TopNews reports on the latest struggle for the rights of man in the City of Light.
A huge number of models in Paris, who pose in the buff and perform as muses for artists, took to the streets in a nude march on December 15 to protest the fact that they are not respected or paid enough.
The models went on strike and posed naked in freezing temperatures in front of Paris city hall”s culture department to shame the state, and their demand was a pay increase, proper contracts and, most of all, respect for their craft.
A shivering male model was heard shouting out through a megaphone that the disrespect shown to the models was “proof that something is badly wrong with French society”, while artists, students and art teachers sat sketching them in support.
The protest had started after Paris city hall, which runs an array of life-drawing classes, banned the tradition of the “cornet”, which is a piece of art paper rolled into a cone and passed round for tips as a model gets dressed after class.
The models, who have to survive on a minimum wage with no fixed contracts, holiday pay, security cover or job security, said the tips allowed them to survive.
In France life modelling is widely seen as a serious career choice, and the models wanted to quash the misconception that it was merely something students and retired people did for pocket money.
“This is a craft that should be respected, not just anyone can take their clothes off and hold a pose,” the Guardian quoted Deborah, 28, one of the strike organisers, who has worked as a full-time life model for four years, as saying.
“It is artistic and physically demanding work,” she stated.
cargosquid
I say we stop paying them over here too….
We need some model marches and protests here in the States.
david
Artist models should be paid 25-30 dollars an hour. They are essential in the art world and should be held in high respect.
edo deweert
i have been modeling naked at 8 different post-secondary institutions for a number of years.
doesn’t anyone know it really is all about sex?
i disagree with the tipping pracitice as i do not know the basis for it; if it’s because instructors don’t think the models are not getting paid enough (which is true), i’d say:”stuff it, i do not need, nor want, their charirity”
that leaves performance…what are the criteria for that? is a female model worth more than a male one?……how about endowment….the bigger, the more tips? does that go for males as well as females?
is a strategically placed middle finger worth a huge tio?
gee, i could go on forever
for my experiences and observations as a model, please check in at http://www.themodelundraped.blogspot.com
edo deweert
with the invention of the camera, drawing the human nude became an anomaly
nowadays it’s all about art instructors having instant access to “professionally justified t and a”
i believe the last pornographer without a camera was egon schiele.
edo deweert
so………..has anything changed????
me, well, i am still sporting a semi whenever i model, no complaints…
i refuse to give these people that come only for the t and a the whole thing….let them fantasize, please!
to fantasize while masturbating….is there anything more erotic?
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