The last 25 years have seen India’s modelling industry boom. In her new book,
Mannequin: Young Working Women in India’s Glamour Industry, researcher and writer Manjima Bhattacharjya looks beyond the glitz to examine the struggles and dreams of those on the catwalk, using the lens of feminism. She tells us how the profession offers a new kind of social mobility to women across the country.
You say that modelling is often not even recognised as ‘real work’. Do women in this profession get a raw deal as a result?Many things women spend time and labour doing are not considered ‘work’ and, therefore, not valued. The perception is that modelling is easy work — just an extension of dressing up, breezing down a ramp, and posing for pictures. The odd hours, the enterprise and networking that models have to put into building themselves as a brand, and the hard work of maintaining the physical appearance that their livelihood depends on is ignored. So when they ask for better conditions — as an Indian models’ union set up in 2003 wanted — such as timely wages, professional contracts, redressal for sexual harassment — this perception becomes a real barrier because people are not ready to listen, as they don’t consider this ‘real work’ in the first place.
You interviewed models from four generations, from the 1970s to the 2000s. What differences did you find in their stories?In the 1970s and 1980s, women who participated in beauty pageants had usually been “spotted” by someone and asked to model or requested by magazine editors at the time to join beauty pageants. They had to be cajoled and convinced to do this. On the other hand, from the mid-1990s, women started voluntarily coming forward to participate in such events, and trying to join the industry in much greater numbers. The backgrounds of the women were also different. Earlier it was mostly women from Bombay or Delhi, often Anglo-Indian or westernised. From the 1990s, many more young women from across India, including small towns and different socio-economic backgrounds, began to join the industry. In a way, it was more democratised.
What attracts young girls to model hunts and beauty contests? Is it purely the glamour?These girls are trying to maximise their lives, like all of us. In many cases, they are trying to optimise what they have — a good height, or the way they look — to make it work for them and give them a career option. You don’t need a degree necessarily to join this occupation (in theory) and that opens up a door for all kinds of girls. The money is important. Several of the girls I interviewed had other dreams — to go to college, to be a doctor or lawyer — but they were not able to fulfill these ambitions for various reasons, like families not having the resources. Several others were drawn by the glamour and the lifestyle, but realised quickly that it was actually a lot of hard work behind the scenes. Others want to be part of a creative field like fashion, and feel this offers them a way to express themselves.
Is there a bias against small-town girls?I found that women from rural areas, whose English-speaking skills and grooming were weak, faced an inherent class bias. Of course, there are exceptions too.
Despite financial independence, you say, models often lack respectability and dignity. What are the reasons for this social stigma?People have a judgmental and moralistic attitude to women working outside the home in general. They want to know why you come home late at night, who you come with, why you’re wearing what you’re wearing, why you travel so much. This is amplified in the case of women models. People assume they are ‘fast’ and not ‘good girls’ because their job involves presenting themselves in public, wearing different kinds of clothes and posing sensually, as the advertising industry often requires women to do. This unfair assumption negatively impacts their lives.
Have there been any changes in the fashion world in light of the growing discussions around body positivity and diversity?From what we see on the ramp, it doesn’t seem so — girls are still of a certain height, weight and look. Sometimes, the wider market trends determine the kind of models that are more in demand — dusky or of a certain body type or look. Yet, the internet has been a game changer. It is no longer just the big fashion magazines that are creating the norms around fashion and glamour. With blogs, zines, Instagram accounts of all kinds that embrace and celebrate all body types, skin colours, gender and sexual diversity, there are so many more kinds of people authoring the discourse of fashion and aesthetics.
Why do you call your book Mannequin? Aren’t the girls more than just clotheshorses?A girl called Mayuri told me about the time she was pricked by a pin during a fitting for an outfit. Even as she bled, she and the designer and everyone present were more concerned about getting her out of the dress so it would not be stained, rather than asking her if she was okay. This bothered me because it made me realise that for many, the model is just a mannequin, not a flesh-and-blood human being. And that, for the client, the dress was more important than her.
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