Forbes released a list of the top-earning male models and the handsome man at the top is 24-year-old Sean O’Pry from Kennesaw, Georgia. According to the rankings, Sean made a cool $1.5 million for doing his thing while being really, really, really, really, ridiculously good looking. That ain’t chump change but in comparison to the top earning female model, Mrs. Tom Brady – Gisele Bundchen, who made an estimated $42 million last year, it’s apparent there’s a big time gender gap in model earnings.
Before you go feeling bad for Sean, don’t worry, dude ain’t mad about it. The Grand Young O’Pry recently spoke with Nightline about Blue Steel his career and had no beef with the big wage differential:
“I’m not going to be complaining about not making $42 million. … At the end of the day I’m very, very blessed with what I do. I don’t have to wear high heels and I don’t have to wear bikinis, so I mean, more power to the ladies. I’m very happy with my career.”
Advertising columnist Larry Woodard explained the massive earnings gap with a sports analogy:
“People love the WNBA but they are just not in it as much as the average guy in the fantasy football league. In fashion, women are really involved in a way that men aren’t involved. … [They] pay more attention to it. … Women even care about couture fashion even if they can’t buy it, but they want to look at it and understand it. The men’s clothing industry rakes in roughly $400 billion worldwide, but the women’s clothing industry worldwide is worth about $621 billion. Female models at the top of the fashion industry have multi-million dollar contracts whereas the men largely are hired for photo shoots.”
Bottom line – the top female’s bottom lines are greater because there’s just more interest in, and money spent on, female fashion.
HT: Jezebel
