Academic writing final report topic sexual harassment in the modelling industry

DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY OF VIETNAM ENGLISH FACULTY ACADEMIC WRITING FINAL REPORT Topic Sexual Harassment in the Modelling Industry Tutor’s name Le Van Khanh Student’s name Nguyen Thi Phuong Class TA43A Stu[.]

DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY OF VIETNAM

ENGLISH FACULTY

ACADEMIC WRITING

FINAL REPORT

Topic: Sexual Harassment in the Modelling Industry

Student’s name: Nguyen Thi Phuong

Student ID:

Word count:

TA42A-020-1519

1075 words

“Chances are that your next CEO will be a she and your next congressman will

be a congresswoman.” (Laitman, 2018) The statement reflects a fact that as time passed, we have witnessed a conspicuous change in women’s role in society and they are extending their influence over many areas However, our world seems far from being called gender-balanced as the underrepresentation of women is still an unresolved international issue

Being defined by the American Heritage Dictionary (2019), underrepresentation

is a situation in which someone or something is stated or implied “as being lower in quantity, quality, or degree than is actually the case” Therefore, when a woman is underrepresented, her ability and social status are evaluated as lower than they actually should be As Meyer, Cimpian and Leslie (2015) mention in their research article, women’s underrepresentation is a prominent concern not only in STEM, but also in1 many other fields In my report, I would like to focus on one aspect of it - sexual harassment in the modelling industry

Around 40% of all women across the industry endure sexual harassment in the workplace, according to a recent study by the Equal Employment Opportunity

Commission (Racked, 2018) National Public Radio (2018) provides a report by Stop

Street Harassment, indicating that of the respondents who have experienced different

forms of harassment or assault, more than 3 out of 4 women have been verbally

harassed and 27% of the victims suffer from sexual assault The Boston Globe’s

investigation team reveals the stories of abuse and harassment of more than 50 models

at the hands of photographers and other fashion industry professionals (Munzenrieder,

2018) Sharing opinions on Teen Vogue, Teddy Quinlivan, one of the top models in the

fashion industry points out one of the reasons why sexual harassment in the industry is not considered a big deal is because “a lot of times sexual assault does lead to opportunities” as many models “let themselves be sexually assaulted in order to get ahead in their careers.” (Andrews, 2018)

1 science, technology, engineering and mathematics

60 female models participated in the research Most of them were Vietnamese models The others were foreign ones who are currently working in Vietnam

Questionnaire

There are five questions in total They are ones under multiple choice form or checkboxes, as it is easier and less time-consuming for the respondents The purposes of the survey were to find out what forms of sexual harassment that the majority of the models have experienced, their most common sexual harassers and reactions to a negative opinion held by many people who are not in the showbiz world

Procedure

I created an online survey using Google Forms As my topic is a sensitive one that may lead to the hesitation to respond by female models, instead of posting on model groups or pages on Facebook which is the fastest way to receive responses, I sent the survey to each female model via Messenger to call for participation

Being addressed with sexual names

Hearing sexual jokes, comments about you

Being shown sexual stories, pictures, videos

Being asked to send sexual photos

Being touched inappropriately

Being sexually assaulted

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

14

34 10

12 5 3

Forms of sexual harassment

Figure 1: Forms of sexual harassment

As the figure above shows, there were 46 out of 60 female models responded to the question listing different forms of sexual harassment Nearly 74% of the models shared their experience having heard sexual jokes, comments about them while there were only 3 of them having ticked the box of being sexually assaulted, accounted for 6.5% of the answers

Other female models

Male models

Designers

Photographers

Stylists

Staff

Outsiders

7 0

7

17 2

7

29

Sexual harassers in the modelling industry

Figure 4: Sexual harassers in the modelling industry

reported being sexually harassed by photographers Noticeably, nearly two-thirds of the models revealed that their sexual harassers were outsiders Additionally, none of the male models was said to be a sexual harasser

11.67%

11.67%

28.33%

48.33%

Opinions: Being sexually assaulted - the price to get ahead in careers?

Totally agree Agree Neutral Disagree Totally disagree

Figure 2: Opinions: Being sexually assaulted - the price to get ahead in

careers?

Sharing opinions of the thinking: being sexually assaulted is the price to get ahead in models’ careers, in total of 60 answers, nearly half of the participants reported totally disagree and one-third of them disagree with that statement Only 12% of the respondents chose “Agree” and none of them totally agree with the saying

DISCUSSION

After collecting the answers from 60 female modes and making a comparison with the information provided by other experts which has been mentioned above, the results come out include both expected and unexpected ones

Forms of sexual harassment

According to the report published on National Public Radio (2018), more than 3 out of 4 women have been verbally harassed, which means that about 77% of the women participated in the survey have experienced the forms of sexual harassment related to the act of using words and 27% of the victims suffer from sexual assault As expected, similarly to the report, the outcome of my survey shows that the majority (nearly 74%) of the female models have heard sexual jokes or comments about them

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the respondents having ticked the box of being sexually assaulted, which is considered

the highest level of sexual harassment

Sexual harassers in the modelling industry

If the study by The Boston Globe’s investigation team indicates that more than

50 models have been sexually abused or harassed at the hands of photographers and

other fashion industry professionals (Munzenrieder, 2018), my report has the

appearance of another type of sexual harassers, outsiders The overwhelming number of

this group of people shows that who really are the most common harassers and why we

should not just focus on fashion professionals as sexual harassers contributing to the

seriousness of the issue

Is being sexually assaulted the price to get ahead in models’ careers?

There are a lot of people including ones in the showbiz and those who do not

know much or even anything about this environment who hold an opinion that models,

especially female models exchange their bodies with opportunities to achieve more

success in their careers (Andrews, 2018) However, most of the models responded to my

survey disagree or totally disagree with the opinion In the role of those who directly

experience themselves, the models can best reflect what they have to go through on the

path to success

LIMITATIONS

As my survey was responded by Vietnamese models and foreign ones who are

currently working in Vietnam, the result may be just right to Vietnam’s modelling and

fashion environment Moreover, my sensitive topic may lead to the non-cooperation of

some participants

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REFERENCES

Andrews, J (2018) Teddy Quinlivan says the fashion industry is the perfect place to commit sexual

assault Retrieved from

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/teddy-quinlivan-sexual-assault-fashion-industry

Laitman, M (2018) Women’s changing role in society Retrieved from

https://www.michaellaitman.com/articles/womens-changing-role-in-society/

Meyer, M., Cimpian, A., & Leslie, S (2015) Women are underrepresented in fields where success

is believed to require brilliance Frontiers in Psychology Retrieved from

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00235/full

Munzenrieder, K (2018) More models have come forward with stories of sexual abuse in the

fashion industry Retrieved from

https://www.wmagazine.com/story/patrick-demarchelier-sexual-abuse-fashion

National Public Radio (2018) A new survey finds 81 percent of women have experienced sexual

harassment Retrieved from

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo- way/2018/02/21/587671849/a-new-survey-finds-eighty-percent-of-women-have-experienced-sexual-harassment

Racked (2018) Sexual harassment in the modeling industry [Video file] Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2U96Cct2Ao

The American Heritage Dictionary (2019) Underrepresent Retrieved from

https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=underrepresentation

Survey on Sexual Harassment in the Modelling Industry

Hello everyone! My name is Nguyen Thi Phuong, a third-year student at Diplomatic

Academy of Vietnam I am currently making a report on the topic "Sexual Harassment in the

Modelling Industry" I want to assure you that any information you provide will be kept

confidential at all times, and will be used for no purpose other than research Thank you all for your participation!

1 How long have you worked as a model?

 0-1 year

 1-3 year(s)

 3-5 years

 more than 5 years

2 Have you ever experienced any of these? (you can choose more than one answer)

 (1) Being addressed with sexual names

 (2) Hearing sexual jokes, comments about you

 (3) Being shown sexual stories, pictures, videos

 (4) Being asked to send sexual photos

 (5) Being touched inappropriately

 (6) Being sexually assaulted

3 If you have, who did those actions to you? (you can choose more than one answer)

 Other female models

 Male models

 Designers

 Photographers

 Stylists

 Staff

 Outsiders

4 How did you respond to those actions? (you can choose more than one answer)

 (1) Kept them for yourself

 (3) Moved to a new house/apartment

 (4) Ended a relationship, such as a friendship or a romantic relationship

 (5) Sought medical help, including physical treatment and metal counselling

 (6) Shared your stories

 (7) Publicly unmasked the person

 (8) Reported to an authority figure, such as the police

 (9) Other

5 If there is someone saying that being sexually assaulted is the price to get ahead in models’ careers, what is your opinion?

 (1) Totally agree

 (2) Agree

 (3) Neutral

 (4) Disagree

 (5) Totally disagree