{"id":101576,"date":"2018-01-15T12:46:27","date_gmt":"2018-01-15T17:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/?p=101576"},"modified":"2018-01-15T13:34:05","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T18:34:05","slug":"male-models-accuse-bruce-weber-and-mario-testino-of-sexual-exploitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/male-models-accuse-bruce-weber-and-mario-testino-of-sexual-exploitation\/","title":{"rendered":"Male models accuse Bruce Weber and Mario Testino of sexual exploitation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.mdel.net\/oftheminute\/images\/2018\/01\/IMG_5439-960x1280.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-101594\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i.mdel.net\/oftheminute\/images\/2018\/01\/IMG_5439-960x1280.jpg 960w, https:\/\/i.mdel.net\/oftheminute\/images\/2018\/01\/IMG_5439-480x640.jpg 480w, https:\/\/i.mdel.net\/oftheminute\/images\/2018\/01\/IMG_5439-900x1200.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<style>\n#wp-content img {width:80% !important;}\n#wp-content .txtbox {padding: 0 20%;}\n<\/style>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"txtbox\">\n<p>In the wake of last weekend\u2019s show of solidarity by Hollywood stars at the Golden Globes for #TimesUp, a new defense fund devoted to supporting victims of sexual harassment, numerous allegations against fashion photographers Bruce Weber and Mario Testino were published on the front page of yesterday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/01\/13\/style\/mario-testino-bruce-weber-harassment.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Times<\/a>. Fifteen former and current male models who were interviewed recounted shoots and castings in which Weber would lead them through breathing exercises and tell them to undress and touch themselves wherever they felt their &#8220;energy&#8221; going. Also in the article, thirteen male assistants and models accused Testino of sexual misconduct, including having their buttocks grabbed, being masturbated on, and being rubbed by his erection.<\/p>\n<p>Both photographers denied the allegations, but Cond\u00e9 Nast moved quickly to announce that it would stop commissioning both of them for the time being, with Anna Wintour issuing a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vogue.com\/article\/anna-wintour-responds-mario-testino-bruce-weber-sexual-misconduct-allegations\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">statement<\/a> that read in part, \u201cEven as we stand with victims of abuse and misconduct, we must also hold a mirror up to ourselves\u2014and ask if we are doing our utmost to protect those we work with so that unacceptable conduct never happens on our watch.\u201d The publisher also announced a new code of conduct it began working on after the accusations against Harvey Weinstein last fall to go into effect this month, including a minimum age of 18 for models and a recommendation that models not be left unaccompanied with photographers, stylists, or other team members.<\/p>\n<p>In the lengthy Times article, a number of models\u2014including Robyn Sinclair and Terron Wood, both of whom shot with Weber for Ralph Lauren, and Josh Ardolf, who was photographed by him for Vogue Hommes International in 2011\u2014described a similar process in which Weber would encourage the model to practice \u201cbreathing exercises\u201d to calm down, which would eventually lead to Weber asking the model to touch himself. \u201cI was guiding his hand. We did the chest, the shoulders, the head,\u201d Ardolf recounted. \u201cThen I finally put his hand on my abs. Did the breathing. Right after that, he forced his hand right on my genitals. I was first in shock. I didn\u2019t know what to think. I backed up. I felt very, very uncomfortable and very sick.\u201d The former model Jason Boyce alleged the same behavior in a <a href=\"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/?p=100439\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">suit<\/a> filed against Weber in December.<\/p>\n<p>Several former assistants of Testino\u2019s also described to the Times a habit of hiring mostly heterosexual young men to work as part of his team before submitting them to sexual harassment. Hugo Tillman, then a recent college graduate, recounted being asked to give Testino massages on set and being grabbed by him for an unwanted kiss on the street, culminating in one night when Testino invited him to his hotel room before ordering him to roll him a joint and throwing him on the bed and climbing on top of him. Ryan Locke, a model who shot Gucci campaigns with Testino in the 90s, recalled similar behavior. On the last day of a shoot while photographing him on a bed, Locke alleged, Testino ordered everyone out of the room. \u201cHe shuts the door and locks it,\u201d Locke said. \u201cThen he crawls on the bed, climbs on top of me and says, \u2018I\u2019m the girl, you\u2019re the boy.\u2019 I went at him, like, you better get away. I threw the towel on him, put my clothes on and walked out.\u201d One of the main recurring features of Testino\u2019s Instagram in recent years has been his #TowelSeries, in which models and celebrities are photographed wearing only white towels.<\/p>\n<p>Male models have long been, as the former model Trish Goff said in the Times article, \u201cthe least respected and most disposable\u201d members of the fashion industry and their recent accusations have, along with revelations of other mistreatment of models in working environments over the past year, increased calls for a models\u2019 union or an independent watchdog for the industry, a difficult proposition in a notoriously interconnected industry with high turnover. As Vanessa Friedman, one of the authors of the Times article, wrote optimistically on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VVFriedman\/status\/952230865131724800\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a> yesterday, \u201can industry based on desire finally says no.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--pp-thumb-start--><!--PictPress found no dir \/2018\/01\/101576--><!--pp-thumb-end--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over two dozen male models and assistants detail accusations of sexual misconduct in the New York Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":446,"featured_media":101594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10414,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/446"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101576"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101599,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101576\/revisions\/101599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}