Female models in an American glamour website: geographic distribution, modeling limits and income according to their self presentations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22458/urj.v6i1.308Abstract
ABSTRACT: The American glamour modeling market is the largest in the world and GlamourModels is the main specialized website in the field. We analyzed the 368 profiles of American models published at the site through 2011. The mean age of the models was 27,6 years and they were taller and slimmer that the general female population of the country (mean values: height 1,68m, weight 54kg and waist-to-hip ratio 0,73). From 2001 to 2011 the representation of models in the website expanded from the East to the Central and Western parts of the USA. The number of models in a state can be predicted from its total population size. The state with the most models was California, followed by Texas, New York and Arizona. Only six states were unrepresented at the website in 2011 and all were states with small populations and without large cities. Generally models preferred to work clothed, even if the approach in the clothed categories was more sexual than in the art nude categories. Models might be worried about how their work can affect their social acceptance. They find in glamour modeling a supplementary source of income that can be pursued along with other activities and that offers a relatively high pay.
KEY WORDS modeling, glamour, geography, age, nudity, economy.
References
Attwood, F. (2007). No Money Shot? Commerce, Pornography and New Sex Taste Cultures. Sexualities, 10(4), 441-456.
Bem, D. J. (1967). Self-Perception: An Alternative Interpretation of Cognitive Dissonance Phenomena. Psychological Review, 74, 183-200.
Bock, G. (1983). Racism and Sexism in Nazi Germany: Motherhood, Compulsory Sterilization, and the State. Signs, 8(3), 400-421.
Buss, D. (2009). How Can Evolutionary Psychology Successfully Explain Personality and Individual Differences? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(4), 359- 366.
Coy, M. (2009) Milkshakes, lady lumps and growing up to want boobies: how the sexualisation of popular culture limits girls’ horizons. Child Abuse Review, 18(6), 372-383.
Coy, M., & Garner, M. (2010). Glamour modelling and the marketing of self-sexualization. Critical reflections. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 13 (6), 657-675.
Darwin, C. (1872). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. London, England: John Murray.
Edelman, J. (2013). What Are The Different Types of Modeling? Allentown, Pennsylvania: Joe Edelman Photographics, Inc. Retrieved from www.joeedelman.com/modeling-industry/what-are-the-different-types-of-modeling/
Eklund, L. (2011). Doing gender in cyberspace: The performance of gender by female World of Warcraft players. Convergence, 17(3), 323-342.
Evans, A., Riley, S., & Shankar, A. (2010). Technologies of Sexiness: Theorizing Women’s Engagement in the Sexualization of Culture. Feminism Psychology, 20 (1), 114-13.
Frith, H., Raisborough, J., & Sisterhood, O. K. (2010). Sexuality and the space of the benign in makeover TV. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 13(5), 471-489.
Garner, D.M., Garfinkel, P.E., Schwartz, D., & Thompson, M. (1980). Cultural Expectations of Thinness in Women. Psychological Reports, 47, 483-491.
Gemperli, N. (2010). Fashion World Mapper: Your City on the Trend Radar. M Sc. Thesis, University of the Arts Zurich, Switzerland.
Gill, R. (2008). Empowerment/Sexism: Figuring Female Sexual Agency in Contemporary Advertising. Feminism & Psychology, 18, 35-60.
Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books. Retrieved from http://clockwatching.net/~jimmy/eng101/articles/goffman_intro.pdf
Glass, J., & Jacobs, J. (1998). Childhood Religious Conservatism and Adult Attainment among Black and White Women. Social Forces, 84(1), 555-557
Hansen, C. (1998). Long-term effects of religious upbringing. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 1(2), 91-111.
Kościński, K. (2013) Attractiveness of women’s body: body mass index, waist–hip ratio, and their relative importance. Behavioral Ecology, 24(4), 914-925.
Kwang, T., & Swann, W.B. (2010). Do People Embrace Praise Even When They Feel Unworthy? A Review of Critical Tests of Self-Enhancement Versus Self-Verification. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14(3), 263-280.
Marlowe, F., & Wetsman, A. (2001). Preferred waist-to-hip ratio and ecology. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 481±489.
Marwick, A., & Boyd, D. (2011). To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter. Convergence, 17(2), 139-158.
Monge-Nájera, J., & Vega, K. (2011). Self view of women’s bodies and characteristics in early glamour website models. Cuadernos de Investigación UNED, 3(1), 45-51.
Nicholas, A.K. (2012). True Confessions of Nude Photography. San Francisco, California: Double Ink International.
Papacharissi, Z. (2002). The Presentation of Self in Virtual Life: Characteristics of Personal Home Pages. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 79(3), 643–660. doi: 10.1177/107769900207900307
Paulhus, D. L., Bruce, M. N., & Trapnell, P. D. (1995). Effects of Self-Presentation Strategies on Personality Profiles and their Structure. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21(2), 100–108. doi:10.1177/0146167295212001
Perlow, S. (2011). On production for digital culture: iPhone Girl, electronics assembly, and the material forms of aspiration. Convergence, 17(3), 245-269.
Rooney, K. (2010). Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object. Fayetteville, Arkansas: University of Arkansas Press.
Schifter, S. (1999). La casa de Lila. New York, N.Y.: The Haworth Hispanic and Latino Press.
Schlenker, B. R. (1975). Self-presentation: Managing the impression of consistency when reality interferes with self-enhancement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32(6), 1030–1037. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.32.6.1030
Schau J., H., & Gilly, M. (2003). We Are What We Post? Self‐Presentation in Personal Web Space. Journal of Consumer Research, 30(3), 385-404.
Soley-Beltran, P. (2004). Modeling Femininity. European Journal of Women's Studies, 11: 309-326.
Solomon, M., Ashmore, R.D., & Longo, L.C. (1992). The beauty match – up hypothesis: congruence between types of beauty and product image in advertising. Journal of Advertising, 21(4), 23-34.
Swann, W.B., Wenzlaff, R.M., & Tafarodi, R.W. (1992). Depression and the search for negative evaluations: More evidence of the role of self-verification strivings. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 101(2), 314-317.
Stucke, T.S., & Sporer, S.L. (2002). When a Grandiose Self-Image Is Threatened: Narcissism and Self-Concept Clarity as Predictors of Negative Emotions and Aggression Following Ego-Threat. Journal of Personality, 70(4), 509–532.
Tovée, M. J., Mason, S.M., Emery, J.L., McCluskey, S.E., & Cohen-Tovée, E.M. (1997). Supermodels: stick insects or hourglasses? The Lancet, 350(9089),1474 - 1475
Turner, E. (2012). About Me: A narrative analysis of self-presentation in women's online dating profiles. M.Sc. Thesis, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Winship, J. (2000). Women outdoors, Advertising, controversy and disputing feminism in the 1990s. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 3(1), 27-55.
Downloads
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Note: This abstract contains an incorrect copyright due to technical issues. Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms: Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal
All journal contents are freely available through a CC BY 4.0 license.
CC BY 4.0 is a Creative Commons: you can copy, modify, distribute, and perform, even for commercial reasons, without asking permission, if you give appropriate credit.
Contents can be reproduced if the source and copyright are acknowledged according to the Open Access license CC BY 4.0. Self-storage in preprint servers and repositories is allowed for all versions. We encourage authors to publish raw data and data logs in public repositories and to include the links with all drafts so that reviewers and readers can consult them at any time.
The journal is financed by public funds via Universidad Estatal a Distancia and editorial independence and ethical compliance are guaranteed by the Board of Editors, UNED. We do not publish paid ads or receive funds from companies.