Model Sara Sampaio felt “violated” when Liu magazine bosses ignored a no-nudity clause and published shots of her naked without permission.
The 26-year-old Victoria’s Secret Angel insists she has no problem with baring all for the camera, but she draws the line when it comes to men’s magazines.
“I have done nudity in the past, but I don’t do nudity for men’s magazines,” she tells PorterEdit. “I can suggest nudity, but I don’t want to show my boobs to a men’s magazine…
“I felt violated. Now, every time I’m on a set, do I have to delete the photos to make sure nobody uses them?”
Sara accepts her outburst goes against everything models are supposed to be, but she thinks it’s about time the world’s top catwalk and cover stars speak out about the abuses they experience from photographers, agents and executives.
“Models are expected to show up on set, just be pretty, do our job and not say a word,” she adds. “When we do open our mouths, we’re branded as difficult, opinionated, troublemakers; we are told that we don’t know what we are talking about. We are still exploited.
“It’s such a disposable industry that girls feel like they can’t say anything, because there will be some other girl out there who will just do it.”
That said, Sara fears feminists are also making modelling tough in the wake of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, by criticising catwalk stars for being sexy: “I think it’s kind of hypocritical that now people want everyone to be equal; they want everyone to be a feminist,” she explains. “But if a girl is being sexy because she wants to be sexy, people are saying, ‘Oh, no, you can’t be sexy’. Isn’t that anti-feminism?”
