TOUGH LIFE

Nude Art Models Want Better Conditions

In France.

A French group called La Coordination des modèles is fighting to improve the working conditions and wages for the country’s professional nude models. Full-time nude models in the country generally make a little over $20 per hour on working days that last from nine to six hours, but without contracts or salaries, they receive no benefits and have no job security (for example, if a class gets canceled at the last minute, the model is down a day’s work). “We’re asking for a reassessment of our wages and the problem of our status,” says Patricia Clark, a member of La Coordination des modèles. “We have no status, we are technically temp workers, so we’re sitting in ejection seats, and that’s unacceptable…That’s not what a temp worker is supposed to be, he’s not supposed to be working every day, six hours per day, 33 weeks per year.” Concerns over muscle spasms and exhaustion are also a priority, as sculpture classes in particular demand that models hold the same pose for weeks on end.