Male Models Lead the Unglamorous Life

For its issue coinciding with New York Fashion Week, New York magazine follows rookie male models,they navigate their new careers.

Writes Mike Albo: "Financially speaking, male modeling is not unlike being a straight-male porn star: The men have always made less than the women, and very few become big names.

For most magazine work, models are paid less than $250. Twenty percent of that goes to the agency, which also bills models for their board and expenses. 'Sometimes you get charged for things you never thought of,' says Petey, 'like $30 a month to be on the website.' The only hope of making ends meet is to book an ad campaign or catalogue job.

But even those are less lucrative than they once were. 'Where you used to get $5K for a job, it’s now $2K,' says JD Ferguson, a former model who now works as a fashion photographer. 'I remember my booker saying to me, ‘Hey, if you won’t do $2,000, there’s another guy right behind you that will.’ "

Ferguson also dispels another myth: "Gay models will go down in history as the biggest misconception about the male modeling world."

Although they do apparently sleep together: