Modeling Standard

Ralph Lauren encouraged a s--- storm of publicity, firing that model for breach of contract -- at 5'10" and 120 lbs, she was fired because she had become too obese to fit in their sample clothes. Dumb model, letting herself go like that. Especially since all 'normal' women are over 5'8 and weigh at least 5 lbs lighter than that. What was she thinking?? I modeled four years in college and just out, in the states I lived in at the time. Nothing national. I modeled in print ads, TV, and runway. It was great money but horribly tedious, and generally people you were hired to work with didn't treat you with respect. The models themselves were pretty cut-throat and catty, and you could tell they'd just as soon throw you under a bus. You could see it in their eyes, a whiff of desperation as they quickly sized you up as you entered the room for a call back: Is this the one who could beat me out of a job? I was invited to go to NY to meet Eileen Ford of the Ford Agency in 1982 but by then I'd decided I'd had enough and wanted to get a job in the writing field -- plus I was ancient by modeling standards then, at 23. There were good moments of course, but mostly I remember deprivation. One day I came home all indignant that someone had told me I was too skinny and needed to eat. (I was between 115 - 120). I remember saying to a friend, "I eat! I had an apple and a potato today!" "Yeah, you eat!" she replied. Geez......