Until two weeks ago, model Carissa Pinkston was best known for her freckles. The redhead had been featured in Vogue as one of five models who were “revolutionising the freckle movement across all skin tones”.
Pinkston had modelled for Marc Jacobs and Savage x Fenty, and had even appeared on stage with Rihanna at the Grammys in 2018.
But in the past two weeks, Pinkston has become much better known for something very different and a lot less attractive than freckles. It’s a complicated story.
In May this year, someone on Facebook called Rissa Danielle – apparently, Pinkston using a fake name – posted some comments attacking transgender people.
“Being transgender does NOT make you a woman,” she wrote. “It makes you simply transgender.”
In the next post, she expanded on her views: “Being transgender does not make you a woman in a transgender context according to gender and sex. This is how they want to be perceived. In a biological context there are females and males. This is the world in 2019.”
The posts were deleted, but last week, they began circulating on Twitter, with Pinkston’s name linked to them. Not surprisingly, Pinkston was dropped by her agency, Elite Models.
Within a matter of days, Pinkston had confessed.
“I panicked and thought that if I came out as trans that I could somehow make things better for myself but it appears I’ve only made things worse. I’m truly sorry. I’m only 20 and I’m human. I make mistakes but I refuse to let them define me. I hope you can all forgive me and move on from this.”
Later, she posted a photo of herself with Euphoria star Hunter Schafer, who is a transgender woman, complaining, “I been friends with Hunter way before all these comments and now she won’t even talk to me”.
Pinkston has gone back to posting fashion photos of herself on Instagram. But her followers aren’t quite ready to forgive and forget.
“So instead of taking the time to learn about trans women and their struggles like you should’ve been doing this entire time, you’re… posting photos of yourself?” wrote one.
“Why are beauty gurus getting cancelled for the smallest of things while a lot of people are letting this lying, transphobic model off the hook?” asked another.
“Moving on” from this might take a little bit longer than Pinkston was hoping for.
Do you think Pinkston will be able to move on from this scandal? Tell us in a comment below.
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Top Comments
Wow. This is taking the whole "I'm not racist, I have a black friend!" school of excuse-making to an entirely new level! I reckon she's done. She's not famous enough to come back from this one. (BTW, if her name is Carissa, and the Instagram page is under the name 'Rissa Danielle', I'd assume it was a short version of her first name and probably her middle name, rather than a 'fake' name.)