Dating a President? Not Exactly Model Behavior
By: By Robin Givhan
Published: January 13, 2008
The news that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is dating
former model Carla Bruni is one of those bits of pop culture
trivia that reaffirms suspicions that the world has gone topsy-turvy.
Rock stars date models. Actors date models. Donald Trump
marries them. But heads of state are supposed to dally with
women who spent their 20s writing their dissertations, not
sashaying down a runway to the thump of house music.
This is a rule. For sure, it is based on stereotypes and
jealousy. Models are dumb. Models aren't interested in health
policy or agriculture subsidies. None of it's fair, but it's
hard to get all sniffly about it. Because models have won
a genetic lottery, having been blessed with long legs, fast
metabolisms and faces that can move millions of units of unnecessary
goods, they get to date the likes of Mick Jagger. (The lovely
Ms. Bruni did.) Looking fierce can be hard, demoralizing work,
as everyone who watches "America's Next Top Model"
has learned. But posing like a gargoyle or a sunflower is
not quantum physics, either.
Models already get the star athletes. The bookish debate-team
captain should get the prime minister. And all will be right
with the world.
There are several aspects to the Sarkozy-Bruni relationship
that are disturbing, not the least of which was their decision
to go public with their coupledom in December at Disneyland
Paris. Were all the tasteful cafes full? And Bruni was not
merely a model. She was a really famous model at a time when
models had the high profile of Hollywood starlets. Sarkozy
did not tour Egypt with someone who twirled in a few department
store trunk shows or who parlayed her good looks into college
tuition or seed money to start a business. Bruni posed and
pouted for fancy European houses and, in the late 1990s, she
cashed out and embarked on what has been described as a singing
career. Alicia Keys, she is not. But no matter. It is fair
to say that she is an ex-model who has gone on to other adventures.
But that's no excuse for snuggling up with a world leader.
Paul McCartney is available. Why not date him?
There's no set number of years that must pass before a modeling
career is safely in one's past. But suffice it to say that
the more successful the model, the more time required before
the aroma of superficiality dissipates. Less than 10 years
into her retirement, Bruni is still a bit fragrant.
Consider Iman. No one would consider her shallow. But she
retired from modeling almost 20 years ago. She built a cosmetics
business and launched a charitable campaign for AIDS awareness:
"I Am African." And still Iman had the decency to
marry a rock star -- David Bowie.
Models and heads of state simply don't go together. There
was a time when models were pretty socialites who could hold
an elegant pose. They were like young women who had excelled
at charm school. But then came the 1960s youthquake, waifs
and heroin chic. Mothers, don't let your babies grow up to
be models!
The news that Naomi Campbell had interviewed Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez for a story in British GQ was enough to prompt
snorts of disdain. Some of that is because Campbell, in addition
to her fame on the catwalk, is well known for flinging communication
devices at those unlucky enough to be in her employ. Did Chavez's
security detail confiscate Campbell's cellphone? But the vast
majority of the shock and dismay over a model being sent to
do Christiane Amanpour's job is due to the fact that this
is a woman who recently posed naked alongside designer Marc
Jacobs -- who was wearing a tutu. She gets to have a tete-a-tete
with a world leader?
The stereotype is that there is little of substance behind
a model's pretty face. (It's a prejudice that male models
have to overcome as well.) It's a stereotype exacerbated by
the fact that many models are so young they haven't had the
time to get a formal education or develop thoughtful opinions.
Instead they've been forced to ponder their body, hair and
face. Modeling rots the brain.
There's a word in popular culture for men who are obsessed
with models: model-izers. They aren't drawn to the individual
person but to the fantasy. And they're perceived as being
just as shallow as the women they date are assumed to be.
The dismay over the relationship between Bruni and Sarkozy,
whose second wife, Cecilia, had once modeled, is a magnification
of the reaction to the sight of a bookish man with a bombshell
woman. The juxtaposition doesn't do either of them any favors.
She's likely to be considered a trophy. And he's Mr. Shallow.
Oh, the terrible burdens of beauty!
It's easy to swallow hard and not make a fuss when musicians
chase models or when famous actors do. It almost seems like
a prerequisite in their industries. But a world leader? Et
tu? It's only natural that Sarkozy would like a pretty face
as much as anyone. But if a law degree was featured as prominently
on Bruni's résumé as supermodel, all would be
right with the world.
|