Content warning for eating disorders.
I would not recommend this book for anyone under the age of 15 due to the nature of its topic and the themes explored.
Fashion Should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment – Alexander McQueen
Is the quote from which Juno Dawson opened her YA Book Prize of 2020 winning novel Meat Market, a young adult contemporary book about Jana Novak, a 16-year-old who gets scouted as a model, and her journey into the not so beautiful world of beauty.
I first read this book in 2019 and stayed up until 2:40 am to finish it. Dawson’s tone of voice is immaculate and the characters spoke in such a natural voice. The way this book is written captivates the reader so quickly that it is hard to put the book down. When rereading this book to review it, I had to stop myself from getting lost in the pages like, “Come on Rhiannon! Got work to do! “
Dawson said goodbye to the typical cliché descriptions (which I myself have an awful habit of doing) and writes some really funny ones such as “He smiles and his teeth are kike perfect little monopoly houses – too perfectly square to be real.” (page 6) She writes in such a fun and engaging way which really stood out to me when I reread this book. Meat Market explores many topics that are relatable to modern day and teenagers everywhere – exams, concern for the future, A levels, family life. As well as themes that everyone can relate to and should be educated on – feminism, eating disorders/ body image, capitalism.
What I think makes this book such a great one is that eating disorders are just a part of it and not the plotline. This shows the reader that eating disorders are just a section of your life and that you’re still a person outside of it – something I’ve seen many authors not do.
Right away, Dawson presents the dehumanising dialogue from within the fashion industry. By page 21, Jana has gone to the modelling agency after being scouted and is examined in such an uncomfortable way - “your bone structure is fucking immense.” Her bones are being examined rather than her face for example. Which does make sense for a model but is perhaps such a weird thing to say to a child. Child and teenage models are nothing new, but perhaps this shows the normalisation of talking to kids in dehumanising ways about their bodies. Further into the book, the topic is shown again – “You’re like a fucking swan, hon. Cheekbones!” (p48) Comparing a 16-year-old to a vicious yet elegant looking swan is another way in which the character is dehumanised. Made to seem animalistic or just as a bone structure. This may not seem too bad to the reader as I’m sure we’ve all hear the “elegant as a swan” expression countless times before. However, I think that this shows us that it is a normalised way of speaking. Jana refers to herself as a “shop dummy,” (p61) which shows even more that she is just seen as a coat hanger or a mannequin and not even a person. A modelling agency member even says to Jana “clothes just hang better off bone than they do fat, what can I say? It’s only two months a year, baby, just stick to your diet and you’ll be fine.” And even goes as far as to threaten her “Don’t gain a single pound, Jana, I mean it.” (p199)
In this book, the modelling agency like to say that they will never ask models to lose weight and that they don’t put pressure on being thin. However, even if nobody wants to admit it, eating disorders are still common amongst models in the book and in real life. “Last season in Milan, I swear to god a girl dropped dead backstage at Allonque” (p200) A fellow model tells Jana, “And we all say we eat. All of us. Like, find me a model who tells the truth about how much they really eat. If we were honest we’d all say we survive on diet coke and cigarettes, but then our agencies would fire us for making them look bad, when it’s them telling us to lose weight.” (p201) This tells us that the modelling agencies are apart of the reason they develop eating disorders but are too worried about hiding it than helping those who suffer with them. Eating disorders are so normalised amongst these characters that they don’t even see them as something that is very bad. Jana even questions their attitude in her head “What does she want to hear? That starving yourself is normal?” (p201) Although, just from being around this normalised behaviour, she begins to question herself “Maybe I should be more careful with what I’m eating. I hate myself for doing it but I compare my arms to Lien’s.” (p201) I think that this is such good representation of what happens when young people are put into toxic environments where eating disorders are normalised. When I struggled with my eating disorder, I would constantly compare myself to my friends and it became almost a competition to be thinner than them. To this day, I have to practice self-care and try to avoid conversations that I find to be toxic about anything to do with weight. This section of the book also shows how even little comments can be enough to make someone think about weight loss.
The premise of this book is that Jana is making a documentary about her time as a model now that she isn’t one. There are short snippets of interview that divide up the chapters. On page 40 she says about how she should have seen signs sooner “that things weren’t right. That I, we, weren’t … safe.” I think that in a lot of modelling, neglectful and abusive situations can arise. In Jennifer Sky’s article “Working As a Teenage Model Gave Me PTSD” in The Cut magazine, she states that
“Countless questionable things happened to me during my time as a model. From neglect to molestation to topless photoshoots to men exposing themselves to being made to stand in a freezing pool until I turned blue, I would be abused for the entirety of my career.”
Although this took place in the 90s, cases like this are still relevant. Dawson’s book starts to show some red flags within the modelling world, endangering those in it. One that particularly stood out to me was when a stylist told Jana “Half of this game is about having a good, positive attitude, Jana, remember that. Just say yes!” (p50) This tells the character to always say yes, no matter what, which is an awful thing to tell anyone, never mind an impressionable teenager.
I would give this book a strong 5/5 stars, as it explores so many important and hard-hitting subjects in a way which is informative and non-offensive (in my opinion) to the reader.