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This Polish teenager was 13 when this photo was taken. Do you have a problem with it?
Patty Huntington
Tuesday, April 08, 2008 at 01:03pmIMAGE from The Fashion Spot originally via the website of Gaga Models (scroll down page):
13 year-old Monika Jagaciak reclining on what appears to be a spa bath, under a shower, wearing a white swimsuit. Shower jets moisten the top of the swimsuit. One arm is crooked as she touches one of the swimsuit’s straps.
Fully Chic seems to have set the cat amongst the pigeons with our Girls, catapulted? post. On Saturday, we talked about the contingent of IMG Development models that is being flown in by Australian Fashion Week organizers IMG for the upcoming event (April 28th-May 2nd). At the head of the pack will be young Polish protégée Monika Jagaciak, who is being talked up around town as IMG’s “next superstar”. In spite of Jagaciak’s1994 birth year being published on her Polish mother agency’s website yesterday IMG told Fully Chic that Jagaciak is “not so young”. Yes, she is, according to the agency which discovered her.
Last night we phoned the Gaga model agency in Poznan, Poland to check Jagaciak’s birth date. We spoke to a company representative who went through company records and claimed they had also sighted Jagaciak’s passport. They told us that Jagaciak was born on 15/01/1994. This means she has only just turned 14.
***UPDATE 09/04 16.00: Jagaciak’s birth year has now been removed from the Gaga website. Cached records of earlier references to it are however all over the net.***
Gemma Ward – who turned 20 in November – was 15 in May 2003, when she made her runway debut at AFW.
Tallulah Morton was just 13 when she made her AFW debut in 1995. Her agency claimed at the time she was 14.
Underage modelling – aka the “babymodel” debate – has become a highly contentious issue.
In 1999 the modelling industry was rocked by a BBC expose which used hidden camera footage to show Milanese model agency and nightclub personnel giving drugs to underage models for sex.
In the wake of this controversy, it has become more difficult – but not impossible - for under-16s to model in Europe, as a children’s license is required (at least in France). London Fashion Week has now banned under-16 girls outright.
A tide of unchaperoned young girls from eastern Europe heading into the fashion capitals has become a major concern.
Fully Chic has looked at this issue on several occasions, posing the question: provided that under-age models are strictly chaperoned and provided the work is age-appropropriate, why should they be denied the opportunity to work, just like any other child in the entertainment industry?
But surely few would dispute that there is anything appropriate about the above image of Jagaciak, taken some time last year. And look, Fully Chic thoroughly appreciates the irony inherent in at once criticizing an image as being inappropriate, and showing it, however this image exists, it has been published in the mainstream fashion press - and it continues to be circulated by IMG for publicity purposes. We thought readers needed to see the image we are talking about - and be able to make up their own minds.
Tarted up to look like a James Bond sexbomb, 13 year-old Jagaciak is wearing a white swimsuit, the bodice of which is being moistened by shower jets whilst she reclines back in what appears to be a spa bath.
According to a photocredit provided by IMG the author is leading US fashion photographer Steven Meisel. The photo was handed out to one Australian newspaper last week.
Meisel, some may recall, authored Calvin Klein’s highly controversial cK Jeans campaign of 1995 which featured a series of teenagers in provocative poses and various states of undress.
The campaign was eventually withdrawn after a public outcry, during which the images were labelled “kiddie porn”.
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Patty Huntington
A style safari with fashion journalist Patty Huntington, exploring the sartorial politics of aspiration, inspiration, thinspiration and crimes against bronzer.
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theses days generation Y
are doing things much more younger than the elers now
that shot there looks slutty and can have different interpretations of it depending what age your looking at it
well too me ok your a model greaT!
but hunz your only 13 its not necessary to pose like a playboy model at this age yet
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:23pm)
Tue 08 Apr 08 (05:19pm)
Absolute Jail bate. Kids are the new porn now. This just shows it. Unbelievable.
Tue 08 Apr 08 (05:48pm)
Kids today like to dress slutty half the time i wonder why they bother dressing at all. you only have to look at the boys that wear there jeans down around there knee caps & the girls r doing it as well.
LOVE your to young to be modelling for PLAYBOY or RALPH & thats what this photo looks like.
its indecent & disturbing.
Wed 09 Apr 08 (12:35am)
There seems to be a strong undercurrent of this sort of thing in our society. Every day there are new reports of people being caught with child pornography and being jailed for it. As long as parents are complicit, and industry and society continues to feed the idea into those susceptible individuals heads we shouldn’t wonder why these reports continue. It is a cultural thing too, what we would call ‘child pornography’ was only banned in the Netherlands in 1978, and I believe that images of bestiality are still legal there. In fact, bestiality was legal in Washington State until only last year. I put it all in the same category - sorry. There are nasty things in the world, and you can only do your best to protect your children from those that will prey upon them. This young girl is a victim - of her parents, the modelling company, and especially society for not protecting her.
parents fault...just old enough to start “high” school
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:24pm)
Yes I do have a problem with this. She looks like a two bob hooker, when she should look like a beautiful young kid enjoying her childhood.
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:26pm)
I certainly wouldn’t want my 13 year old having photos taken like that. It gives the wrong images to kids her age.
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:27pm)
Hey, I’m a young mum (so I’m not out of touch) with an 18 year old and I find this picture WAY over the top!!! Even my daughter would think that.
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:28pm)
This is disgraceful. Anyone who claims that this is not sexualization of young children is blind. The reason we have an age of consent enshrined in law is because we, as a society, recognise that certain behaviours are inappropriate for children. If the commercial world can’t respect society at large’s views on decency then society should boycott offending companies’ products and services. Furthermore there should be legal recourse for consumers sick of seeing fodder for pedophiles being surreptitiously forced upon them in advertisements. A disgrace.
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:29pm)
...... but really she should be working in children’s fashion at least until she is 16.
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:29pm)
Where are the mothers / fathers / guardians??? Why aren’t we boycotting fashion labels that use child labour?? I thought it was illegal (at least in most states in Australia) to employ a child under the age of 15years and 9 months… why is the fashion industry an exception??
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:31pm)
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:48pm)
14 and 9 months. trust me i was counting down to the day ( it was only a few years ago)
Tue 08 Apr 08 (05:08pm)
So does that mean we can’t have anyone under the age of 14 and 9 months on our televisions either?
The fashion and television industries are completely different to retail and hospitatilty (where such age limits apply).
I think the issue is not whether they should be allowed to work but whether the work they are doing is appropriate.
Wed 09 Apr 08 (12:27am)
actually u only have to be 12years old now to get a job...i run a pizza store and thats the new ages that have come through..silly isnt it…
im a 25 year old male and i think kids now dress way older then they are.. its not right..
Wed 09 Apr 08 (12:39am)
Skye - very good point! but it still needs to be considered / discussed… the reason we have just charged a pizza store in WA for employing 11 year old (although they were indeed willing) is to protect children against exploitation. Perhaps we need to pay children who are permitted to work in certain industries into a trust account until they reach the age whereby they are able to legitimately seek employment elsewhere. But you’re right about the appropriateness of the work… I wonder what would happen if the model decided to sue the photographer / legal guardian at a later date when she reaches adulthood for exploitation as a child…
No I don’t have a problem with it. But there are those who would have a problem with me not having a problem with it.
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:33pm)
Tue 08 Apr 08 (08:12pm)
Here’s hoping you don’t/will never have a daughter!
I’ve seen image debates about even younger girls showing off shorts and tops and the difference between images that are age representative and those that are not. One set of images I saw showed girls in exactly the same outfits posed inappropriately and then posed appropriately. The inappropriate ones set out to mimic a sexuality that was not acceptable for 10-12 year olds. If this model had been posed differently with the water running over the back of her hair or similar I think that would have been preferable and not this kind of quasi sexy pose which a girl over 16 may well strike in order to attract a male.
What a debate will rage on this topic!
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:33pm)
If you look at that photo and become sexually excited, it’s not the photo that’s disturbing, it’s you.
It’s not going to promote younger women being turned into sexual objects, there’s always been that element of society. That group are what need to be fixed so that photos like that can be shown and nobody would care.
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:34pm)
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:42pm)
I completely agree. Whose to say that a person who is sexually excited with this photo wouldn’t react the same when looking at a kiddie magazine or a primary school year book.
It’s all about the situation in which the photo was taken that makes a difference to most people.
This is totally not uncommon in Japan and few other countries. It’s completely up to the individual whether they perceieve this as sexual exploitation or modelling.
Of course it’s a sensitive issue with most people.
But people have to be reminded that this sort of thing is conducted under their parent’s supervision, so it’s really mother and daughter’s choice.
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:36pm)
Tue 08 Apr 08 (05:03pm)
I dislike people who allow themselves complete ignorance or indifference to a situation ("oh, its their culture.”, “They have the right to choose” ETC.)only to probably be the first person to scream bloody murder when its their 14 year old child half naked, sexually objectified and perfect smut material for pedos to perve at.
Objectifying children is completely wrong.
Tue 08 Apr 08 (05:43pm)
and i dislike people who dislike people who plainly stated a fact in this highly debated topic. I suppose you condone the ‘aussie culture’ of getting wasted every Sat night and terrorizing everyone else around them
ohh don’t worry, I won’t be screaming bloody murder over my 14 yo cuz i aint got one.
Tue 08 Apr 08 (08:13pm)
Eastern Europe is a completely different place.
Go to your hair dresser and find our where your weaves and bonds come from. If they are using human hair, then yup - it’s probably from Eastern European girls.
I could be rambling, but my point is in some of the countries, it is not uncommon for young girls to have to find ways of contributing to family incomes. They might sell their hair, they might become Models. Who’s knows what they’ll do.. but if the industry wasn’t so hungry for size 0 babies, then there wouldn’t be a market for it in the first place. Blame the industry - but leave the poor girl alone, you don’t know what kind of a life she’s had, or who she’s trying to support.
Tue 08 Apr 08 (08:39pm)
It’s just a matter of time.
Everyone says they don’t want kids when they’re busy sowing their seeds, but when its time to ‘settle’ down the kids come popping out and then the double standard comes a blasting.
I don’t condone the culture of drinking in Aussies. But when its become the only past time and the principle way of life for some then it lacks meaning, depth and I think its an absolute waste of Australia’s resources to have such a brain drain when so much can be done for Australia instead of wasting life away.
Well where you and I live you would imagine that would be the case.
But just ask Tallulah Morton’s mother Amber how many totally unchaperoned young eastern European girls she met who were exactly the same age as Tallulah, ie 13/14, when she was accompanying Tallulah on go-sees in the northern hemisphere a couple of years ago.
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:41pm)
I agree with Jay. If you want to know who the real educators of children are, you have to look no farther than the home. Whose dreams are being fulfilled here (other than perverts). Is being a famous model the daughters dream or the mums?
Pretty lost I reckon.
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:38pm)
Sitting here at work reading this article I scrolled the screen down so her age wasn’t visible and I turned the monitor around to a guy sitting next to me and asked how old he thought she was. “About 18 or so?” he said. When I told him she was only 13 his exact words were “That’s disgusting, What kind of parents would let her do that?” I would have to agree with him on this one.
What kind of laws and permission do children need regarding the Modeling industry? Someone please be so kind as to fill me in on this. I have no doubt in my mind that it varies from place to place.
I do think it is totally inappropriate for someone so young to be displaying themselves in such a way. It’s certainly something I would never allow my daughter or son to ever take part in. What kind of message is this sending other young girls, even guys?
Tarted up to look like a James Bond sexbomb, 13 year-old Jagaciak is wearing a white swimsuit, the bodice of which is being moistened by shower jets whilst she reclines back in what appears to be a spa bath. Tarted up is exactly right, Sex sells I guess?
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:38pm)
If people didn’t know she was 13 when the shot was taken, would they still be offended by the shot itself? Because, to me, it looks like any generic glamour shot you’d see anywhere and assume the model was aged 16-plus. Maybe even 18-plus. One of thousands you might see in any given year.
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:40pm)
Get a grip - it’s not as if the wet swimsuit is see-through. Yes she’s young and still under parental care so the parents are the ones who should be ensuring that she is chaperoned.
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:40pm)
Whatever happened to letting children be children instead of tarting them up to look like mini porn-stars?
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:41pm)
she looks young, and the top has been filled to make her look older, just looks FAKE. i think it is ok, maybe a little too much, but not over the top. but unfortunately there are people in our community for whom this image will cause problems in giving the wrong impression of legality. if that makes sense.
but something that does concern me, is that 80 years ago this would have been considered pretty hard core porn, so in truth how is this not viewing child porn?
sorry if this is a contriversial post, just my honest thoughts, no ill intention intended
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:44pm)
Tue 08 Apr 08 (05:18pm)
You make a good point there Kuz....her top does appear to be padded to make her look ‘older’. Therefore, why have such a young girl to begin with? And, if it’s not sexualisation, why pad the top at all?
I personally find it disturbing. If they are trying to create a certain image why not use an age-appropriate model?
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:45pm)
why have a 14yr old model at fashion week, I am so sick of the image of perfection getting younger and younger, she will be selling clothes made for 20-35yr olds and then they all feel like they should look this young totally stupid, next they’ll have her in anti aging makeup campaigns where they say their skin cream makes you look 10yrs younger (they put that on her she should look 4) let her be a child, her parents and the industry hiring her need a huge wake up call !!!
Tue 08 Apr 08 (04:48pm)