manner of professions. Oh, and as for the mac-n-cheese vs low pay? I was factoring in the stress and uncertainty which, while not always likely to keep one gaunt, nevertheless keep *enough* people gaunt that there's a steady supply. Uggh! Thanks! --fl]