Emily Ratajkowski: My Sexy Image Is About ‘Survival’ Not Self-Expression

Emily Ratajkowski is one of the sexiest women on earth and according to a recent interview, this public representation is all about survival, not necessarily self-expression.

The 28-year-old covered British GQ’s June issue in a steamy snap shot by her husband, Sebastian Bear-McClard. In the accompanying cover story, she discusses how she unapologetically knew to capitalize off her physical appearance.

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“I think, for me, the way I use my image and as a model and capitalize off of it has been very much about survival, rather than a representation of who I am,” she says. “Modeling was an amazing way to make money and gain stability.”

However, with this success came a bit of fame, which she explains wasn’t something she really expected — not that she totally hated it. “Deep down probably every 20-year-old girl wants to be famous a little bit.”

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With that being said, she admits she was “confused” by the reaction people had, restricting her abilities to modeling only. “People saying, ‘You can’t do all these things.’ It taught me a lot about sexism and misogyny in the world, because the idea that a woman who looks a certain way or presents herself a certain way can’t talk about politics or read books? Ridiculous.”

She then shared a story from years ago about a male journalist who questioned whether Ratajkowski actually read or not. “I had mentioned I liked reading and in the piece the journalist explained how he went home and his girlfriend said to him, ‘Do you think she’s really read all those books?’ I mean, that’s sexist!”

She continued, “Nowadays someone would call that out. It just goes to show how deep some of our ideas about women run.”

In fact, the Gone Girl actress admitted that she herself held some similar ideas in the past that were unconsciously ingrained in her. “I realized I had made assumptions about Demi Moore too,” she said. “I definitely wrote her off a little bit, as an actress, because she was so sexy, because she had that body. And I’m Em Rata, so that’s seriously ironic. It just goes to show how deeply internalized misogyny is.”

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