Modeling sinful?

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Art321

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I would like to have know an answer to this. It got my attention a while back. Is modeling at all sinful? I have heard many say modeling is just a form of art, but in many cases it looks like something else.

Any response would be helpful

God bless,
Art321
 
Modeling is morally neutral.

The morality of an individual modeling job would depend on many factors including the object the person will be modeling.
 
Not per se. But certainly it exposes one to a lot of near occasions of sin - one may be asked to pose nude and get less work if one refuses, or deliberately pose in a ‘sexy’ (usually sexually suggestive) way, and at least one may be pushed in the direction of undue vanity about one’s appearance or eating disorders.
 
I don’t think modeling is a sin, per se. It CAN be, if in certain situations, as listed below.

I can honestly say my modeling past has scarred me for life on many levels:
  1. The constant pressure to be as slim as possible (if you are above a women’s size 2 in many modeling jobs, they will call you fat) caused me to have various forms of eating disorders from the ages of 16 through 20 and a perpetually distorted self image.
  2. While I refused to do nudity, I did plenty of other hypersexualized stuff. I wanted everyone to think I looked sexy, because as we all know, sex sells. It got to the point where I wanted everyone to not only find me attractive, but I wanted them to want to have sex WITH me, as well.
  3. Whenever I did modeling spreads with guys, I would get rather turned on. It was hard not to, as the guys were often shirtless or in underwear and we were practically groping each other.
  4. All the sexualized images I participated in while modeling caused me to become excessively narcissistic.
While mentioning all that, I must say that I have done a little bit of modeling in recent years that has not been of a sinful nature: I’ve posed for fitness ads and biking clothes. There are plenty of other types of modeling one can do without committing sins… but like anything else in this world, you just have to be careful. 🙂
 
I believe that modeling is morally neutral. However, I would not engage in nude modeling as that may pose a near occasion of sin for others.
 
I agree that modeling is neutral in essence, but in today’s society one is hard pressed to find a modeling platform that is not impure in ways. It is true that sex sells, and this can be seen in EVERY part of our society today, not just modeling or advertising; it’s in movies, tv shows, music, and now are society promotes premarital sex, and kids grow up with this mind set, being exposed to this practically from birth. Many teenage girls today get confidence from knowing they look ‘sexy’, rather than knowing they are loved for who they are. Have you seen the way 10 year old girls dress these days? If a 30 year old walked down a street dressed like that in my town they would get arrested! The impact of modeling on people today, especially the young, is the fault of many, but mainly on the industries that promote it and the people involved, models per say. The Catechism seems to have it:

2284 Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.

2285 Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. It prompted our Lord to utter this curse: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."85 Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep’s clothing.86

2286 Scandal can be provoked by laws or institutions, by fashion or opinion.

Therefore, they are guilty of scandal who establish laws or social structures leading to the decline of morals and the corruption of religious practice, or to "social conditions that, intentionally or not, make Christian conduct and obedience to the Commandments difficult and practically impossible."87 This is also true of business leaders who make rules encouraging fraud, teachers who provoke their children to anger,88 or manipulators of public opinion who turn it away from moral values.

2287 Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. "Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!"89
Code: 
85 Mt 18:6; Cf. 1 Cor 8:10-13.
86 Cf. Mt 7:15.
87 Pius XII, Discourse, June 1, 1941.
88 Cf. Eph 6:4; Col. 3:21.
89 Lk 17:1.
I also remember a quote from one of the gospels (sorry Im not a scripture person) where Jesus said something along the lines of ‘he who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed aldultery in his heart.’ I would say that the man is at fault, but if the woman is dressing ina provocative way, she too is at fault. The Catechism seems to agree with me.

My post was too long so slit it in two:
 
I probably have a differnent perspective for you: my girlfriend is a model, she started about the same time we started dating (over 10 months ago) and her “career” has escalated since then. We are both 17 and seniors in a Catholic high school. She has wanted to be a model ever since she was little, she has always been naturally skinny and very beautiful, and she grew up listening to people tell her she would be a model someday. Her parents have only encouraged her on this path. And from the one time I actually instigated a conversation between them and her about her modesty in modeling, they basically came out saying they would rather her be impure than have her modeling ‘career’ ruined. They have spent thousands of dollars on this for her (they dont have a lot of money, either (her mom was one of those people who went and got food stamps in a BMW, although they dont have it any more)) and see it more as an investment than anything. (the second evil of “sex sells” sells = our world is run by money, greed, etc)
Code: 
When she first started modeling, it worried me, and I almost never asked her out because of it. I eventually convinced myself that it would probably just be a minor thing and it wouldnt be bad since it was just a local agency. Boy was i wrong! She wont even show me half the pictures from her first photo shoot! She has done runway shows, photo shoots, etc. and a few of them were, to put it nicely, less than modest. Now she has been asked to fly to LA (we live in kansas - NOT together) to do test shoots and castings for Vision LA (dont google them, there are very bad links on their website).  I've talked to her a lot about immodesty and how it can harm others, not just her soul. I've also explained the impacts of impure modeling on guys and the problems it causes. We've had our own share of the negative consequences in our relationship. It's tough to be pure, when you are in an industry in which you are impure(luckily we're both still virgins). However, she is still pro-modeling the way she does it. I had convinced her finally about modesty and why its bad and all that, and then she comes to me crying (which is in no way fair to me, i hate to see her cry) because she was asked to be in a special scene in the graduation runway show for models that were more likely to be picked by the judges for call backs and stuff, and it involved an immodest outfit. I told her to do what she thought she should do. She did it anyway, and got a bunch of call backs including Vision LA. (man do i regret not saying no). She claims that she is able to say no if she's asked to model anything immodest, but she is going to be there by herself (her parents can't afford to miss work to go with her, and even if i could go, they would be against it because they know im against her modeling) and I find it hard to believe her when she says that, and, very unfortuneately, she has lost my trust as far as modeling goes, because she consistently wants to do more and more (immodesty) and has confirmed my belief that there would be a lot of deception in an industry like that (i wont go into details). Since the decision to go to LA Ive talked to her a lot, and I have made her cry (but i didnt cave this time, i learned my lesson), and explained what her modeling does to me, and eventually she decided not to go, but only because of how i felt, not the reasons i was arguing with her about, which made me even more frustrated. Then her parents decided they would force her to go...

well, that hurt a little, but I haven't given up
I’ve run out of ideas on convincing her… She has come somewhat to my side of it, but her parents are turning me into the bad guy, and it feels like she is slipping away. So now, not only do I have to convince her, I have to convince her parents that there are problems with her modeling, because even if i can convince her of the real reasons she needs to quit doing what she is doing, her parents will make her persist in it.

Does anybody have any advice? :confused:
 
i found the right section of the catechism

II. THE BATTLE FOR PURITY

2520 Baptism confers on its recipient the grace of purification from all sins. But the baptized must continue to struggle against concupiscence of the flesh and disordered desires. With God’s grace he will prevail
  • by the virtue and gift of chastity, for chastity lets us love with upright and undivided heart;
  • by purity of intention which consists in seeking the true end of man: with simplicity of vision, the baptized person seeks to find and to fulfill God’s will in everything;312
  • by purity of vision, external and internal; by discipline of feelings and imagination; by refusing all complicity in impure thoughts that incline us to turn aside from the path of God’s commandments: “Appearance arouses yearning in fools”;313
  • by prayer:
I thought that continence arose from one’s own powers, which I did not recognize in myself. I was foolish enough not to know . . . that no one can be continent unless you grant it. For you would surely have granted it if my inner groaning had reached your ears and I with firm faith had cast my cares on you.314
2521 Purity requires modesty, an integral part of temperance. Modesty protects the intimate center of the person. It means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden. It is ordered to chastity to whose sensitivity it bears witness. It guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons and their solidarity.

2522 Modesty protects the mystery of persons and their love. It encourages patience and moderation in loving relationships; it requires that the conditions for the definitive giving and commitment of man and woman to one another be fulfilled. Modesty is decency. It inspires one’s choice of clothing. It keeps silence or reserve where there is evident risk of unhealthy curiosity. It is discreet.

2523 There is a modesty of the feelings as well as of the body. It protests, for example, against the voyeuristic explorations of the human body in certain advertisements, or against the solicitations of certain media that go too far in the exhibition of intimate things. Modesty inspires a way of life which makes it possible to resist the allurements of fashion and the pressures of prevailing ideologies.

2524 The forms taken by modesty vary from one culture to another. Everywhere, however, modesty exists as an intuition of the spiritual dignity proper to man. It is born with the awakening consciousness of being a subject. Teaching modesty to children and adolescents means awakening in them respect for the human person.

2525 Christian purity requires a purification of the social climate. It requires of the communications media that their presentations show concern for respect and restraint. Purity of heart brings freedom from widespread eroticism and avoids entertainment inclined to voyeurism and illusion.

2526 So called moral permissiveness rests on an erroneous conception of human freedom; the necessary precondition for the development of true freedom is to let oneself be educated in the moral law. Those in charge of education can reasonably be expected to give young people instruction respectful of the truth, the qualities of the heart, and the moral and spiritual dignity of man.

2527 "The Good News of Christ continually renews the life and culture of fallen man; it combats and removes the error and evil which flow from the ever-present attraction of sin. It never ceases to purify and elevate the morality of peoples. It takes the spiritual qualities and endowments of every age and nation, and with supernatural riches it causes them to blossom, as it were, from within; it fortifies, completes, and restores them in Christ."315

IN BRIEF

2528 “Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5:28).

2529 The ninth commandment warns against lust or carnal concupiscence.

2530 The struggle against carnal lust involves purifying the heart and practicing temperance.

2531 Purity of heart will enable us to see God: it enables us even now to see things according to God.

2532 Purification of the heart demands prayer, the practice of chastity, purity of intention and of vision.

2533 Purity of heart requires the modesty which is patience, decency, and discretion. Modesty protects the intimate center of the person.

312 Cf. Rom 12:2; Col 1:10.
313 Wis 15:5.
314 St. Augustine, Conf. 6, 11, 20: PL 32, 729-730.
315 GS 58 # 4.
 
If you go to one of those online stores specializing in modest clothes, you’ll find plenty of pictures of models modelling modestly (say that five times fast!)
 
Without sophistry, selling sex is bad. If the kind of modelling you’re talking about doesn’t rely on selling sex, then it’s not bad.
 
My 14 year old dd is doing this program

purefashion.com/about

She’ll be a model in a runway show in May. She is receiving formation in modesty, being a role model, ettiquette and being beautiful in virtue as well as presenting herself well in appearance.

She’s very pretty, but would never fit the model profile: She’s only 5’6 and is slim (130), but not skinny.

I’m really grateful for this program. 🙂
 
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