The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
b-side
Thursday, April 5, 2018 — 5B

In a culture centered around 

appearance, 
the 
fashion 
and 

modeling industry holds a huge 
weight in today’s society. Amid 
unrealistic 
body 
expectations, 

name 
brands 
and 
distorted 

representations, it is easy to get 
wrapped up in the downfalls 
of this materialistic business. 
With 
such 
an 
emphasis 
on 

aesthetics and looks, a great 
amount of room for error and 
false representation comes into 
play in the world of fashion and 
modeling. I love fashion as much 
as the next person, but among 
the love and lust, a fair amount of 
mistakes, misinterpretations and 
just straight-up misconducts go 
unnoticed.

In 2015, Interview Magazine 

released their winter cover, which 
pictured none other than Kylie 
Jenner posing in a wheelchair. 
Jenner and Interview’s motive 
for the shoot caused an explosion 
of comments within and beyond 

the 
disability 
community. 

One woman’s response to the 
photoshoot managed to spark an 
entire conversation surrounding 
Jenner’s controversy. Author and 
disability activist Erin Tatum went 
viral when she reenacted Jenner’s 
cover in her wheelchair.

“If being in a wheelchair is 

trendy now, I’ve apparently been a 
trendsetter since before Kylie was 
born,” Tatum wrote in a Tumblr 
post.

Defining ableism in its rawest 

form, 
Jenner’s 
fetishization 

and wrongful depiction of the 
disability 
community 
opens 

up a conversation that is still 
extremely relevant in the fashion 
and modeling industry today. The 
disability community is simply 
not represented in modeling, or 
properly designed for by leaders 
of the fashion industry. White, 
cisgender and able-bodied females 
like Jenner stand at the center of 
this industry that many of us care 
so much about. Jenner portrayed 
disability as something artsy and 
provocative 
when 
represented 

by her identity, but when actual 
members 
of 
the 
disability 

community fill this role, they are 
looked down on as incapable, sick 
and sad, as Tatum mentioned in 
her Tumblr post.

Ever present now as it was in 

2015, the need for this multifaceted 
community to be integrated into 
the fashion and modeling world is 
all the more necessary. We need 
accurate representations of the 
disability community in modeling, 
and 
we 
need 
adequate 
and 

fashionable and practical clothing 
options for this community as well.

Lucky for those searching for a 

silver lining in the sometimes dark 
industry, followers of the fashion 
industry are able to find hope 
and inspiration in Aaron Philip. 
Gaining guidance from fashion 
trailblazers 
with 
disabilities 

such as Jillian Mercado and Nyle 
DiMarco, Philip, a transgender 
model whose pronouns include 
she/her/hers 
and 
they/them/

theirs, have started a revolution in 
the fashion industry. As a model, 
they represent and advocate for 
themself and the entire disability 
community through their work. 
DiMarco, a deaf actor, model 
and activist, was the first deaf 
person to win “America’s Next 
Top Model” and “Dancing with 
the Stars.” Founder of the Nyle 

DiMarco Foundation, DiMarco 
serves as a role model to deaf 
models and children, speaking to 
language equality and advocacy 
for literature. Philip’s leading 
inspiration, 
Jillian 
Mercado, 

who was diagnosed with spastic 
muscular dystrophy as a teen, has 
landed modeling contracts with 
IMG Models and Diesel Jeans, 
agencies that include a lineup 
of famous supermodels such as 
Kate Moss and Heidi Klum. In 
addition, 
Mercado 
starred 
in 

Beyonce’s “Formation” video and 
a marketing campaign for Target. 
Aligning themselves with these 
individuals 
with 
disabilities, 

Philip accredits their pursuance 
of modeling to Mercado especially.

“I credit Jillian Mercado as 

a trailblazer for people with 
disabilities in fashion,” Philip 
wrote in an email interview with 
The Daily. “I credit all the hard 
working Black models for their 
beauty & visibility in fashion right 
now. I credit all the upcoming 
trans models for their advocacy 
and visibility as well. I’m a part of 
all of this, and I just want to work 
hard to break boundaries.”

Acknowledging the need for 

progress in this industry, Philip 
is spearheading a movement one 
simply must rally behind.

“The modeling industry has 

so many issues with not even 
bothering to take risks and portray 
disabled bodies of all types in any 
way,” Philip wrote. “Sometimes 
they may see an aesthetic within 
disability in terms of the mobility 
aids we use and glamorize that, 
but they still proceed to prioritize 
big names & able-bodied people. 
They appropriate disability instead 
of getting actual models with 
disabilities involved.”

As a Black, transgender and 

disabled model, Philip has built 
a platform for themself via social 
media and blogging, working into 
the modeling world and setting 
straight the false aesthetics the 
modeling and fashion industry can 
so often rest heavily upon.

“I have issues with the way 

fashion 
tends 
to 
ignorantly 

objectify certain things from 
certain types of people and 
amplify it. For example, cultural 
appropriation 
is 
a 
problem, 

ableism in the sense that disabled 
bodies are negatively objectified 
by the disability and not the talent, 
general racism & trans people 

feel uncomfortable in fashion as a 
space,” Philip wrote.

Philip’s role in the modeling and 

fashion world is the much-needed 
push for a long overdue change to 
what can be a challenging cycle. 
Philip’s multifaceted identity is 
real, something people can relate 
to and certainly something that 
has challenged the idea of models 
as commodified products. 

“I think designers could start 

with acknowledging physically 
disabled folk as a part of their 
narrative and as potential clients, 
and with that comes having to 
work with physically disabled 
models of all conditions and body 
types as well,” Philip wrote.

So to the modeling world: 

Please, no more Kylie Jenners 
posing in bedazzled wheelchairs. 
What we need is a continuation 
of the monumental movement 
Philip, DiMarco and Mercado 
have started and will continue 
to sculpt for future generations 
of the disability community. The 
ever-changing industry needs an 
aesthetic that is real, accessible, 
narrated and designed by those 
who live the reality of disability. 
Only then will the fashion and 
modeling industry be something 
we will be proud to associate with 
and acknowledge. 

For the past 50 years in music, 

it has often been cool to be sad. 
The countercultural phenomena 
that have guided teenagers and 
young adults for decades — 
movements like grunge, goth, 
new wave, alternative and punk 
— tap into the darker side of 
life, opening the door to themes 
like 
depression, 
nihilism, 

dissatisfaction 
and 
rebellion 

for millions — if not billions 

— of those who identify with 
them. The hipsters of every era 
tend to be typecast as angsty, 
if not completely bummed-
out — it’s a modern tradition 
for each period of bubblegum-
sweet popular music to be 
matched with an opposing force 
of artistic power, one that is 
historically more alternative 
and well, sad. This plays into 
stereotypes, yes, but it also 
offers a mode of expression 
for 
people 
struggling 
with 

legitimate issues beyond the 
façade, namely mental illness 
and the disabling, very real 
sadness it can produce.

Now, without the need for a 

record company to distribute 
music, 
this 
tradition 
of 

counterculture has shattered 
into thousands of subgenres 
within subgenres, an endless 
line of evolutions from the 
legends of the past. Nothing 
has changed the rap scene in 
this way so much like the full 
embrace of Soundcloud as a 
method of distribution and 
expression — so much so that 
the “Soundcloud rapper” has 
become a social type. Though 
this movement often boasts 
an image of party-savvy and 
drugged-up youth, it has also 
offered a niche for rappers to 
tackle previously untouched 
or hidden topics, one of these 
subjects being mental illness 

and the nihilism that sometimes 
comes 
with 
it. 
This 
has 

spawned rap’s new guard, an 
assemblage of teens and early 
20-somethings 
with 
names 

like Lil Pump, Lil Xan, Lil Uzi 
Vert and Lil Peep, boasting the 
collective title of “emo rap.”

Why are they all “Lil”? We’ll 

never know. But it is clear from 
their music that these artists 
are not afraid to attack the 
darker side of life, most notably 
the realities of depression and 
the drug addiction that can 
accompany 
it. 
Their 
songs 

have lyrics like, “I don’t really 
care if I die / Push me to the 
edge / All my friends are 
dead,” (“XO TOUR Llif3,” Lil 
Uzi Vert) and “My life is goin’ 
nowhere / I want everyone 
to know that I don’t care,” 
(“OMFG,” Lil Peep). This music 
is a subversive tangent from the 
classically 
hyper-masculine 

stereotypes of rap, attacking 
the taboos of mental illness and 
its consequences with a brash 
sense of self-assuredness. It 
has a characteristically slow, 
reserved 
tempo 
and 
heavy 

low end, creating a weight in 
each song that only enhances 
their typically melancholy or 
mundane lyrics.

“Emo rap,” or “sad rap,” 

as some have called it, still 
maintains the “party hard, get 
bitches” mentality of the rap 
music of late, a parallel with the 
similarly popular trap music of 
artists like Migos. But it goes 
beyond the party, often using 
the motifs of drugs like Xanax 
and lean to enhance a blissed-
out image. Though it may seem 
like their music encourages 
drug use, it is slowly moving 
towards the opposite. Artists 
like Lil Xan often make a point 
to deter their fans from diving 
into drug use further than 
just the image it presents. Xan 
himself is known to yell things 
like “Fuck Xanax 2018!” at his 
concerts, and his songs contain 
lyrics like “Xans don’t make 
you / Xans gon’ take you,” to 
emphasize this sentiment even 
more.

The emo rap scene originated 

with a sense of self-destruction, 
but 
has 
recently 
shifted 

towards an image that still 
maintains the teen angst and 
recklessness of its past with 
a new warning of its dangers. 
Though it still perpetuates an 
image that glorifies sadness and 
heavy drug use, emo rap has 
the potential for change in this 
area. The people who listen to 
emo rap are typically in it for 
the aesthetic, but can get drawn 
into the lifestyle via the image 
and fall prey to its realities. 
This image is likely not going 
to change anytime soon, as it 
is sometimes more popular 
than the actual music, but the 
content has a chance to make up 
for that. Instead of completely 
embracing 
the 
sadness 
of 

depression 
and 
addiction, 

Lil Xan and many of his 
contemporaries have integrated 
a wary message into their music 
— one that celebrates partying, 
but points out the disabling 
sadness and looming addiction 
that the party lifestyle often 
creates in its participants with 
a rough but honest voice.

This presents itself most 

intensely in light of the recent 
Nov. death of Lil Peep, one of 
the genre’s rising stars. Peep 
was only 21 at the time of his 
untimely death 
— a suspected 

drug overdose on his tour bus in 
Temple, Ariz. He was perhaps 

the most outspoken member 
of the emo rap scene about 
his struggles with depression, 
taking 
a 
no-holds-barred 

approach to his musical content 
in terms of transparency. Peep 
was open about the realities 
of life as someone who battled 
many demons, a drug user and a 
member of the genre which has, 
in the past, glorified drug use to 
a dangerous extent. 

In one of his last interviews 

with Montreal media outlet 
MONTREALITY, Peep touched 
on this candidly, saying “You 
can’t 
predict 
where 
you’re 

going to be next year. You have 
no idea. I’ve been in very, very, 
very low points like shitty 
situations, horrible situation,” 
continued 
Peep. 
“My 
mom 

always tells me time will heal 
everything … It will eventually 
get better.”

His colleagues, artists like 

Lil Xan, have taken his death 
as an opportunity to comment 
on the image they portray of 
an alluring world that indulges 
in drugs and sadness. There 
is still a ways to go in order to 
get rid of the negative aspects 
of the emo rap image, but many 
of the genre’s intentions show a 
unique side of rap that has been 
left unexplored in the past. 
The realities of mental illness 
and disabling addiction are a 
consistent presence in emo rap, 
and that has opened a door for 
further development of the 
genre.

Though much of its music 

now highlights partying, emo 
rap holds an intriguing promise 
for the future, one which offers 
a complex mix of awareness 
and the classic themes of 
recklessness 
that 
listeners 

know well. It continues to be a 
fascinating case study in what 
happens when self-destruction 
reaches a tipping point. The 
response to Lil Peep’s death 
has proven that many of the 
genre’s artists are committed 
to shifting their message to 
one that warns of the dangers 
hidden in partying and the 
glorification of mental illness. It 
is possible that the Soundcloud 
rappers have something more 
to say here, and their music 
has the potential to spread that 
message to those who really 
need it.

The sad guard of emo rap

CLARA SCOTT
Daily Arts Writer

First Access/Warner Bros. Sweden

MUSIC

Aaron Philip & necessity 
to represent disability in 
the new world of fashion

STYLE

MARGARET SHERIDAN

Daily Arts Writer

Courtesy of Ella Wiznia

Courtesy of Ella Wiznia

Though this 

movement often 

boasts an image 

of party-savvy 

and drugged-up 

youth, it has also 

offered a niche 

for rappers to 

tackle previously 

untouched or 

hidden topics, one 

of these subjects 

being mental 

illness and the 

nihilism that 

sometimes comes 

with it

Peep was open 

about the realities 

of life as someone 

who battled 

many demons, a 

drug user and a 

member of the 

genre which 

has, in the past, 

glorified drug use 

to a dangerous 

extent