How Did This Ludicrously Sexist Emily Ratajkowski Profile Ever Even Make It to Print?

The long tradition of male journalists writing sexist profiles of female celebrities is something we’ve spent the last few years (hopefully) finally mocking into obsoletion. A profile of Emily Ratajkowski from French Marie Claire has been making the rounds on Twitter again, and it’s probably one of the best (meaning definite worst) examples of exactly why this trend needs to end once and for all.

The profile is a few years old but it was resurrected over the weekend by writer David Klion because we all need a good laugh/outlet for our rage right now.

The article is co-written by married couple Valentine Faure, who had to decline the interview when it turned out to require getting on a plane at eight months pregnant, and Thomas Chatterton Williams, whose greatest qualification seems to be his excessive horniness for Ratajkowski.

The profile touches on subjects including Ratajkowski’s “confusing” outfit (which Williams notes doesn’t include a bra), her sexuality (“omnipotent and animal”), and her body (“She was admittedly blessed with the most perfect breasts of her generation,” he writes). What range.

Much of the profile, though, is dedicated to trying to suss out whether the actress/model/author can really be as intelligent, body-positive, and feminist as she claims to be, given that she’s also as gorgeous as she is. Williams seems genuinely confused not just by her outfit, but that someone he finds this attractive could also read books or share his taste in music.

“The day I read that she was a fan of Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño, my brain snapped. It doesn’t matter that she really took the time to read the 1,300 pages of 2,666, the mere fact that she knew his name already seemed incredible to me, as if we were definitely meant to get along,” Williams wrote, not able to recognize that a woman’s choice of reading material has nothing to do with him.

“[I] never read this before but I really hope this will be the last of my ‘she has breasts AND claims to read’ profiles/interviews,” Ratajkowski tweeted Sunday. “Lots of levels of gross/embarrassing aspects to this but the attempt at a feminist critique at the end is maybe the worst part.”

She also wrote that she remembered the interview, mostly because it made her feel so creeped out.

By the way, that “feminist critique” Ratajkowski mentions sure is a doozy. here’s how the writers choose to end their profile:

This squaring of the circle – being a sexy muse while seeking a feminist dubbing – can be solved by the legendary line of another film by David Fincher (“If you were the inventors of Facebook, you would have invented Facebook”, in other words: we wouldn’t have to debate it for hours): if EmRata was a feminist, she would be a feminist. It does not matter, she is surely nice anyway.

If you’re wondering if Williams has learned anything in the years since he did this interview, the answer, apparently, is a big no.

(image: Angela Weiss / AFP)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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