Your Biggest Asset Is Not Your Vagina.
I believe the pricing structure of - “the less clothing and more erotic my pose, the more my rate increases” - does more to demean women than it helps to value their bodies.
Back when I was a roadie and chef in the music biz I had three rates.
$15/hr or $200/day with a 5 hour minimum call. It was in the 90’s so it was cheaper then. Moving on, I had different rates for different jobs in my construction and Engineering companies too. The rates were usually based on time incurred and skill level needed versus your market standard rate. They were never based on how much of the person the employee chose to give for that job.
Stay with me here.
If my carpenter showed up with a smaller tool belt didn’t mean he got less than the carpenter with a fully loaded truck of tools. If they completed the task required by their job, they got paid accordingly. If the carpenter chose to remove his shirt on a hot day to the approval of the female homeowner, his rate stayed the same. Sure, we may get called back for more work or maybe even get a tip, but that was never a reason to increase the price of the job.
A disclaimer first. I am by no means in any way trying to demean or devalue women’s bodies. I am in no way referring to any particular models or group of models. I am in no way discrediting or attempting to reason the personal principles of any model or person willing to be employed as a photographers’ subject.
This ‘industry’ devalues women and men and exploits inexperience and sets a precedent of “unless you can stand up for yourself, you will get exploited. They are predators (‘They’ being agencies, the industry and in general; the photographers)”. This is applicable in other trades and in many industries. So no real difference there however, this one puts your future credibility and public reputation at risk when you do a good job. Being a good nude model can become a heavy weight in ‘normal’ society. This is amplified more so in the smaller freelance model sector. Pictures hang around a long time and so many are available to the public. In fact, the more public the images, the more work you get and the more that can bite you in the ass. It’s a double edge sword.
Going freelance gives you a feeling of control in managing exploitation and going against the fashion industry standards of modeling. I imagine a feeling of ownership over one’s body. I know of an empowering of self seeing images of yourself taken and processed well. Freelance modeling is absolutely owning women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship but I think there’s one area that could be helpful.
I believe the pricing structure of “the less clothing and more erotic my pose, the more my rate increases” does more to demean women than it helps to value their bodies.
Which sounds odd because that structure sounds like the more of my body I show, the more I value it so the more I charge and you pay more for me to expose more of my most ‘valuable’ areas. That’s what it sounds like. More is more.
A good justification always sounds “right”. Doesn’t mean it’s correct or best practice.
“I value my vagina more than my breasts or my butt and especially my face.”
My face is worth about $70/hr but my vagina is worth upwards of $125/hr. The value plan is the more private; the higher the cost. Therefore, I’m valuing my sexuality higher than my physical appearance. This isn’t surprising in our society. That’s how porn sells and how strip clubs offer lapdances and back room antics. In other words, this is how our world works.
Our western world as we know is sexually unequal, exploitative, gender biased and largely a place where nudity carries a meaning of smut, or unethical and sexual. So it makes sense to value and thereby charge increasingly as the nudity follows suit. The more we show, the more we charge. Like a strip club, dance on stage for a rate then whatever they throw I keep. The more sexual I am, the more they throw. The backroom is more expensive because I show more on a one to one basis. Bingo. Stripper rates. OnlyFans.
Like I get there’s a lot of photographers who do this for their jollies and it’s a sexual experience as much of a photographic one. Then there are those who really do it for the imagery and see nudity differently. Those who can separate sexuality from skin. Now at some stage I’m willing to bet that there are sexual overtones. Whether it’s to challenge sexuality, explore sexuality, play with the boundaries, or to titillate. Biologically, it’s extraordinarily difficult to bypass instinct, drives and humanity. At some point, nudity is a necessary part of human sexuality and it always has and will be. So, it’s a market that’s exploitative and very valuable. Because it’s private. Because we value our sexual organs and enjoy our sexuality. It brings us huge pleasure in a fucking hard world. Why wouldn’t we chase it? Pay highly for it? If it all makes sense then how can I have any argument?
Because nudity becomes the tool in the box to hinge “value”.
We value nudity so the more we get, the more we value it. Different monetary values in levels of nude visual intimacy dictate the hierarchical structure system of expressing human nudity. Pretty scientific right? I’ll break it down.
No nudity = basic cable
Implied nudity + 20%
Topless + 25%
Full frontal nudity +25-50%
Open Leg = Maximum rate
More is maximum plus negotiated rate.
This puts a monetary value on womens’ sexuality and does little to support the notion of body positivity and non-objectification of women as sexual objects.
In fact, this pricing structure supports the objectifying of women as sexual objects.
The greater the objectification, the greater the cost. Please note the societal value hasn’t changed; the cost has. In fact, women still value their bodies but I’m betting it’s in the opposite order. They would value their face higher than their vagina. How much time per day spent on each? Right.
So if you are a model reading this (please feel free to share it) or a photographer or involved in this industry in whatever way, please consider this point. There has to be a better way to set value than to use the objectification of women to do so. The cost shouldn’t hinge on a backwards asset structure.
Your biggest asset is not your vagina.
Go to whatever limits you are comfortable with and structure your rates dependent upon your library of poses, your understanding of the photographic process, your ability to provide consistent and high quality work. The more you can give the image maker as a subject for them to achieve their vision, the more valuable you become in the industry. That ensures the “value” is dependent upon skill not skin while the “cost” stays the same. The more I show, the higher my value isn’t sustainable or healthy. Now, yes, some will say the more beautiful you are, the more you can charge. Sure, but stay on topic because this is one small area that we could actually change if we wanted to.
Do not use this idea as a way to justify your shit either photographers. I’m not saying models should go spread eagle for their cheapest rate or else they’re devaluing women. Dick. Or that inexperienced models should go legs akimbo for nothing! Double dick. We need to stop selling our services on a Vaginal Asset Model and start doing it on a Skill Asset Model. The key to a successful career is your ability to develop four key assets: Skills, Knowledge, Effort, and Time1. While you may choose to emphasize some assets more than the others depending on your goals and interests, all four play a key role in your ultimate success. As a self-employed purveyor of a particular skill-set (model) I understand as the danger increases, so does the renumeration. That’s good work-safe ethic. So, sell it as that. Set rates on danger levels. If you’re inexperienced, don’t do the dangerous jobs first! As a sole proprietor in what can be a dangerous profession, part of your job is learning how to mitigate the danger to acceptable levels. If something is deemed too dangerous, more money is spent to make it safe before progressing instead of charging more to do it anyway. Set your levels based on the danger present and risk assessment. I know you shouldn’t have to, I get it. Some guys will always be dangerous and others will always be unethical and sneaky. Part of your rate includes your skill in determining who to work with based on the danger you personally feel and the known risk working with that person. That’s all you have control over and that comes with experience.
Inexperience means cheap. Yeah, it does. So, if you are a model who wants to do full erotic, that’s fine. That’s your limit, stay within it. But charge on skill, knowledge, effort and time. If you want to do nude work but are unsure, don’t let money be your deciding factor. Pace yourself and charge as above. Not on levels of nudity.
So should nude models get more money? As a rule no. I don’t really believe that. I think that way of thinking is damaging as I’ve explained. However, if I were to say the rate change is due to danger levels increasing, then is is very justifiable and supports a safety-first principle. That must also include that an amateur or novice earns less than an expert in their field of choice which in turn, have individual levels. That’s the crux really. Different people will do different things but there is a standard market rate.
That rate should be based on the above four principles and not a scale that devalues women and (excuse me) supports the notion that her face is free but her pussy is expensive.
This all applies to photographers and artists alike. Go to whatever limits you are comfortable with and structure your rates of expenditure and model choice dependent upon your library of work, your understanding of the photographic process, and your ability to provide consistent and high quality work. Paying more should mean you get better quality work and higher usable shot counts not how ‘far the model chose to go’.
Know your limit, stay within it.
Consider this psychological fact, there is a tendency that people stay engaged in a subject if the subject progresses or changes over time. This has two sides. One is that if the nudity progresses from non-nude to nude to personal limit changes over time, then there’s a good chance you’ll stay relevant for longer. The other side is if you go to your limits when you start out, you’ve nothing to grow into. Also consider the better you get at posing, the harder you’ve worked at gaining knowledge of lighting and angles, and the more experienced you get, then the better the quality of your work. I personally would rather know there’s nudes of me hanging around that are good photographs and quality images than 100 poorly lit hotel shots with my eyes half closed. And let’s be real like Will Smith at the Grammys, it’s the good images that promote body positivity and awareness and not those 100.
Consider growing into your limits. Don’t be that person who has all the tools (assets) but can’t do the job well. I know people will pay for your assets with no skill but you get what you pay for you know?
If this rings true for you, get in touch, lets talk and see if we can figure out a way to do this better. Or change my mind, whatever.
Thanks for reading this essay and may it be food for thought.
I get what you are saying, but I think the issue is more about the market for taboo imagery. Bear with me here. Society in North America sees nudity as something dirty, wrong and shameful. So the result is censored nipples on Instagram, or other media. That is what creates the market for those images. If our attitude as a society normalized nudity and the human body, more like Europe, then the market demand doesn't disappear, it shifts to the next taboo, like pussy or more erotic sexual content. If we normalize that and stop censoring it in mainstream media, it's no longer quite the 'rush' of something taboo. The market demand and value drops. The problem with this human condition, is that as we lobby to normalize things like nudity and sexuality, the demand for the taboo content drives the market for more extreme content - whipping, BDSM, fetish and even underage content. That's the fly in the ointment. I have done informal studies on this, posting various types of material and tracking the demand, views and what people will pay for, and what they won't pay for. As an artist, my sole goal is to create beautiful artistic content, but it becomes driven by the audience demand, and I need to avoid falling into the trap of providing content that is not true to my heart as an artist, merely to get the recognition or appreciation that we all want. There are no easy answers to this, but lots of thought. For models, they face the same kind of dilemma as I do as a photographer - they may want to keep to a certain genre, but it's the taboo photos or videos that pay the bills. The root cause is the demand, and that just keeps escalating as more models and photographers (myself included) create more taboo work to get those views, or income or validation, which then ups the ante to stand out from others.