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Former male model Barrett Pall began his fashion career while studying as an undergraduate at New York University.
Pall, now 33, is opening up about the alleged sexual abuse he received from photographers behind the scenes.
He recently detailed his experiences, telling Yahoo Life that he first thought the fashion industry would be glamorous.
“In reality, that’s not what it is at all,” Pall claimed to the outlet. “I’ve been very open and honest that on my very first photo shoot, I was sexually assaulted by the photographer.”
He first described his hellish encounters in a YouTube video and then to Advocate in 2018. Pall said he has used the last few years to encourage male models to speak out and expose sexual predators. “I know that this is not an uncommon situation for most models,” he said.
He added that on his first photo shoot, he realized that his financial hardships and lack of modeling experience made him a major target.
“I grew up in a difficult situation in terms of my family life. Resources and funds were not plentiful. We were poor. We were evicted from four different homes while I was growing up, and I looked at this as an opportunity to make a bunch of money,” Pall said.
“There is no one specific way that someone is sexually assaulted or abused,” the catwalker, who identifies as queer, explained. “I personally was not penetrated in any way, but I was sexually abused, and I say that wholeheartedly, knowing full stop that is what happened to me. There was no consenting, there was no asking, there was no ‘Are you OK with this?’”
After his shoots, Pall would go to his dorm room and sob as he felt shame. “I got back to my dorm room and just cried and felt really dark and confused. To be honest, it’s something that I still don’t like to go back to because something was taken from me and there are pictures. I feel like you see my innocence being taken from me in those pictures,” Pall confessed.
Men also suffer from unwanted sexual advances, with 1 in 6 males reporting to have been sexually abused or assaulted.
Inspired by the #MeToo movement, Pall wanted to share his story about his alleged abuser, photographer Rick Day, who reportedly abused other male models such as Kai Braden and twins Zach and Michael Zakar.
“They prey on our silence,” Pall claimed. “I came forward with my #MeToo experience with the photographer Rick Day, and I think it’s important to say his name, because he has been protected for so long by this industry and different agents and managers. He is a serial abuser.”
The Post has reached out to Day for comment.
Despite his trauma, Pall is ready to heal and is hoping to help others do the same.
“There is something that’s taken from you, and as more people share their stories that are similar to mine, you get to take back a part of your narrative, which is taking back some of your power,” he told Yahoo.
He concluded, “The message that I want to send out to other men, regardless of your sexuality, is that consent is something that we also get to have for us and our sex lives. It’s an enthusiastic ‘yes’ — or it’s not a ‘yes’ at all.”
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