Models in Caskets

 

     This past Tuesday, Jesse Pearson, editor of Vice magazine came to speak in my journalism and society class. If you don't know what Vice is, it's a free magazine where literally anything goes - cursing, nudity, and all that good stuff. It's almost impossible for me to come up with some sort of theme for the magazine to better describe it. They are the farthest thing from conventional, with stories about burly, bearded, gay men ("Bears vs. Vikings") as well as coverage on the war in Iraq. I am completely in love with the fact that there's a magazine out there that hardly has any restrictions when it comes to publishing that is able to reach the amount of people that it does. 
     Because the magazine is free, it's been hard to find up until recently. I've unfortunately never heard of it up until I heard Jesse was going to be speaking to our journalism class. American Apparel has been a sponsor for Vice for years, so they carry the magazine in their stores, but if you're not near one, you can now subscribe to it online.
     I had such high hopes before Jesse came to speak to our class but I ended up being a little bit disappointed. He was very monotone when he spoke, and didn't really say anything about how he came to be the editor of Vice or anything about the magazine industry, something he really should have done considering he was speaking to roughly 300 journalism students. In fact, right off the bat, he admitted that he didn't have any kind of plan of what he was going to say. 

 

     That being said, it wasn't a complete flop. He ended up talking about, in great detail, several of their biggest recent stories. One that really stuck with me was an article in Vice's fashion issue, "Requiescant in Vestitus." The article featured models in caskets. When I first saw a picture I didn't think it was anything more than just a way to show off clothes in an artsy, unconventional way. However, I quickly abandoned this initial reaction when I learned it was a portrayal of unhealthy lifestyles that models lead in order to get call backs. For some reason, our society has glorified the ideal image for a girl's body to resemble that of a walking toothpick. Some girls will do anything to get this body type, whether or not they're trying to become a model or just trying to be "perfect," whatever that's supposed to mean. I remember reading a quote from Janice Dickinson, the self-proclaimed "first supermodel" and agent, where she stated that she specifically looked for and hired models that had eating disorders. I'm sure she's not the only agent that does that, she's just the only one that has the balls to say it. I love the whole idea of photographing models in caskets. I have no idea how anybody could have come up with it but I think it's brilliant and gets the point across. Jesse said that his original plan was to photograph actual female corpses - he even had several families agree to let Vice photograph their deceased family members - but there weren't enough volunteers to do the entire story. Nothing is too controversial for this magazine.
     Jesse announced that he's no longer going to be the editor of Vice towards the end of his little speech to our class. Can I be the new editor pretty please?


Photo on right via http://www.j1111.blogspot.com ; Photo on left via http://www.viceland.com/int/v17n3/htdocs/requiescant-in-vestitus-374.php