Books on Models & Drag Queens

During the eighties, I was obsessed with Vogue magazine and knew all the top models by heart. Before you scoff at modeling as a talent and dismiss it as solely the work of the photographer, the designer or the makeup artist, think about what you can convey with your face and body at will. Modeling is acting without moving pictures, and it takes an emotional intelligence and vulnerability that the average human being does not have. Lately that interest has morphed into a fascination with the drag community, particularly Ms. J. Alexander. Ms. J. Alexander was popular in Paris before her appearances in America's Next Top Model (ANTM). (Actually, Ms. J should get more air time with the contestants.) Just look through a couple of her fabulous photos in Girlfriend, Men, Women, and Drag by Holly Brubach. Through sheer force of will, drag queens and models become something extraordinary and change their pain and passion into beauty.
Janice Dickinson's No Lifeguard On Duty is a great book about modeling in the 70s & 80s. Here is a woman (who is also a judge on ANTM) with a riveting story who happens to be a model. I find her intensely interesting because she really does understand the industry. She struggled against the beauty standard of her day--the blonde American look, and succeeded. In ANTM, it does surprise me that she still promotes that beauty standard even though she had to overcome it.
I needed a book about models to help me get through the dry spell before the fourth season of ANTM so I picked up the mass market paperback version of the book, Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women by Michael Gross, which has a hot pink cover with photos of Claudia Schiffer, Linda Evangelista and Cindy Crawford. Frankly, I was horrified by the cover and contemplated covering it with a book jacket made from a plain brown paper bag like I used to do in grammar school.
I persevered and did not let it deter me. I am not quite finished reading it, but if you are looking for a quick read that does not end quickly, I would suggest this book. The author interchanges an interview with a legendary model with a historical summary of the modeling industry.
By the time that I reached the 1950s, I began to notice a pattern. A young girl decides to be a model. She is initially discouraged or praised. Her career has a few rough starts, but before she knows it, she is a huge success adored by everyone in the fashion industry. Then she becomes reckless, gets hooked up with the wrong guy, parties too hard, then loses everything either by choice or from living too hard. There are a few models who escape the pattern, and they make brief appearances in this book.