Naive’s Guide To Everything in the World

Model

So much has been written on the subject of female fashion models that to rehash it all here would be superfluous and tiresome (although the particular models I’m thinking of are REALLY hot).  But what of male models?  What would possess a man to pursue such a line of work?  Can they not find employment in the usual occupations available to able-bodied young men – astronaut, dockworker, law professor?  It’s difficult to say, for no male model has ever been interviewed, and even fewer have ever been photographed.  The photographs we have of them are ephemeral, fading to dust and memory, inevitably, much like their subjects.  On the rare occasions when you see a photograph of one, your eye is drawn immediately to the details: a gleaming cufflink, a crisply pressed lapel.  A bewristwatched hand, palm open slightly, outstretched.  A tooth, a wisp of hair.  The eyes – one brow arched, the stare composed, relaxed.  I am a male model, the eyes say.  The eyes always say this.  This is what I am, what I have.  My name?  My name is the shirt I wear, the expensive eyewear.  Yesterday I was but a vision, tomorrow just a dream.  Today I am this, only this, always this.  A blank slate on which to paint a cipher.  Male model! Perhaps the real question is not who would choose this profession, but rather, would this profession choose who?  Perhaps not. - J. Frederick