Emily Ratajkowski's essay on buying herself back: ohnotheydidnt

Emily Ratajkowski's essay on buying herself back

I’ve been working on a collection of essays for the past year and couldn’t be more thrilled that @nymag has published “Buying Myself Back”. This is an extremely personal piece about image, power and consent. Thank you to the entire New York magazine team for this opportunity https://t.co/pfJDl4kgZN
— Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) September 15, 2020

source

Emily wrote an essay for The Cut on reclaiming her own image and how photographer Jonathan Leder assulted her on a shoot and is still using the pictures for profit without her consent

At the beginning of her carrer her agent arranged a lingerie shoot with Jonathan Leder

the pictures were only agreed to get used in one specific magazine

at the shoot he gave her a lot of wine (she was 20 at the time) and suggested nude photos

after the makeup person left he gave her even more wine and assulted her

she tried to forget the incident until years later, after she got more famous, he released a whole book of these pictures

her lawyer tried to stop the release

Emily and her agent don't have recipes anymore, but they are both sure that Emily did not sign a model release for the shoot

Jonathan Leder did produce a signed release form. Emily is sure it is forged

I felt my frustration grow. I knew I had never signed anything; I had never agreed to anything. No one had asked me.

Emily did not have the financial resources to keep the case going. Leder comes from money.

Leder released two more books about her and also held an exhibition in a Lower East Side gallery

The Cut's fact checker reached out to Ledger for a comment:

“You do know who we are talking about right? This is the girl that was naked in Treats! magazine, and bounced around naked in the Robin Thicke video at that time. You really want someone to believe she was a victim?”

she also talks about more cases of artists using her image for profit and getting sued over posting a pap pic of herself on her IG

it's a good essay!

saintlys

September 16 2020, 00:19:27 UTC 4 months ago

New comment

That quote from him is enraging, piece of shit

kris_terror

September 16 2020, 00:19:34 UTC 4 months ago Edited: September 16 2020, 00:19:54 UTC

“You do know who we are talking about right? This is the girl that was naked in Treats! magazine, and bounced around naked in the Robin Thicke video at that time. You really want someone to believe she was a victim?”

Fuck this guy for this quote alone.

miniglik

September 16 2020, 00:42:27 UTC 4 months ago

While he’s made a shit ton of money off exploiting her. Grossss

heyignatzmouse

September 16 2020, 02:40:07 UTC 4 months ago Edited: September 16 2020, 02:40:43 UTC

there is no doubt he’s a rapist

bellwetherr

September 16 2020, 15:35:38 UTC 4 months ago

seriously i hope he fucking rots

ginainabottle

September 17 2020, 02:22:33 UTC 4 months ago

It's absolutely disgusting & tells us everything we need to know about this scumbag tbh.

This situation reminds of a quote from My dark Vanessa where the victim/narrator says "looking like a Lolita and knowing exactly what I wanted, what I was. I wonder how much victimhood they'd be willing to grant a girl like me."

laydownhere

September 16 2020, 00:21:27 UTC 4 months ago

Enraging. I definitely felt she was dancing around the fact she suspects he might've roofied her in the essay with how she described getting drunk.

Models need so much more protection

polynucleotide

September 16 2020, 00:22:00 UTC 4 months ago

somechickxoxo

September 16 2020, 00:24:22 UTC 4 months ago

A lot of men say that without actually saying that. It’s crazy how people purposefully use vague language to discount people and that’s more vile than just outright saying it.

milfordacademy

September 16 2020, 00:27:45 UTC 4 months ago

seriously, like thx for confirming everything she said about you, piece of shit

saintclaire87

September 16 2020, 00:29:23 UTC 4 months ago

And this is exactly the type of language his lawyer would use if this made it to court. Not to mention people who would try and defend him.

lil_poisonfrog

September 16 2020, 00:37:12 UTC 4 months ago

That's funny bc I know her name and I don't know his. Urn time!

kinkiestofboots

September 16 2020, 00:23:04 UTC 4 months ago

I’ve just watched a film on Netflix with Emily and Theo James. I actually think she’s a decent actress.

daijouboo

September 16 2020, 01:44:15 UTC 4 months ago

Yeah she was also pretty good on that Netflix show Easy.

ke77we

September 16 2020, 01:49:54 UTC 4 months ago

OT but is it good? Need serotonin...

September 16 2020, 05:52:22 UTC 4 months ago

Not really. Her character is clever, but she mostly is there for sex appeal and is almost raped.

She gave a good performance though.

lawofcosines

September 16 2020, 06:44:26 UTC 4 months ago

she's also decent in that flop Zac Efron movie We Are Your Friends. she should take more workshops and improve tbh she's already had a good foundation

futile_devices

September 16 2020, 00:26:05 UTC 4 months ago

This whole essay was enraging. Men are a disease.

suxaholic

September 16 2020, 14:58:56 UTC 4 months ago

I am a man and I agree

September 16 2020, 00:26:37 UTC 4 months ago

I wish there was more conversation how piling drinks on someone isn’t illegal and isn’t assault but sure seems to be a common tactic used by these sick bastards and often leads to assaults.

ahkna

September 16 2020, 12:26:02 UTC 4 months ago

This comment made me think of a twitter thread I read once about how men get aggressive/angry if you suggest a non alcoholic drink or food when they have offered to buy you a drink because it's not a nice gesture, it's to lower your inhibitions

September 16 2020, 15:21:51 UTC 4 months ago Edited: September 16 2020, 15:24:13 UTC

Yup. Not long ago I had went out with a someone who was just a friend (he’s a man and I’m a woman plus I’m married and he has a gf). So he offered to buy me a drink. If I was single or knew the intent was there I wouldn’t have accepted anything! I said yes so he bought me one (still watched the bartender hand it to me directly for my own safety).
So I had the one drink he had the one and kept pushing me the whole time to drink more saying he’d buy me more drinks while he himself wasn’t drinking more. At the end of the night he made moves on me and it totally grossed me out that he knew what he was doing and knowing I had only had one drink and my inhibitions were not lowered he still felt entitled to my body. I mean he shouldn’t make any moves at all on me but he was like “fuck it I paid she needs to pay me back” kind of mentality.

September 16 2020, 00:27:37 UTC 4 months ago Edited: September 16 2020, 00:49:46 UTC

Poor Emily. :( I believe her. The modeling world is full of predators, like Hollywood and the music industry. No telling how many other girls this asshole has hurt.

It’s a great essay. Ledger and her ex boyfriend can both rot for what they did.

ilovespooons

September 16 2020, 00:29:00 UTC 4 months ago

The whole thing is really good and worth reading. She has some other good examples of how others can and have sold her image for profit (an artist literally making $80k off of instagram prints that he's commented on!!)

hazypink

September 16 2020, 00:47:07 UTC 4 months ago

Yeah and that comment in German being about her “saggy tits” and she pretending she didn’t know what it meant. I’ve read her whole essay twice now and I still don’t know how to communicate all my feelings about it- she is a really compelling writer.

drblind

September 16 2020, 01:17:17 UTC 4 months ago

i looked up that art and i was shocked by it??? like he did NOTHING to them, they're just instagram screenshots w/ his comment... wtf

glitterslugs

September 16 2020, 02:23:31 UTC 4 months ago

this is why i just can't w/ most contemporary art ... people are so fucking lazy

lithiumflower

September 16 2020, 04:28:15 UTC 4 months ago

I had no idea Elementary ripped that from the headlines, but I should have known it was an allusion.

megalixer

September 16 2020, 12:27:37 UTC 4 months ago

so much of the art world these days is just trust fund babies scamming other trust fund babies

103188

September 16 2020, 00:31:39 UTC 4 months ago

All you need to do is look at this guy's photography to know he hates women, no quote necessary

teamdowney

September 16 2020, 00:32:16 UTC 4 months ago Edited: September 16 2020, 00:36:33 UTC

What the fuck is that quote?! Also who the fuck is paying Richard Prince anything little alone 80k for his screengrabs? Holy shit I need to get into high end art and suddenly network to find people stupid enough to pay 80k for a screengrab.

Edit: I just looked up Richard Prince. Goddamn that guy is creepy as shit. That whole article is filled with really predatory creepy ass men. Poor Emily.

September 16 2020, 00:40:27 UTC 4 months ago Edited: September 16 2020, 00:43:43 UTC

I feel like I remember ONTD giving her shit about complaining about the way people treat her because of her looks. And I get that beauty opens doors, but I haven’t walked in her shoes. It does sound difficult to have so many gross men feel like they own a piece of you.

Edit: oops. Posted in the wrong reply. Oh well. Too lazy to move it.

elderpricely

September 16 2020, 16:55:12 UTC 4 months ago

I definitely remember people reacting poorly to that because I argued with them about it lol.

It's so frustrating to see women, especially women who claim to be feminists, get up in arms about someone who's obviously beautiful talk about the experience of being beautiful. Once again, women can't acknowledge something about themselves that we all know without being ~stuck up~ or can't call out the objectification they experience just because they also get some payoff being pretty/thin.

The world pits women against each other and puts so much value on our looks, I think there is a certain bitterness(?) toward really beautiful women sometimes. Internalized misogyny takes the frustration that should be directed at the patriarchy and aims it at the women who seem to satisfy the patriarchy's requirements & reap the benefits instead.

idk it's not 'oh no, being beautiful is the hardest thing, poor supermodels,' but to ignore the negatives of their experiences is to miss the full picture of how women of all kinds are fucked over by misogyny.

4 months ago

holyfrijoles_2

September 16 2020, 00:33:27 UTC 4 months ago

She’s a really good/engaging writer. Tbh I follow her and it seems that she’s been grappling with her image and what it means for her own feminism for a while now. I want to get her book of essays after reading this.

britneyspears

September 16 2020, 00:35:00 UTC 4 months ago

wtf @ his quote, way to confirm your guilt you POS

September 16 2020, 00:36:38 UTC 4 months ago

She’s a really good writer. The essay is very moving.

I hope leder lives a miserable life.

And, like, all of the other men in the story get a taste of how gross they are.