The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show: The Glitz, the Glam, and it's Controversies
- Natasha
- Nov 7, 2016
- 5 min read
Ah yes, the Victoria's Secret Fashion show, the escalation of every model's dream to walk down the runway in scantily-clad attire and putting their faces and name out there for the world to take notice. The lights, the couture-designed lingerie, the beautiful girls, the cast of the hottest celebrities, the makeup, the bombshell hair, the heightened anticipation and build-up all leading to women and even men salivating over the ideal fantasy that VS spins.
It is of course, one of the most viewed nights on television, raking in about millions of views worldwide in 150 different countries and the models that do participate, see a dramatic increase in the quality and the number of castings in their post-fashion show life. That is understandable. Any model wants to have "Walked in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" down on their resume because it was a sure guarantee that they were bound to see more work come their way as well as the an elevated clientele for the bookings.
While it has shared a number of success, it hasn't exactly been flawlessly executed. I myself, am guilty of watching them, because why not? I enjoy them, there's no shame in that, but there are moments where I absolutely cringe at the execution and decisions that the people who impacted into making this show have made, offending some of my more feminist sensibilities. What do I mean by that? Well, it has seen it's share of controversies and disappointments in the past.
I, of course, have my own opinions on the matter and I wanted to take the space to voice them as objectively as I can and shed some real light on all the glam. Of course, these are some things I find cringe-worthy, but that does not mean that everyone has to have the same opinion as I do. I encourage my readers, always, to do their own research and come up with their own conclusions.
So without further ado....
1. Lack of Diverse Women
In the past, Victoria's Secret use of casting woman all from similar backgrounds and thus, lack of diversity, kind of hit a sour point with me. For one thing, it's not good business on VS's end frankly, because you ultimately limit the demographic of women you reach, but also it's kind of, in my opinion, poor taste. It's important that when you're trying to market to women, that you should market it to all women of all ethnicities, race, creed, etc,.
Of course, part of that blame could also fall on the industry itself where the changing trends and consumer preferences direct the kind of models the company hires out for these shows, but with such a large dominating force in the lingerie industry, (VS leads in the lingerie industry among other competition) you'd think VS could take a few risks here and there if they are so inclined, to include more women of color.
A prime example of this occurring has to do with casting black models or Asian models in the show. In the industry, Asian and black models oftentimes get overlooked due to the fact that "they don't sell." It would be most appreciated if VS could feature models of possibly Native American, Black, Latina, South Asian, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Alaskan-American, and even multi-racial descent. That would make way for a very varied and beautiful mix of women. The other thing, which I suspect will not happen in the eventual future, is the use of transgender or gender-fluid models in the show. I don't see why they should only limit to individuals who are female biologically from birth. Just as women wear lingerie, there are those who are transgendered and gender-fluid that wear lingerie as well. However, because VS targets women of a specific body type it makes it hard to cast women of those descent into the mix, which brings me to the second point--lack of body types.
2. Lack of Body Types
Here is another thing that kind of turned me off as well, the lack of body-types showcased in the show. The VS women comprise of a small fraction of women in the world that have the favorable genetics to have the body type that they do and of course training and exercise helps, but the reality is a majority of women do not have the stick-thin figures that these ladies sport. On top of that, there are women of different and varying body types that also wear the brand's clothing, so why feature models of only one body type?
There was a point at which VS had done a shoot with women with a more muscular and fit physique, but they had never used them again or marketed their lingerie in that fashion after that due to the fact that they hadn't sold. However, the trend is changing among young women, in that women are now aspiring towards a more toned and muscled physique. Just check Instagram and you'll see pictures and videos of women with larger butts and a more curvaceous figure, with defined abdominal and strong legs.
What I am disappointed by is the lack of curves on the runway. Why not feature models who have a more curvaceous body? Or a toned one? Or an athletic one? Or a muscled one? Or even a plus-sized model? Honestly, they all just look the same to me. It would be nice to see women of different body types on the runway, showcasing the lingerie off in other ways.
3. Cultural Misrepresentations/Misappropriations
This one probably is one of the worst. Victoria's Secret, for one of their segments, featured Karlie Kloss in a Native American-inspired lingerie with the traditional headdress. The minute I had seen that, my jaw dropped. I could not believe this was sanctioned to even be on the runway and that no one on the team thought to maybe pause for a second and think, is this even culturally appropriate to be putting out on the runway?
Think about it. The Native Americans have inhabited the United States long before European colonization happened and through tragic events in history, from disease, war, unjust and atrocious removal of their land and genocide, the Native Americans were pushed off their lands. Their culture is one that is dying steadily and people today are now more aware and sensitive to the slowly extinct indigenous population of our country.
So to reduce their traditional cultural wear and headdress to nothing more than props on the runway was, of course, downright insulting to those who were of Native American descent. The headdress had cultural and spiritual meanings that embodied the characteristics of the individual wearing it, (sometimes chieftains and leaders of nations). There was no mistaking that VS had received severe backlash and immediately pulled the outfit out of their marketing and branding with Karlie Kloss apologizing soon afterwards on social media.
This was not the first time either. VS has also in the past featured a geisha-inspired lingerie costume, which of course was again deeply insulting to East-Asian culture, where they promptly removed the item from their shelves. It fetishizes and strips individuals of the respect of their identity and culture and reduced it to nothing but a sexual fantasy. You'd figure that VS might have learned from their first mistake of this controversy to avoid the later one with Karlie Kloss.
Conclusion?
While some of the industry has begun to evolve, (some of the larger fashion houses are now featuring models of different races and body-types and seeing tremendous increases in profits, for example DOVE and Gucci), let's hope that VS soon sees a changing demographic of the lineup of women they have. We have as yet to see an Asian Victoria's Secret model and it would be nice if their lineup might include a mixture of more diverse women and not to just meet some arbitrary diversity quota, but to actually genuinely incorporate women of all backgrounds.
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