The Dark Side of Modeling
The Dark Side of Modeling
With its estimated annual revenue of $1.5 billion in the US and the global fashion industry valued at over $2.5 trillion, the industry offers significant financial potential.
**********Trigger Warning**********
CSA, SA
Trafficking-
Across the world, vulnerable young people fall into human trafficking when the promise of a successful modeling career proves too tempting to resist.
“The lack of transparency, the power imbalance, the vulnerability of these mostly young, immigrant women, it’s a recipe for exploitation. "
Traffickers use their skills in the art of deception to make false promises to those seeking a way out of poverty. The traffickers know people will accept offers of work, seeing it as an opportunity to improve their own lives and support their families.
Human trafficking- The act of recruiting, moving or harboring a person, either by use of force, deception or coercion for the purpose of exploitation and financial gain.
Debt Bondage- A control method used to keep people trapped in a trafficking situation long term. People are forced to work to repay a real or perceived debt incurred through their travel or employment.
Anita Teekah- brings over a decade of advocacy experience in issues including refugee and migrant rights, human trafficking and economic justice with Amnesty International USA. She says:
But within the fashion industry overall, we’ve seen trafficking and we’ve seen exploitation. We see it in the apparel industry, with the making of garments. We see it in modeling. We see it in the picking of cotton, to the creation of the thread and the silk, to sewing the T-shirts. And so, the more people you have involved, the more opaque it becomes to see who is doing what, who is responsible for what and where does the ultimate liability lie.
Marco Werman: Have you seen sex traffickers posing as modeling scouts before [the Epstein trafficking ring]? Or modeling scouts doing things that you thought counted as sex trafficking?
Anita Teekah: We have had clients who were enticed through modeling recruiters and either they had a lot of exploitation of trafficking within the modeling industry as models or they were sex trafficked after thinking they were going to enter into the modeling industry.
And how common is this kind of deal?
We don’t have hard numbers on how many individuals are currently being trafficked or exploited within the modeling industry. A lot of human trafficking individuals don’t self-identify as human trafficking individuals because they don’t know that what they’re experiencing is actually human trafficking. And so this can be in the form of being trafficked and forced to provide labor as a model or to be forced to engage in commercial sexual activity.
If you’re recruited though, to model, how are you then forced to model?
So, for example, you might find that if you were told you would have eight-hour work days and you would have rest periods and you would earn say, $1,000 a week, you might find that you’re asked to work 16-18 hours a day, you don’t earn the amount that you were told you would earn and you’re not given adequate food or other nutrients in order to survive. And so, the working conditions that you’re promised versus what you’re actually presented with once you engage in the work can be two very, very different things.
Got it. What part of the world do these victims tend to be from?
So it really depends. But it tends to be Eastern Europe or Mexico, Central America.
To give an idea of where models are recruited-
“...Girls are just sent there, they have no clue, they don’t speak the language, so it’s horrific.”
We learn that girls are pressured to find a way to make back their debt, or need to financially support themselves, which is when modeling can turn into escorting, with men paying to spend time with models. A London model, Jazz Egger, reported that “‘big agencies’ and ‘established models’ are involved in seedy underground dealings, with young women paid up to $2 million (£1.54million) to spend the night with male clients. “The girls think they are models but it can become prostitution.
Porn-
“Some girls just want to be models […] They see amazing magazines and beautiful girls, they want to have that life, and live that dream […] “They hope to be a star, a supermodel, in a magazine or in the fashion show of a big designer.
If that glamorous career doesn’t happen, or the profession wasn’t what the dreamer imagined, they might be introduced to other opportunities. Meggan Mallone (or Powers) is an outgoing, green-eyed brunette who is 5'8'" tall with a slender and athletic body. Once a cheerleader at Houston's Lamar High School, she parlayed her all-American good looks into assignments as a mainstream fashion model in Houston before she decided to visit L.A. Shortly after she arrived in California she was invited to pose for glamor photographers such as Steven Hicks and Earl Miller. She met her agent John Stevens at that time and he showed her photos to Vivid Entertainment director B. Skow.
Vivid Entertainment immediately offered her an exclusive contract with the company. I couldn’t find the reason Meggan switched career fields, whether she failed to get substantial work as a fashion model or was tricked and coerced into adult entertainment. But I can show you she perhaps had a better chance to make more money in porn (31 movies are listed on her IMDb page).
Modeling salaries can vary depending on the type of modeling, experience level, and brand:
- As of June 27, 2024, the average hourly pay for a model in the United States was $45.71 [95,077/year].
- Remember we discussed in ‘pre-B’ new models can end up owing money for travel, housing, and expenses
- all the way up to earning 25 million as a supermodel [Victoria’s Secret Angel status]).
- Well over 400 to 500” model applicants are hoping to land one of the coveted 45 spots.
- According to Victoria’s Secret Chief Marketing Officer Edward Razik, fewer than 100 women in the world have the potential to be a Victoria’s Secret model.
The determining factor is the sex act performed and whether the actress has done that act on camera before. “When the girls first get into the business and they’re new, I think they can command additional money for different sex acts,” said Steven Hirsch, owner of Vivid, one of the biggest adult entertainment studios. “Initially they make more money, then it depends on how popular they become.” Here’s how things break down:
- According to Glassdoor, the estimated total pay range for an Adult Entertainer at Vivid Entertainment is $58K–$106K per year [$27.88/hr-$50.96/hour].
- Glassdoor reports the average Adult Entertainer base salary at Vivid Entertainment is $78K per year [$37.50/hr].
- For a “traditional” sex scene between a man and a woman, the average actress’ compensation is typically between $800 and $1,000, depending on the studio’s budget.
- Newcomers with bad representation might earn as little as $300.
- While top-tier performers can earn as much as $1,500, occasionally $2,000.
- More extreme acts, as you might expect, command higher rates.
- The most extreme — unsuitable for describing in polite conversation — can go for $1,800 to $2,500.
Many modeling hopefuls do not go consensually into sex work. For her TV series, Delina interviewed and collected stories from women who had been exploited. “They are promised modeling jobs, but it’s not a modeling job, it’s something else […] People are selling people […] People are being sold and girls are being used and abused, all in the name of the modeling fashion industry. There isn’t much being done to tackle trafficking in the modeling industry said Delina.”
CNN also reported on a case where several young women were so desperate for modeling work that they fell victim to a fake business that allegedly drugged them and used them to create pornographic films. Campos Puello targeted young girls from poor backgrounds who were lured under the pretense of working as models. She allegedly helped them with documentation and funded their expenses, under the guise they had modeling opportunities. On arrival, they were stripped of their documents and belongings and forced into prostitution.
Delina remembers one story in which a young girl was trafficked from rural Amhara in the North, to Ethiopia’s capital city Addis Ababa. She was offered a role in a movie but was told she would be required to finance her role and contribute funds into the film production. Although from a disadvantaged background, her family sold their house so she could achieve her dream of becoming a model or an actress, in the hope the investment would pay off. However, the reality was not what she was promised. She had been tricked. She was sexually abused by members of the fake production team. The film was never made and was never intended to be.
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