29 #2
Ken, I could see, was comfortable, and later he told me that his sister is a married lesbian and has been out since she was twelve and is pushing thirty years now.
So he has zero issues with your community.
“Sally, my wife-to-be is also a college student at Mercer University and is a working model, but she does not do fashion as I do. Still, rather than her doing what is known as product or product placement, that is, the model holding what you are supposed to buy,
as opposed to wearing what you are supposed to buy, she does a heavy commercial load.”
I explained to her that Carmine’s mother was a lesbian and that Carmine was the product of a rape where her mother kept the child, and that Carmine is proud of that fact. And that Carmine had her side of the wedding party all lesbian, and that they are all wearing custom-designed high femme tuxes.
“And your side, Shannon?”
“My maid of honor is my personal assistant. I have only known her for six to seven months, but we live together and travel constantly. We are on a plane flying somewhere in the world several times a week, and Lowri, a Welsh name, and she is very Welsh,
is vital to my sanity and is the other half of my working soul. My one sister is in Carmine’s party. My other sister, who I have to add, looks like my identical twin, models professionally with me. And the last gal in my group is a top model.”
“Shannon, have I ever seen you anywhere?”
“Sally, I have enough covers that this wedding, which is expected to produce three to four international covers, will move me to the supermodel tier in the way that the industry calculates supermodels, and that also means what I am paid.”
“And you are allowing your wedding to become an event?”
“Sally, allowing the wedding to be a fashion event will more than pay for the wedding, at least ten times and possibly fifteen to twenty times what the wedding is costing us. And a lot of those costs are also being picked up by sponsors, like the tuxes and gowns.
My dress is north of a quarter million, and I am paying not one cent for the gown, and we are being given the entire wedding party, and this is because we are allowing the designer to use the wedding as advertising.”
“Doesn’t that bother you?”
“Sally, when I decided to model, I had no clue how it was going to change how I see the world. Look, I have been given a gift, OK, more than one, but let’s talk about this one gift. I look like I look. No surgery that you can see, as in visible plastic surgery; some that is not as visible,
but we are talking face, arms, hands, the stuff that models are frequently concerned about. This is what the creator made me look like. Now, I have two choices: I can pretend that I do not look like I do, or I can take advantage of that.”
“Sally, you are rural, obviously, and I assume that you follow football somewhat.”
“I am a high school teacher, Home Ec actually, but I help with the cheer squads, so yes, I know the sport.”
“OK, so let’s say that you have a student and he has the arm that is his alone, a Joe Namath type of arm. What do you tell him, ‘Joe, play ball, take advantage of this while you can’?”
“Or do you tell young Joe, ‘Joe, you need to be a high school teacher, and playing football is not going to help the kids’?”
“Which is right for your young Joe?”
“Play and have a better life for his family? Or do not play and struggle raising six kids on a teacher’s salary with a stay-at-home wife?”
“Sally, there is nothing wrong with either choice; the choice is Joe’s, not yours. I have the gift that the camera loves me, so why not model? If I do not do this, another woman will. Understand that fashion is going to be a trillion-dollar-a-year industry.
And about two hundred billion is spent on advertising. My not taking a cut does not change anything, except it will make life potentially more difficult for my family down the road.”
“Both Carmine and I are pursuing degrees. Angel, my sister, is pursuing a degree. So, we are modeling in essence around our future. And we know, all three of us know, that tomorrow could be the last day that we ever work as a model. Now, for all three of us, this is unlikely,
but it is what drives us to do it, as every farmer knows, and remember, I was raised on a farm, and I have experienced this; you do make hay when the sun shines, because you can not make hay when it is raining.”
“Well, this sun is shining now, and I do not know for how long. It could be until sometime this fall, or it could be thirty years. But the end is coming. So I will, and Carmine and I will take advantage of every possibility we can to ensure our futures.”
There was a long silence as Sally digested that.
“OK, before I go in for the night, Sally, Sarah is going to give you some contact information. I want you to bring the two girls over to the farm on Sunday. We have barns filled with gowns, an occupational hazard, and like most female riders, you three are six-eights in size.
The size is apparent to someone who deals with clothes for a living, and these two will find gowns for the three of you that are appropriate. Besides, I know that my two kids have not chosen their gowns yet. They would rather ride than worry about a gown that you can end up in a magazine wearing.
But then again, they were raised in New York, and they did not know horses until a few months ago, so I will cut them some slack.”
And arrangements were made, and we ended the night. In the morning, it was farewells and sharing and hugs all around, and my four were off to our trailhead, different from the one that Ken and Sally used on these trips, and about four hours later, we were on the road heading home and to my wedding.