Parental Sellouts
roppongi fm3a / kodak gold 200 fuji superia 400
a few weeks back masako was walking through the station square with frankie on her back when she was aproched by a stranger. she introduced herself as a recruiter for children's modeling agency and wanted frankie to come in for an audition because as she put it "had a face like a doll". masako refused the offer politely and told the head-hunter that we were not interested. she told masako to "talk it over with your husband", they swapped numbers and she gave masako her card and said to expect a call from her office in a few days.
masako and i have discussed this before and both of us are strongly against selling frankie's image to any corporation whether it be for diapers, disney or a tobacco company. i don't believe child modeling is any different in canada but what makes it even worse in japan is way children are "classified" according to race, or is that nationality? well what ever it is they wouldn't list my daughter as either "japanese" nor "international" but "half". half? wtf is that!? half what? calling someone half in canada would result in a can of whoop ass being opened, but here it's thrown around like some sick badge of honour. if we are going to "classify" our children by fractions then let's get it right and do it across the board. children with 100% japanese blood will now be called 1 or whole or we could use the decimal system for a technically correct 01.0 (too bad there is no such thing as a 100% pure race but shhhhh... don't tell anyone) but wait, are we "grouping" by nationality here or by race? oh who cares! many people here seem to think they are one in the same anyway! so kids of 3 different backgrounds will be 1/3rds and so on. how about this, i propose that instead of taking away part of their identify when adding a nationality or race that we add a number like instead of half we would say double. yeah that sounds better! or an even better solution would be to STOP classifying and segregating our children period!
excerpt from "culture jam" by kalle lasn, founder of adbusters magazine
"half of all exotic dancers were once beauty-pageant contestants. that's a surprising statistic when you first hear it. it's hard to bridge the distance between the wholesome, naive, small town cavalcade queen who plays "the volga boatman" on the accordion and wants to be a vet, to the hardened stripper with seen-it-all-eyes grinding in red light on the stage of number five orange."so sorry mom, you won't see frankie in any sears catalog, diaper ad or switch long distance telephone carrier commercials, at least while i still have a pulse.
the roppongi image (last of four) is my favourite although I love the others too because of their abstract colourful mood. everytime you can make me crazycurious with this little thumbnails... very good idea!!!
::posted by: paul at February 8, 2004 04:17 AM
That's too bad you think of that this way. My daughter was "discovered" at Omote-sando and she has done a commercial for Coca-Cola and a Japanese fashion house and made over ¥12 million (half of which went to the agent). She made this in less than a year. She has since left for Europe to pursue her studies. She was 14yo. There's no classification involved. You either have the good looks or you don't. Lucky are those who do!
::posted by: a Mom in Tokyo at February 8, 2004 04:22 PM
that's great but i guess you miss my point, granted it's not a point i expect most to get or to understand. i just wouldn't feel right selling my daughters image to a cola-cola for her in turn to be used as a marketing tool by coca-cola to sell fizzy, tooth enamel eating sugar water back to young girls and boys. don't get me wrong, i sometimes drink coke but i'm not a fan of the way this multi-billion dollar corporation markets to children in schools and uses it's clout to push around small communities in india, draining ground water and pumping out toxic sludge as waste product. 12 million yen sounds tempting but i think money is far from being the most important thing in life.
::posted by: mark at February 8, 2004 08:48 PM
Have you read 'No Logo' by any chance, Mark? I'm reading it at the moment - very interesting. On the child modelling thing, I have mixed feelings. I think there are some products I wouldn't mind my daughter helping to sell, but I guess if you deal with these agencies you don't get much choice on which products to promote...
::posted by: Gary at February 12, 2004 06:49 PM
Gary, yeah i'm familiar with naomi klein's "no logo" as well as "fences and windows". both books come very recomended, and are on my reading list.
::posted by: mark at February 12, 2004 06:59 PM
I definately understand what you are saying. She is so cute though! Of course I am biased being her auntie! No really she is a sweetheart but you make the choices. She is too young to understand what is happening now.I am not sure how any child would feel knowing their face was plastered all over at one point.
::posted by: Auntie Julie at February 13, 2004 08:20 AM
Great for you.
I'm glad to hear some people are thinking logically instead of with their greedy wallets. Even though she is not old enough to understand, in the future it will be a good story/lesson to illustrate how she coud have been rich (for her age) but at the expense of almost every other living thing in the world
::posted by: kevin at February 16, 2004 08:05 PM
i mull, so this reaction is very late.
my children were both very sweet, though probably not commercial material. if they HAD been, i would have protested exploitation with my entire being. childhood and adolescence are times to grow and flourish in the real world, to confront the small-scale dramas and learn. momentousness is supposed to come later. kids need time to absorb wisdom and to acknowledge the order of things; centre-of-attention is almost never good. your post kept me awake late for days on end...but i think that my thoughts have been sorted..:-)
::posted by: lynn at February 28, 2004 07:24 AM
Mark,
I completely agree. I've heard that if your child is "half" then they are almost guaranteed modeling or commercial contracts.
It's reassuring to hear other people disagreeing with this practice. I think it is not only bad for the reasons of profiting from your child and promoting (posssibly evil) corporations, but also because it reinforces the internalized racism that is so prevalent in Japan.
My wife will be giving birth in September, so I'm also thinking about these issues.
::posted by: Quinlan at April 1, 2004 08:21 PM
