Emily Ratajkowski says she wouldn’t have ‘sold as many books’ without capitalizing her sex appeal: ‘That’s the way the world works’

Emily Ratajkowski is getting real about her role in reinforcing beauty standards.

The supermodel, 31, shared her experience navigating the fashion world while also being conscious of the message she's sending to young girls.

"I completely understand that sexualizing myself and putting images out into the world that reinforce the beauty standard is difficult," she told Harper's Bazaar. "I'm not trying to shake accountability. But I also don't think I would have sold as many books had I not done that. That's the way the world works. I mean, we all participate in systems that we don't agree with."

The My Body author went on to say that women can be smart and sexy at the same time, despite what some feminist critics may think.

"I want to be able to have fun with how I present myself in the world without feeling like I'm a bad feminist or a good feminist," she said. "Duh. I don't want to be a part of your club if you don't want to have me. It's fine!"

These days, the newly single mom has been busy deflecting rumors about her dating life. She filed for divorce from Sebastian Bear-McClard in September.

"I can tell you I've never been single before," she said. "I feel all the emotions. I feel anger, sadness. I feel excitement. I feel joy. I feel levity. Every day is different. The only good thing I know is that I'm feeling all those things, which is nice because it makes me believe that I'll be OK."

Since becoming a mom to 1-year-old Sylvester, whom she shares with Bear-McClard, the model has been reassessing her priorities. Now, she explains, the most important role in her life is mom.

"It's made me re-evaluate what's important to me, like, what do I want to teach my son?" she said of motherhood. "I've never had such clear priorities before in my life. Number one is Sly, and that's that."

Indeed, the model is entering a new phase, which she recently referred to as her "bitch era."

"Generally speaking, I think anger is something all of us have a negative relationship to," she said in an interview The Cut. "Justified rage can be really productive. A lot of good things can come out of anger, and it doesn't mean violence or toxic masculinity; it can just mean being a bitch."

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