Former supermodel Ann Simonton was on a tear -- assailing the media and its reckless manipulation of women to a crowd of 300 in Webster Hall last night.
She attacked the current trend in ultra-thin models.
"Everybody keeps saying 'Kate Moss isn't anorexic, she eats all the time.' Well, I don't care if she eats all the time. The point is that she looks hungry," Simonton said.
She also attacked the diet industry: "It says nothing about you is good enough the way you are."
Simonton showed numerous slides in which the woman became an indiscernible part of the product. One beer add was so ambiguous that Simonton felt the woman and the product were one. "Grab a beer and grab a babe!" she exclaimed.
She also showed a number of pornographic slides that showed the similarity between mainstream media images of woman and pornographic ones.
"Nudity is a way to classify who has control over who. Women start to see themselves as body parts instead of whole people," she said.
Simonton also addressed the issue of men in the media. She said that men are made to feel insecure by using the same techniques that the media uses against women.
"In order to really be a man, he has to have a gun."
Simonton began modeling at 14 and was gang raped at knife point by three men when she was 19 years old. After her rape, she realized there was a correlation between the media's portrayal of women and sexual assault.
Simonton said the media's portrayal of women as mostly victims makes women seem deserving of assault. "It looks as if we've done something wrong since we're being publicly humiliated ... There's absolutely nothing you can't do to women in the media."
These days Simonton works as an advocate for Media Watch -- a national organization helping people to become more informed media consumers.
"We're bombarded with media and get the impression that we have free speech. The First Amendment is being used to protect commercial media," she said.
"We are experiencing censorship and it has to do with the handful of people who are controlling the media and all they care about is selling their product," Simonton added.
Her slide show presentation titled "Rethinking the Myths of America's Dream Girl," was sponsored by Sexual Awareness Through Greek Education.
