
Emily Ratajkowski on Reclaiming Her Own Image - prostoalex
https://www.thecut.com/article/emily-ratajkowski-owning-my-image-essay.html
======
tomcam
Beautifully written and horrifying. Took me a few tries because it was so
close to home.

I am one of those lucky dudes who was raped and beaten at a very young age and
gaslit in many of the same ways as she describes. Ended up with what they now
call body dysmorphia.

If you aren’t raised that way then how she reacts to bad situations probably
feels nonsensical at best and alien at worst. But when you’re assured from a
very young age that your grasp of reality is fundamentally wrong then it’s
easy to derive whole chains of logic where each successive choice compounds
earlier bad decisions.

------
myself248
It's still bizarre to me that clicking a shutter button is a "creative
process" but being the subject of the photograph gives you no rights
whatsoever. I've been on both sides of the lens and there has to be a better
balance than we've struck in this country.

------
rasz
Imagine finding a rock in the stream when you are ~10. Rock so beautiful you
become center of attention everywhere you show it. Soon enough you start
wearing it as necklace. People stop you in the street to strike conversations,
take pictures, offer presents. Life is good, everything is easy. No
roadblocks, no queues, no entry exams, all because of something you found as a
child. You start to get paid for just standing still while people photograph
your pet rock. Obviously you drop out of uni, uni is for lesser people. You
dont need education, you dont need skills, you have your pendant, you are set
for life!

With time you start to get jealous of people taking pictures. Its your rock!
how come they get paid for its image? You are angry because someone managed to
capture the side with slight blemish. It gets insane to the point you drop
$80K on a picture of your own rock, so you can stand next to it for double the
rockiness.

You learn rocks erode after a while. The horror of losing the only thing you
ever had going for you finally hits hard. Its so unfair, you were supposed to
coast on the cloud for eternity. Maybe there could be some legal avenues you
could explore to exploit all of those photos of your rock after all? Will
someone think of the poor rock owners?

------
dillondoyle
The fashion industry has huge problems. environmental damage and carbon cost
of cheap throw away garments. slave/exploitative labor. copying. And so much
more than Emily's story of huge problems perpetrated by a male dominated
industry.

It's kind of shocking how big the male/female power differential is in both
the number of men employed and the amount of power they have.

If you view fashion (especially photography) as art you can see parallels
especially the high end fine art world. Gagosian was alluded to in the
article.

If you're interested in learning more I highly recommend following Diet Prada
and their new paid content!

They cover rape culture, racism, blatant copying (diet prada..), the
environmental impact and more.

[https://www.instagram.com/p/CFLJvGKHPc5/](https://www.instagram.com/p/CFLJvGKHPc5/)

I'd also highly recommend reading the Diet Prada post which has a lot of
comments and the disgusting misogynistic attacks from Imperial Publishing -
the company that published a book of Polaroid's from one of the instances she
details in her story.

They said "We are all deeply disturbed to read Ms. Ratajkowski’s latest
(false) statements to NY Mag in her never-ending search for press and
publicity,” the rep said. “Of course Mr. Leder totally denies her outrageous
allegations of being ‘assaulted.’ It is grotesque and sad that she is so
vindictive to lie in such a way to the press routinely.”

