Emily Ratajkowski opened up about the cost of fame in a candid essay from her new book, _ My Body_. In the essay, titled "Transactions," the supermodel details a series of encounters with shady men and talks openly about the "indecent proposals" she faced at the beginning of her career.
An excerpt of the essay was published over the weekend by The Guardian, with Ratajkowski announcing the feature on social media.
"This essay chronicles my uncomfortably ambiguous transactions with wealthy men," she wrote on Instagram on Saturday, adding: "It also details the way I learned to withhold judgement [sic] of the women who take advantage of these kinds of interactions."
Details below.
Paid To Hang Out With Wealthy Men
Titled "Crooks, creeps and indecent proposals," the Guardian article aims to unravel the cost of fame for young models on their road to professional affirmation, as gleaned from Ratajkowski’s personal experience. In the essay excerpt, the model, actor, entrepreneur and writer recounts a couple of episodes in which she was paid to hang out with wealthy men who — as The Guardian puts it — "were desperate to be seen with women like her."
Her tales describe being paid $ 25,000 to attend the 2014 Super Bowl with Jho Low, the Malaysian billionaire at the center of the 1MDB scandal, and introduce the reader to the dubious world of party promoters who "wrangle models" for the company of their clients.
"They always start the nights off with a big dinner, so that girls who aren’t making much cash come for a free meal," Ratajkowski reveals in the essay, through the words of a fellow model.
‘Free’ Trip To Coachella
In another episode, Ratajkowski gives a disturbing account about being offered “a free trip to Coachella, including tickets to the festival, a place to stay and a ride out to the desert in a limo bus.”
“Just the year before I’d driven there with my best friend and spent two nights sleeping in my Nissan with the seats laid flat, parked in a hotel lot. It had been fun, but now I could be in the VIP section and the front row at the concerts,” she writes, adding: “The prospect made me feel grown up.”
Ratajkowski held nothing back as she detailed being offered drugs and the lewd glances she and other models were given by men in their 40s who had invited them there.
“I could not sleep that night. I’d felt safer sleeping in my car in a crummy hotel parking lot,” she wrote. “We’d been wrong. This was no free ride.”
Clubbing With 40-Year-Old Men
Prior to the Coachella experience, Ratakjowki recounts being invited to clubs to party with older men “around the age of 40.” At the time, she and the other models involved in the story were around 19 and 20.
“At the club, the men kept offering us cocaine, which they snorted with their backs to the dancefloor. They ordered bottles of alcohol that arrived with sparkling flames, grabbed our bodies and fed us shots, sang along to the music and pumped their fists in the air. “
In her Instagram post about the Guardian article, the supermodel, who is now 30, also shared a few bikini snaps of herself taken by the modeling agency around that time, given below.
The essay also describes being eyed by a prince in a Jacuzzi while in her bikini, and asked: “What do you want to change about your body? Like, what’s the thing you’re hung up on?”
The Super Bowl Story
Returning to the Super Bowl story, Ratajkowski details how her services had been acquired for several hours during the game, as well as an afterparty she didn’t know about.
“I asked when it would be OK to leave,” she wrote, noting that her then-manager, who had accompanied her as a chaperone, wanted them to stay "a few more hours.”
“I’d been reminded: I was not free to come and go as I liked. I was on the clock,” she continued.
Wanting Male Validation
Elsewhere in the book, Ratajkowski does a candid introspection about wanting male validation and “the dangers of being desired,” as reported by CNN Style.
"I wasn’t just famous; I was famously sexy, which, in many ways, felt gratifying," she writes in an essay titled “Blurred Lines,” after the Robin Thicke song and music video that propelled her to fame in 2013.
Speaking to CNN Style, Ratajkowski explains: “For me, this book was about talking about the moments where women can be very vulnerable, and the power dynamics that are often concealed. That’s what I really would like to see: more of a conversation around those power dynamics."
Carving Out Control
My Body also details several instances of sexual assault throughout Ratajkowski’s modeling career and speaks of the industry’s unhealthy obsession with weight loss, detailing how she only started to get work after dropping 10 pounds in a week due to a bad bout of stomach flu.
"I’ve found ways to carve out control where I can, and that’s been really helpful to me," the Inamorata Woman owner told CNN Style. "The industry really teaches you that you’re replaceable, and that the less agreeable you are, the less likely you are to be hired. That felt very scary when I was a young model doing it for money. But the other thing is that I’m in a different position. Now, I’m not an unknown model."
Ratajkowski: 'I Am Complicit'
Throughout the book, Ratajkowski delves into the double-edged nature of capitalizing on her body and image, exploring both the feelings of empowerment and vulnerability that come with it.
"I mean, I am complicit," she explained. "But I also think it’s a mistake to shame a young woman for wearing a tight dress because she wants to be noticed by someone powerful. I don’t think that we should continue to criticize women for saying, ‘This is how I can succeed and capitalize off of my image or my body.’ That is an extension of the same misogyny I’ve seen so much in my life. We are all complicit."
]]>The Inquisitr
