The 's Secret Model By Cameron Russell

In Susan Griffin’s work titled “Our Secret”, she discusses the relationship between the present-day and the earlier life of different people. She also compares the private and public lives of other people. Her piece is set during World War Two in the 1940s. Throughout the entire piece, Griffin compares the lives of people evolved in World War Two, people who were affected by the war, and her own life. She shows how even though they lived separate lives, they are still closely related.

Throughout the essay “Our secret” by Susan Griffin, Griffin talks about a few characters’ fears, secrets and she gives us insights into these “secrets”. Griffin comes to realize her own secrets and fears by examining others. She relates to a few of the characters such as Himmler, Leo, Helene and everyone else even though she is different than all of them. The only thing that all of these characters have in common is that they all represent human emotion. Susan Griffin reveals that everyone has a hidden side to them and anything being showed on the outside could be fake or a false representation of themselves. “I think of it now as a kind of mask, not an animated mask that expresses the essence of an inner truth, but a mask that falls like dead weight over the human face.” (Griffin 237) This quote explains what she means about secrets being the barrier to others’ feelings and having this mask hides what you really feel on the inside.

A particular question that is seldom pondered over and yet is capable of carrying so many doubts within it: who are we? Who are we as a society who can do the things we do? Who are we who can suffer from them? Award winning poet and essayist Susan Griffin confronts these distinct questions in her work titled, “Our Secret”. Griffin believes that a basic understanding of the things that play a part in the growth of an individual is essential to understanding who we are. The way a child is raised dictates how that child is going to become later on in life. One of the distinct highlights of Griffin’s essay was her use of describing the progress of the V1 rockets in World War II. Griffin studies the aspects of human nature by using these missile developments as a metaphor to symbolize the raising of children and the factors that can influence a growing individual. One of the prime figures that Griffin uses pertaining to these growing individuals was Heinrich Himmler, leader of the Nazi secret police. Griffin uses Himmler as an example to demonstrate how big of a role a parental figure can play in the development of a person.

IntroductionBusinesses in today's world raise many ethical issues and it is important to understand which actions are right and which ones are wrong. In this report the focus will be placed on an article about models working in the fashion industry. It explains how models are being mistreated and exploited in many ways which include sexual harassment, lack of rights, overworking and having to face dangerous situations such as taking drugs which include cocaine in order to stay thin. The article also mentions that models enter the industry as young as 13 years of age and definitely need protection from this exploitation.

Imagine you are bored one day in the early morning. You reach for your favorite magazine, the newest edition of the widely recognized Vogue magazine. On the cover, as always, there is a gorgeous woman. She is dressed in a gold, sparkly, dress (which probably costs more than what you make in a year) and in even more expensive and fancy heels. Her hair and makeup are obviously professionally done, and she looks absolutely beautiful sprawled out on a large bed provocatively with a rabbit on either side. And then you realize something, this isn’t a women you are looking at; it’s a girl - a 10 year old at that! (“10-Year Old Vogue Model: Pretty or Pretty Weird?”).

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be the center of attention? Cameron Russell, the speaker of, “Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model,” related to this in every shape and form. According to Russell, she is pretty because in her industry pretty is defined by being a tall beautiful white woman. She is what every little girl dreams of being. In Cameron Russel’s ted talk she states that she gets things she doesn’t deserve because she is a beautiful, stunning white woman.

Moving forward, Dyer begins to unpack the active/passive concept of images of models. Often male models are caught in the act doing hegemonically masculine things such as: baseball, mowing the lawn, grilling, painting, etc. When not caught in the act, the male model contorts his body in a way that shows off his muscles and emphasizes the potential for action. In contrast, women never do an action. They’re always sitting on a stool waiting for people to look at her. To look is to be active and to be looked at is to be passive. Men must remove any sense of passivity in their pose and look to continue to uphold their masculine identities.

Never, never, never will I be the “ideal” perfection of the magazine models as much as I wish, my mind has been brainwashed and jumbled to believe that is the only way to be attractive. (e) I am I and what would the world be without I?(e) I want to escape reality and everyone’s judgement, but I also long for the ability to alter people’s judgmental

Under society’s customs for decades, young women have found themselves immersed in the pressure and anticipation to have exemplary bodies. Nearly every young woman prefers to be slim, have a perfectly shaped body, that is beautified by applying pounds of makeup to their face but does not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these measures imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model on the cover of Vogue being called flawless, naturally it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the that model. These companies produce magazine covers shown with girls’ images daily. As if keeping the perfect body wasn’t hard enough, our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of composition, however, body image is a surging subject for young girls. Advertisements and pictures of lean female models are all over. Young women are measured and perplexed by their physical appearances with attire intended to raise their physical structures; social media, magazines, the society, marketing campaigns, advertisements, and the fashion gurus add to a strand of excellence.

The Secret is a book by Rhonda Byrne is  is based on the law of attraction and the idea that thoughts can change the world directly. My grandmother introduced me to this book this past week and the philosophy has completely changed the way I view the world. Another way to explain The Secret, is that what you put out into the world will come back to you. This applies to both positive and negative thoughts, actions, and words.  If you continue to believe a certain activity will be terrible, you won't have an open mind and the experience will be negative. If you have an open mind, and are positive about the future, you're more likely going to be happy with the results that come to you.

The fashion industry plays a huge role in portraying bad images of ideal beauty, which in turn affects today’s society perception of their own body image. Not only are women affected by what is seen and heard about how the perfect body should appear, children of young ages are now feeling insecure and obsessed with their bodies before they reach teenage years. This ‘ideal image’ the fashion industry continues to enforce only focuses on very thin models who seem to be in shape and are very healthy. Furthermore, many people think of the influence from the fashion industry as being human representations (models). Because of the rising problem with the image of beauty within the fashion industry, it is shown that even mannequins and non-human representations (mannequins, dolls, photoshopping) of bodies play a significant role in women’s body image; which causes problems to the individual. (Anshutz & Engels, 2010). Body image and self-satisfaction, eating disorders and non-human representations all can cause harm to the individual, if prolonged.

Fashion is everything to society and the media, but everyone wants to look good while feeling beautiful in their own way. Everyone believes that fashion is an easy, fashionable, and sophisticated style. Today, the modeling industry has become negative for older and younger women. The people in the industry do not prefer unhealthy body images such as pictures of overweight women. Women suffer from depression and anxiety. The modeling industry has been very harmful towards women in America. It effects women by not achieving a healthy, being strong, and confident body image regardless of shape and size.

When Victoria’s Secret is allowed to have models prance around on screen but Lane Bryant Ads (lingerie for plus size women) is banned then there’s a problem. The media is portraying these models who are thin to the point where it is unhealthy. And the media is feeding society lies. A perfect example is of Gerran Tyler. Tyler was a 12 year old supermodel. She walks the run way for clients like Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, and Betsey Johnson. She’s tall, thin, the perfect model because she hasn’t hit puberty yet. She walked during New York Fashion Week and posed for these designer brands advertisements. This body type is unachievable for almost all adult women (Roberts). Somebody in their twenties or thirties doesn’t have the ability to look like a twelve year old girl, but this is how these designers are telling us to look. Tyler had an amazing career and high expectations but the fame didn’t last long. As she got older and hit puberty she began to develop boobs, hips, and curves. She began getting less and less bookings. Her supermodel career was virtually over. “Eighty percent of 10-year-old American girls say they have been on a diet” and the, “Number one magic wish for young girls 11-17 is to be thinner” (Missrepresentation). This self-esteem problem with young girls is a result of these unobtainable ideas of beauty. Jennifer Siebel, creator of the documentary Missrepresentation, says

A large contributing factor to this problem is that many people in the fashion world encourage the use of overly thin models in editorials and fashion shows. For example, as Kathryn Shattuck, What's On Today: [The Arts/Cultural Desk], mentions that Kelly Cutrone, world renowned fashion publicist, encourages, “Clothes look better on thin people. The fabric hangs better” (1). The fashion industry’s emphasis on being thin and its use of extremely underweight models in unacceptable. Many people would agree that the fashion industry plays the majority role in eating disorders, but Lisa Hilton, British Vogue writer, disagrees. Hilton argues, “Its objective is selling clothes, and the consensus remains that in order to achieve this, models need to be thin . . . Fashion is about fantasy, about impossibility, about, dare we say it, art. Most women can’t tell the difference” (1). Hilton condescendingly continues to refute the criticisms that models are too thin and the fashion industry encourages eating disorders.

Every single day when I wake up in the morning, one of the first things I do is look at myself in the mirror. Am I skinny enough? Is my skin clear enough? Do I look like the girl from the magazine I was reading yesterday? No. I don’t. But I’ll keep asking these questions each and everyday because that is what the media tells me I need to look like. Because if my waist isn’t small enough I’m not pretty. Because if I have cellulite on my legs there’s something wrong with me. Because if I don’t slot into this unattainable standard. I'm not beautiful. Airbrushing and photoshopping models in pictures to display through media is something that frankly speaking is appalling. We are alienating beautiful human beings because of the media’s dictations on what we should look like. I am sick of being brainwashed to the point where all I can ever seem to do is single out the ‘flaws’ in myself. If we display, real, beautiful, raw pictures of people in media then so many problems caused by this would no longer exist.