Like every year the Forbes magazine has published the ranking of the highest paid models. For the second year in a row Kendall Jenner, with his 22.5 million dollars, won the gold medal for the highest paid model of 2018. Already last year he had beaten the competition stealing the scepter to the wonderful Gisele Bündchen, on the podium for over 15 years.
Out of the podium, we find the super Gisele Bündchen, who shares the fifth position with colleague Cara Delevigne. Both this year, they earned 10 million dollars. The sisters Hadid, Gigi, and Bella receive respectively the seventh and the eighth position. The first with 9.5 million dollars earned, the second 8.5 million. Also, the Puerto Rican model Joan Smalls has received 8.5 million dollars this year.
The Real Body Exhibition in Milan
Imagine entering a room. Quite easy isn’t it? Now picture a set of bodies, all positioned in realistic ways. Some riding bikes, others simply sitting down. Look around you. It all seems plastic. It all looks completely superficial. But it isn’t. In fact, these figures are true human bodies. How does that make you feel? Disgusted? Shocked? Curious?
The DP 1 class visited the Real Bodies Exhibition in Milan, and the reactions were all quite different. Some were truly disgusted by the idea of seeing death. Others were fascinated by biology itself. I, on the other hand, couldn’t believe that these bodies, these people, were real. I felt uncomfortable at one point. Because after time—After having looked at the organs, and at the flesh, you become convinced that these ‘things’ are only objects. But they’re not.
The woman I saw, the man I saw, the child I saw, all had diverse personalities. Though I was supposed to focus on the science of it, I felt the urge to imagine what their lives were like before. Were they funny? Did they have siblings? Were they in love?
But the exhibition was not a negative experience. In my opinion, it was a mix of completely different emotions. I learned what lungs actually looked like, and what the blackened lungs of a smoker looked like. Now I feel even more convinced that I will never touch a cigarette in my life. Need more proof? Well, the tar in cigarettes (which is mainly made up of toxic chemicals such as Arsenic or Benzene) “paralyzes the cilia in the lungs and contributes to lung diseases such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and lung cancer.”
In addition to this, I pulled away from the perspective of science and transported myself to the realm of TOK (also known as, Theory of Knowledge). In brief, TOK is a course which is compulsory in the IB and is one of the CORE subjects. Here, we learn about things like ethics, perception, emotion or history. We question everything and anything. Ms. Evans, our TOK teachers informed us that this very exposition was accused of using Chinese prisoners.
On the 24th of April, 2018, the Guardian released an article entitled, “Call to shut Real Bodies exhibition over fears it uses executed prisoners”. According to the content of the article, the author claims that these bodies were taken without the consent of the prisoners or of their families. This caused a major controversy to fall upon the company called Imagine Exhibitions.
A group of protestors sit outside of the Real Bodies exhibition in Sydney.
A group of lawyers, academics and human rights campaigners questioned the doings of the very company stating that though these bodies had been unclaimed, “Chinese hospitals keep bodies for 30 days until declaring them unclaimed. The plasticization process, however, must commence within 48 hours of death.”
A professor of physiology at the Western Sydney University (Vaughan Macefield) identified the following; “Strong evidence supports the bodies and organs being exhibited having come from executed prisoners in China,” he said. “These are mostly young males on display – quite different to the older donated bodies used to teach anatomy in Australian medical schools.”
Politicians have since then received letters asserting that “Using human organs and tissues without consent for financial profit is the antithesis of ethical and legal practice. Such conduct of organ trafficking and organ tourism is a serious breach of international human rights law, and Australia should have no part in it.”
Tom Zaller, a member of the Imagine Exhibitions responded by saying that “they’re inspected by health departments in countless countries. There’s no foul play.”
Bibliography
Smee, Ben. “Call to Shut Real Bodies Exhibition over Fears It Uses Executed Prisoners.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 Apr. 2018, www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/apr/25/call-to-shut-real-bodies-exhibition-over-fears-it-uses-executed-prisoners.
Martin, Terry, and Sanja Jelic. “Cigarette Tar Carries the Most Toxins.” Verywell Mind, Dotdash, 9 Nov. 2018, www.verywellmind.com/tar-in-cigarettes-2824718.
Written by A.W.P.