Power, integrity, love, lust – a former top model reflects on the age of #MeToo
The #MeToo movement gave former high-flying international fashion model turned author Laurie Marsden pause to reflect. Here the global activist answers questions about her newly published memoir MEN and Me Too.
Your memoir, MEN and Me Too is just out – what’s it about and why should people read it?
My memoir is about power, resiliency and fighting for the kind of life you want. I tell my story through various encounters with men, which I use as a structural technique, and because men have always been an important part of my life. I think people should read it because it’s entertaining and informative. Some of the book’s themes, such as pursuing a dream, making it in a high-powered industry, the kind of eternal question of how to take or create opportunities while still maintaining your personal integrity, will resonate with readers and are still relevant today.
How did you maintain your integrity?
It was hard. I do think I had the ability to set boundaries and that was key in a world that was dominated by men (and remains so). I was a teenager when I started my first career, quite naïve and from a conservative Catholic background. Suddenly I’m plunked in New York, working as a fashion model in 1981. I navigated my way through that cut-throat industry and became a top model. I worked the markets of Paris, Milan, London, Brazil and Sydney over 11 years, and travelled extensively for shoots. I had to learn how to manage agents, clients, photographers, designers, advertising executives, directors and other creatives. Nothing prepares you for it all. My memoir flows through and describes all these years, places and choices I made.
Sounds glamorous. Was it?
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I never worked harder in my life, but there’s also no denying the glamour and fun of it all. And I think the book captures that. One of my favorite chapters in on Joe Eula, who was a legendary illustrator and creative director of Halston for 10 years – and my friend. He was an original influencer. He did album covers for Miles Davis, posters for Liza Minelli, and worked with Milton Greene on Marilyn’s “black shoot”. Andy Warhol said about Joe, “He knows everybody who’s anybody, everybody who’s somebody. All the really chic people.”
I hear there’s a few celebrities in your book. Care to name drop?
Dodi Fayed, Mick Jagger, Roman Polanski, Warren Beatty, Whitney Houston. How are those for a start?
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I couldn’t really tell my story without including them. Some I dated, some I worked with, some mentored me. And for a reader, or someone listening to a story, celebrity is somewhat enticing too, so I couldn’t ignore that either.
It took you seven years to write this book. What was that process like? And how did you hang in there as a writer?
It started in a writer’s group in Sag Harbor, New York, which I joined just to get back into the craft. I had articles published previously but had drifted away from writing when I became a therapist, got married and started raising children. I decided to give it a go again and was blessed to be with some first-rate writers in the Hamptons, which has a rich history as an artists’ and writers’ haven. As I was bringing samples in weekly to review, someone in the group, my dear friend Peter, wrote “MEN and me too” on the back of the piece that day. Everyone was working on books, and I started thinking, “Hmm, a whole book about men? Yup, I can do that.”
What a great place to start a book. Steinbeck, Capote, Vonnegut all wrote there. But why did it take seven years?
I suppose life got in the way again, and we ended up moving back to Australia just before the pandemic. Then I became involved in a case against an agent in France and became an activist. I gave speeches to the French senate via Zoom and went to Brussels to address the EU parliament. My advocacy work took up a lot of time, trying to change laws to protect women and supporting our survivor group as well, plus the press. I was interviewed by 60 Minutes Australia, Channel 7 and CBS in the US, the BBC, The Guardian. It was full on. Still, I didn’t abandon my book but kept at it as best I could. I even reconnected my Sag Harbor’s Writer’s group and ran sessions via Zoom from here. The book really evolved. Last year I decided it was finished and time to get it out there.
So, are there #MeToo stories in the book?
Yes, I share a couple incidents, as they impacted my life and are important stories to tell. But there are so many more good men stories in the book. I think the book shows how diverse interactions and relationships are. I’ve been told it’s a page-turner, too, because it’s a real insider look at the industry and the era, the 1980s and 1990s were exciting cultural decades.
MEN and Me Too by Laurie Marsden, Gatekeeper Press, $28.99.
Laurie Marsden is a writer, psychotherapist and activist. A former top model in the 1980s and ’90s, her memoir MEN and Me Too is available at Amazon.com.au, Apple Books, Google Play, Barnes & Noble and elsewhere. Laurie lives in Brisbane with her husband and two children.
Avid Reader in West End will host an authors’ event with Laurie Marsden on March 27; she will also be at Books@Stones, Stones Corner, 6-30pm-7.30pm, on May 1.