Stupid Model

Written and illustrated by Barbara de Vries, a former fashion model, STUPID MODEL, set in the sexist and feminist seventies, is a vivid example of #metoo. When seventeen-year-old Dutch model Bee Berger arrives in Paris she finds herself face to face with Janice Dickinson, who tells her - Yo Dutch, I'm a supermodel and you're just another Stupid Model. It's all downhill from there as horny men constantly try to talk her out of her clothes, from photographer Jean Loup Sieff who is casting an Yves Saint Laurent campaign to the couturier Courreges who kicks her out when Bee rebels and fights back. After an ignominious start in Paris, Bee is sent to Australia to compete in an ill-fated modeling competition and ends up alone below Sydney Bridge with a wealthy but creepy hotel developer, who takes her passport away, dresses her in provocative designer clothes and claims that she needs his protection. Unlike most model memoirs, Stupid Model takes a satirical inside look at the fashion world, where young women are treated like mere things that can be groped, used and abused without recourse. Bee enters this world with enthusiasm, faith and naiveté as well as a healthy dose of Dutch feminist righteousness that gets her both in and out of trouble. She blunders from one drama to the next while trying to fit in, acting stupid and taking her top off as needed, until she's had enough and plots her way to independence. Fun, ironic, brutally honest, adventurous, introspective, and hilarious, Stupid Model is a roller coaster of emotions that will make the reader laugh out loud.