A top Victoria's Secret model has spoken out about a photographer who forced her to pose nude on the set of a photo shoot for a "high profile" magazine, Fox News reported. Bridget Malcolm recalled how the incident left her in tears and racked with feelings of guilt.
"Models do not get a training course on how to protect themselves, or who to be careful around in the industry," she wrote in a blogpost Monday. "Most of the time they have to learn this for themselves, and often with devastating consequences."
This is how the 26-year-old top model found herself posing nude for the shoot despite feeling "intensely uncomfortable" and hesitant. Initially, Malcolm said, she was assured there would be no nudity involved in the shoot; however, the unidentified photographer insisted she pose nude "for editing purposes" until she gave in.
It did not end there.
Later that evening, Malcolm said they had moved the shoot outside when the photographer again insisted she strip down despite there being people watching them from the street. The model said she refused several times but began to feel "completely coerced and unsafe" and obliged. The incident left her in tears.
"I felt guilty about betraying the line that I thought I had drawn in the sand," Malcolm said. "It is an awful feeling to state your feelings and needs, and to have someone completely disregard you and your voice."
The Victoria's Secret stunner wrote the incident forced her to see the world in a new light.
"This was the first time in my life that I have felt the power imbalance so tangibly," she said, adding the traumatic experience opened her eyes and forced her to reclaim the right to her life.
"But, surely it should not take such exploitation for all women to wake up to their manipulation," she noted. "The world has been defined by men and their belief of their rights. There is no denying that. However, we are at an interesting time where we are able to take back our power, and align ourselves with the lives we should have always had the right to live. And this process begins always with conversation."