They said/We said: 16-year-old model Hailey Clauson’s non-stop train of controversy continues

Just when we thought the CFDA was making headway with its policy on improved working conditions for models, a very strange Pop Magazine editorial featuring 16-year-old American model Hailey Clauson has surfaced. Shot by Tyron Lebon and styled by Max Pearmain, the surreal and extremely sexualized shoot includes Clauson posing with nude models (including a porn star) and, in one shot, being choked by the hand of an unknown male.

This fresh-faced model can’t seem to catch a break. It seems like just yesterday Clauson was making headlines for walking in a DVF show as a mere 15-year-old. Then there was the time her parents filed a lawsuit against Jason Lee Parry for taking scandalous pictures of the ingénue siting provocatively on a motorcycle holding a case of beer.

In an industry where young models are treated like adults from the get-go and pressured into doing risqué jobs, we could only hope that Clauson’s agent and parents would be on higher-than-usual alert for the type of jobs she books. At the same time, it’s extremely disappointing to see violence against women treated as provocative fodder for a high fashion shoot.

THEY SAID:

Jezebel: “For a magazine to sexualize violence against women in this way is frankly disgusting. This is not fashion, and this is not an appropriate way to depict any woman in a fashion spread—no matter her age. But to do this to a teenaged girl, when teenaged girls are among the groups most at risk of suffering violence at the hands of the men in their lives, is arguably even more offensive.”[Jezebel]

Fashionista: “Glamorizing violence against women is never okay—but certainly the fact that Clauson is only 16 and relatively new to the industry (and therefore less empowered) makes the editorial a whole lot more disturbing.”[Fashionista]

WE SAID:

Nicole Stafford, photo editor: “This is just icky from so many angles. Models are already forced to grow up quickly in an adult environment where they can’t think for themselves and are pressured to do whatever these adults want them to do for a shoot. Maybe her parents should sue again!”

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