Pioneers of the Backslash Movement

Leave it to millennials to assume we did something first. Here we are, going on about how we’re the backslash-career generation as prompted by Kevin Gnapoor: math enthusiast/badass m.c., when actually, it’s fashion models who are the real pioneers of the job remix.

They begin as themselves, which is a career in and of itself. Then historically, there’s always been a personal and creative element added, such as “deejay” (see Kevin G), or actor (see Rajiv Surendra who played Kevin G) or photographer (see everyone with a smartphone). From there, these models/actresses/photographers go on to include such professions to their resumes as:

Astronaut

Boxer

Sailor

Pilot

Rockstar

Professor

Armless scientist

Spy

Lion Tamer

Waitress

Etc., an abbreviation which has never proved more useful than it does now because for a model, the list really does go on. These women accrue upwards of a hundred careers over the course of their professional lives; and let us not forget that for every magazine spread we see, there are a million stock photo shoots they do on the side in order to make expensive-ass New York city rent:

“Hi I’m Jan and I’m a Model/Robot/Corn Enthusiast/able to afford my apartment on the reg.”

In fact, when considering where our determination and hard work ethic comes from, we should probably stop giving credit to our parents and professors and mentors and instead give a shout out where it’s really due: to the multi-vocational women whose enterprising gumption has been passed down to us. In fact, I myself probably wouldn’t be the writer/telephone operator/1980s IT person that I am today if it weren’t for this woman:

We must respect the past and realize that if it weren’t for models and the insouciant way in which they assume enumerable identities, we’d be one man shows no one paid to see.

Here’s some mood music to accompany your slideshow. Cheers.

Claps to Charlotte Hundo-Job Fassler for being the Slideshow Mafia.