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You Can’t Ask That: June 15

Models discuss "Do Casting Agents discuss your flaws if you weren't there?" "When have you felt exploited?"

This week on You Can’t Ask That “Models” answer questions on exploitation, casting, eating disorders and more.

It’s safe to say when it comes to the public’s perception of models some stereotypes still loom large. “Can you read this card?” the first question asks. Elaine Estreich (formerly Elaine George) fields it, snapping back, “We’re not ditzy bitches just because we’re good lookin’.”

The 47-year-old former model is best known as the first Indigenous woman to appear on the cover of Vogue. As is often the case, Elaine was plucked from obscurity, after being stalked by a model scout at the Gold Coast theme park, Dreamworld. “I told her to ‘fuck off’ because I thought she was creepy,” she recalls.

A few weeks later, Elaine landed her first cover, something most aspiring models will only ever dream about.

In a culture as obsessed with youth and beauty as ours, modelling is a one-way ticket to the high-life. From hanging out at Donatella Versace’s house, to dating billionaires, getting paid to attend exclusive parties, and much more, the guests on tonight’s program have experienced the absolute extremes of decadent, materialist culture, and lived to tell the tale.

“I thought it was going to be this beautiful, glamorous, crazy world. I was super excited, but the reality was a lot different,” begins Sarah Stephens, who won the Girlfriend magazine model search when she was just 16. By 18, she was in the US walking the runway for the coveted Victoria Secret lingerie show. “People sexualized me before I was even sexual, before I’d even had sex,” she says.

Bridgette Malcolm, a Perth girl who conquered the world, spent most of her career listening to casting agents openly discussing her flaws in front of her. “I found it very easy to slip into an eating disorder. It’s really difficult to know what’s real and what isn’t when your physical appearance has been gaslit as much as it has,” she says.

9:05pm Wednesday on ABC.

One Response

  1. I’ve binge watched all of season 7 and it remains quite a remarkable show. My rather hardline opinions of drug addiction have been challenged with the gift of being able to really listen to some who have been affected, and the most bogan sentence I’ve ever heard involved a novel way to have drunk Passion Pop.

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