18. Jan. 2022 um 20:58
Noch ein Throwback ins Jahr 2015 - ich lese gerade, zusammen mit anderen, das Buch Transgender Marxism von 2021. Dabei fiel mir ein alter Text über Germany's Next Topmodel und Girl Culture wieder ein.
Es ist ein Paper, das ich beim Stream Radical Transfeminism bei der LCCT 2015 in London vorgestellt habe. Der Stream wurde von Mijke van der Drift, Chryssy Hunter und Nat Raha organisiert und deren sorgfältiges Kuratieren machte radikale Gedanken und inspirierenden Austausch möglich. Auch die Politics of Space, die am Anfang jedes Panels verlesen wurden, sind interessant. Dort wurden z.B. Gespräche über Toiletten und Pronomen von der Konferenz verbannt, weil diese zu basic sind um bei einer radical transfeminist Debatte Raum einzunehmen.
Mein Englisch war sehr deutsch, aber die Inhalte ballern in jeder Sprache:
The mother to one participant describes her daughter’s desire: „She says she was not born to work, she was born to model.“ This person was put on earth to be seen, recognised, honoured and respected, without having to work for it. The dream: I do not have to earn my own existence.
Look at my exterior and see me. But the exterior that we are talking about requires work. Work that the worker must hide. The exterior that is beauty, that is work, that cannot look like work.
The participating women have educated and prepared themselves at home and on their own. Many have been training walking and posing in the hallway of their parents’ homes for years . Many go to the gym, buy makeup and cosmetics and hair dye. Some loose a lot of weight. Some get gender-reassignment surgery. Some get a nose job. The work never ends. The models have learned to perform their genders, in order for them to be recognised on television. There are no student loans or bachelor degrees and not even a letter of recommendation for this education. The work of a model is hardly seen as work, even though it is, as most feminised labour, a full-time job.
The current season promises 100 000 Euros in cash plus a contract with the modeling agency ONEeins management, run by Heidi Klums father. Quite a few GNTM winners have sued against their contract with ONEeins in the past because the management had exploited them.
For those, who do not win, the show is nothing more than an a publicly broadcast internship, while the production company, the TV channel prosieben and the celebrity judges gain a lot of money from their unpaid interning workers. If a model’s job is hardly seen as an actual job, the person interning for that job is even less likely to receive payment and recognition for their work.