Apr 15, 2007 05:25 PM
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For those who have not been keeping up with the Anand Jon case — and really, who could possibly be perverse enough to keep up with the Anand Jon case? — here's the story so far: Until last month, the India-born, Miami-raised Jon was a minimally talented fashion "designer" more or less kept in celebrity orbit by the general gravitational field of the Paris Hilton Star System. He liked girls. On March 4, an Internet-arranged "encounter" with an aspiring model ended in a charge of rape. Within weeks, at least 11 other women, including a 14-year-old, came forward with similar allegations against Jon. All this is recounted exactingly in "The Designer Who Liked Models," an article by Sharon Waxman in today's Times Sunday Styles. Where's the Weekend geistiness, you ask? Meet Ronald Richards, Anand Jon's attorney/wingman:
"Why would she change into pajamas?" asked Mr. Richards. "Why didn't she leave when she sees there's no bed for her? Why didn't she punch him in the face?" He noted that there were no signs of physical trauma. "My client is 5-foot-4 and 130 pounds. He's a thin Gandhi-type guy. He can't overpower anybody. Any girl would kick his butt."That's right, the British Empire is weaker than a girl. More generally, what is a "Gandhi-type guy"? Comparative investigations after the jump. On Social Justice:
from "The Designer Who Liked Models":
Friends warned him: Take it easy. Keep cool. Don't be alone with a woman you don't know. If he listened, it didn't seem to change his basic promiscuity. Part of the problem, friends explained, was financial. Mr. Jon could not afford high-fee supermodels and was always looking for young models to work free or in exchange for clothing. But they were inexperienced and perhaps na ve. And, no matter their inexperience, friends and others said, he seemed to expect sex.Gandhi:
The Rich must live more simply so that the Poor may simply live.On Design Sense:
from "The Designer Who Liked Models":
But Mr. Jon was a child of his time, savvy in self-promotion and not consumed with the minutiae of fashion design.... His simple Indian-influenced designs — typically, a floor-length silk skirt paired with a muscle T — didn't impress the critics or fashion insiders. "I don't think he was taken too seriously," said Sam Bolton, a night life photographer, who met him around town. "From my perspective he was just one of those people who was always doing events in nightclubs. The focus was on the after party, not the fashion show."Gandhi:
The truest test of civilization, culture, and dignity is character, not clothing.On Human Gender:
from "The Designer Who Liked Models":
Mr. Jon told the girl's parents, the father said, "I treasure the feminine being. I got all this spirituality from my grandmother and my mom." But a few hours later, he forced the teenager to have oral sex at the hotel where he was staying, the father said. "I drove him to the hotel, where he raped my daughter," he said ruefully.Gandhi:
To call women the weaker sex is a libel: it is man's injustice to woman. ... If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man's superior. Has she not greater intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater powers of endurance, has she not greater courage? Without her, man would not be.
The Designer Who Liked Models [NYT]
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