A New Model by Ashley Graham

Author:Ashley Graham
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780062667960
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-04-05T04:00:00+00:00

chapter 5

Taking Cover

Good enough for the “fat girl” is not good enough for me or you. Take charge of your own destiny by claiming it.

I was in Texas in the spring of 2010, on my way to do a catalog shoot for JCPenney, when I received this text from my friend:

“Your boobs are all over page two of The New York Post.”

“What???” I texted back immediately.

He replied with a picture of me in the red, lacy bra I had worn for the recent Lane Bryant commercial, with a headline proclaiming, “Banned-ad model: ABC is a big bust.”

Filming my national commercial had been one of the highlights of my career. In the clip, I am trying on a bunch of frilly bra and panty sets and frolicking in a gorgeous mansion until I get a reminder on my phone to “meet Dan for lunch.” So, like any girl would, I slip a trench coat over my red bra and panties and, with nothing more on, head out for “lunch.” I’m no Meryl Streep, but I had so much fun acting in that commercial.

The ad, though, had been banned from running during prime time viewing hours by both ABC and FOX, which is why the Post had done a story in which I was quoted saying, “I was very surprised. [ABC] can’t handle bigger on TV, bigger boobs on a normal-sized woman on TV.”

The networks had a different story. The reason they provided for banning the ad was that the commercial was too risqué. Sure, it was full of innuendo (ahem, “lunch”), but within the context of television’s contemporary landscape, my Lane Bryant spot was pretty harmless, if not kinda cute. So what was really going on here? What were those networks really reacting to? The “girls” (aka my boobs).

Nobody ever told me this directly, but it became obvious to me that in the minds of network executives, a size 16–18 woman in lingerie was just too much to show during family hour. As I told the Post, Victoria’s Secret had ads featuring its angels in much skimpier lingerie and in much more compromising positions all over prime time, so it was my shape that made me overtly “sexual.” Nobody told me this was true; I was just going off my own experience as a woman. When I went through puberty and got curves, I immediately attracted male attention. And the bigger the curves got, the more attention I got.

If you put a model who doesn’t have much boob, butt, or hips in the tiniest bra and underwear, she can still appear—I don’t know—girl-like, fashionable, artful, I guess. But take voluptuous women like me, and put us in any type of lingerie . . . and we’re immediately thrust into the amazon category. The curves of our bodies. Everything is just out there in full view.

There’s a lot of cultural theory by people way more educated than I am about the cultural and sexual implications of the female form, whether thin or thick.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.