Revelation

Stop the presses:

British supermodel Lily Cole has revealed that she identifies as “queer” adding that she sees other labels of sexuality as too “rigid”.

Or to put it less excitingly, a model says she calls herself “queer.” Nobody cares, and life goes on.

In a new interview with the Sunday Times Style to discuss her debut book, Who Cares Wins, the mother of one, 33, said the choice of the word queer allows her to be open while protecting her private life.

Yes indeed, and it allows her to be bold while remaining cautious, it allows her to be frank while remaining bashful, it allows her to be trendy while doing nothing at all.

“If I were living in another country today, my queerness would be a crime,” she said.

If she were living in another country today her femaleness would be a crime. In Afghanistan that crime is punished with a life sentence to house arrest.

In other words, how about being less precious and self-absorbed? How about not playing into this delusion that some minute variation in how she sees herself is worth confiding to a reporter? How about looking past the self instead of obsessing about it?

In the interview, Cole, who was first scouted at the age of 14 and appeared on the cover of British Vogue two years later, also discussed the duality of the modelling world. She said the industry both empowers women while imposing impossible beauty standards.

“I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I feel that fashion is one of the only industries where women are more empowered than men — female models are paid more than male models, the consumers are predominantly female, it is a very female-centric industry. And so, in a strange way, I felt very empowered.”

She can skip identifying as queer, she can identify as thick as a plank, instead. No, being a fashion model is not “empowering.” Well paid for some, but maek u powerful, no.

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