Oh, honey, you know what they're going to do, right?

September 8, 2009 5:58 PM

Directions from a producer to runway models to "Sex it up, ladies! Sexier! And Shera—no more tanning" might not be all that unexpected. The person giving the direction is a little atypical, however. So is how her story came to be published on the online resource for sports photography.
posted by minimii (9 comments total)

Amazing.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:11 PM on September 8, 2009

_{"Hilary Duff's skinny," she continues. "Haylie Duff, she's skinny. Paris Hilton. TV, movies. Pictures in a magazine where the girl looks perfect. But that's all Photoshop. Young girls at that age don't understand that it's an industry, they don't understand that's it's business." (Then again, one wonders if young girls understand that the real lunacy surrounding the former Miss California, Carrie Prejean, is not that she answered Perez Hilton's gay marriage question poorly or that she failed to fulfill her contractual obligations, but that pageant officials later admitted to having helped Prejean pay for her breast implants. Or, conversely, that we collectively forward millions of emails about Susan Boyle because we're amazed someone with terrible body image could actually have talent.})

That was an odd aside. As far as I could tell, that was the only point in the article where they talked about Miss California.
posted by delmoi at 6:20 PM on September 8, 2009

From the interview:

I was told by the publisher that advertisers wanted happier stories, not "depressing" ones.

Funny how the most depressing part of this whole story is the sad state of the publishing these days. aPhotoeditor said it best:

No matter how much ass kissing you do, your advertisers are still leaving. In fact they may be leaving more quickly now because your readers no longer consider you a “must read” after you’ve taken the edge off everything (due to all that ass kissing).

On the plus side - the internet is the perfect distribution system for this kind of story. It lets the best (and most important) stories always rise to the top no matter how much drivel is out there.
posted by infinitefloatingbrains at 6:50 PM on September 8, 2009

After a pause she adds, "It's not my fault that it happened."

I think her bulimia, anorexia and obsessive exercise had a big part to play in screwing up her body so badly that it couldn't heal from what was supposed to be routine surgery. If she faced up to that, she could help other women from going down the same path. But, then, her insurance company would probably deny her coverage.
posted by stavrogin at 6:52 PM on September 8, 2009

Interesting story - thanks for posting it!

stavrogin, I'm not a medical professional but from what I've read about sepsis, I don't think bulimia, anorexia or exercise had anything to do with this. The article explains that "The sutures reconnecting her intestines didn't hold and Lindsay's intestines began polluting her body with bacteria."

A relative of mine had an outpatient procedure done where a scope was used down her throat. They nicked her esophagus and she was in rough shape (from sepsis) just a few hours after leaving the hospital following her procedure. She had emergency surgery that day and was in hospital for a week - and they told her she was very lucky.
posted by nelvana at 8:58 PM on September 8, 2009

A great story told well. In the authors interview, he stated something to the effect that he had more faith in his photography than in his writing -- I dont' think he has to worry about his writing, or his story-telling either. And he captures her story well in images, also.

And the story of the mother/daughter relationship. Man. Reminds me so much of Jill Bolte Taylor, her story, how her mother just swooped in and took charge when her child was helpless. Having to depend upon someone who you're just begun getting away from in your life, from the daughters perspective. Giving up the entire of your life to help your child, giving up your needs in the service of love, from the mothers perspective. A hard road, to be sure.

I love that he had to guts to not give the story a happy ending. It's life, is what it is, and as long as there's life the story isn't ended. It's always easy to have your story canter back to the barn with 'and now everything's all better, and life is beautiful and stuff' and that sortof leaves me feeling sick, it's at such variance to my experience, and then I wonder again if maybe I'm not 'doing it right' blah blah blah, etc and etc.

Thanks for posting.
posted by dancestoblue at 10:50 PM on September 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

Lindsay had a lot of local press a few years ago. You might enjoy hearing her story in her own words. VCU Inside Out
posted by Lame_username at 3:27 AM on September 9, 2009

I think the reality IS the happy ending.
posted by Madamina at 7:53 AM on September 9, 2009

Thanks for this! A captivating article. Loved the photos too.
posted by chronic sublime at 5:43 PM on September 11, 2009