Photo: Instagram
"Dress for the job you want," they said. "You'll be more successful that way," they said.
By Leah Scher — Written on Jun 13, 2019
29-year-old Vietnamese fashion model Ngoc Trinh showed up scantily clad to the Cannes Film Festival red carpet. Her people back home didn’t think her dress was all that lovely. Nguyen Ngoc Thien, Vietnam’s minister of culture, sports and tourism discredited her and called her outfit “improper” and “offensive.” Read on for all the ways he thinks she’s failed as a woman, model, and Vietnamese citizen! Who is Ngoc Trinh?
1. She has dishonored her country
In the words of Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien, “She is not an artist that the ministry sent to the event. Her outfit was improper, offensive and has caused public outrage.” At the ongoing National Assembly session in Hanoi, he told legislators that Trinh’s behavior violated accepted standards and, accordingly, had smeared the image of Vietnam in the eyes of the international community.
Now the country, which already imposes monetary penalties on people who wear skimpy clothes in public, has to figure out how to further sanction such behavior to avoid another embarrassment abroad.
2. She left nothing to the imagination
The U.K. tabloid Daily Express told VnExpress, a Vietnamese online newspaper, “The sheer fabric of her garment revealed she wasn’t wearing any underwear underneath and flashed her braless breasts.” This is obviously unfair because a model's job is partially to provide onlookers with voyeuristic pleasure, and if everything is laid out for them, they don’t get to enjoy their privilege to its fullest extent.
3. She neglected her feminine duty to stay classy
I think Pham Van Chung said it best in their comment on the VnExpress article: “Wearing a revealing outfit does not mean you are classy.” Another great opinion shared in the message board came in the form of a well-intentioned warning: “Appearing in these places [like this] could make her a laughing stock.”
I hope Trinh takes this advice to heart and acknowledges her “overdone and offensive” error. (Clearly this is sarcasm, folks. Policing what women wear is never OK.)
4. Worst of all, she violated long-standing tradition
Nguyen Thai Binh, spokesperson of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, called upon his people to speak out against her “uncultured behavior.” Evidently remorseless, Trinh told the media, “I’ve got a lot of praise for my outfit. I don’t care if people criticize it because I felt pretty in the dress, which made a good impression on the Cannes red carpet...I cannot satisfy the whole world.” Her manager, Vu Khac Tiep, only added fuel to the fire when he said that “It is up to each person to decide whether Trinh’s dress was ‘offensive’ or not. Our team is happy with the effect of the dress. We’re fine with the outfit as long as Trinh is happy and confident in it.”
Wow. Disgusting.
Leah Scher is an ENFP finishing her degree at Brandeis University. She's an alumna of the Kenyon Review Young Writer's Workshop the Iowa Young Writers' Studio. She's passionate about Judaism, poetry, film, satire, astrology, spirituality, and sexual health. She draws inspiration for her writing from writer/director Wes Anderson, and for her lifestyle from her grandmother. Lastly, she's always actively seeking two things: a job having anything at all to do with publishing, and a chance to meet Jesse Eisenberg.