Rebecca Ainembabazi, a model, beauty queen and human rights activist has come out to turn tables in her own industry and let out of the bag, a cat that has long been kept in there. Ms Ainembabazi, in an exclusive with The Ugandan Wire, has revealed that Modelling Agency administrators are pimping out young models under false promises of helping their careers.
The former Miss Tourism Ankole and Face of Makerere disclosed this in an interview with this website about the Rape Culture in Uganda and her admirable fight about the same using popular social media platform, Facebook.
“They mainly target models and beauty queens that meet bumps in their journey. They targeted me after I failed to clinch the Miss Tourism national crown and thought their promises of Paris and the UK would make me fall in for their intentions.” Ms Ainembabazi told our reporter.
From her experience in the modelling industry, she revealed that the perpetrators of the vice in the industry promise hell fire on whoever doesn’t fall in for their promises. She says, a stalled career, no modelling gigs and permanently remaining career Ugandan models are some of the threats they use on young and naive models that are seeking a breakthrough.
“For any model, it is really a big deal when you step out and get internationally recognized and no one can do that alone. You’ll need chip ins from modelling agents, fashion designers, photographers and other big wigs in the modelling industry. It is so sad that the majority of these in our industry who are supposed to be genuinely guiding us, want to take advantage of our ambitions to get in our pants.” Ms Ainembabazi added.
Ainembabazi says she has the names of most of those perpetrators and at the right time, she will air them all out with evidence. She recognized that some of her colleagues have fallen prey to the trickery and are professional escorts at the moment.
“There are so many models, some of them my friends, that I know and are professionally selling their bodies with the help of modelling agents. The sad part is that at the moment, they’re sort of beyond redemption and they cannot even be given the exposure they were promised. The Fashion Shows they were supposed to have in London and Paris are all long gone and at the moment, they’re just in the business of having sex with different people set up for them by their own agents, for money.” She said.
Rebecca, mostly known as Becky among her friends, further admitted that the pimping doesn’t just cover the girls but boys too. She admits that young male models she has worked with before have confided in her and told her about the offers of working as Gigolos that have been fronted by their agents. Unsurprisingly also, is that the men don’t just work for “female clients” but are also pimped to fellow men to engage in homosexual sex.
“My younger brother is a model and the only advise I give him every chance I get is to beware of too-good-to-be-true promises that modelling agents throw around. I have told him that it is more honorable to break out after 10 years in the industry than break out now while your life and dignity are at risk.” Ainembabazi disclosed.
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