Emily Bajek, Katie Sun, Michelle Manjunath, Sanjna Sadarangani
Advertising and marketing are immensely important components of any corporation, especially one as large and globally recognized as Victoria’s Secret. Anticipating an avalanche of press coverage of anything and everything the company puts out, Victoria’s Secret has created their own website meant specifically for the press called the VS Press Room. This website is home to the current and recent Victoria’s Secret campaigns and shows the media kits and backgrounds of each. Below is a small peek at part of the information given on one of their recent campaigns, “First Love Eau de Parfum Fragrance Collection”.
It is no surprise to see how Victoria’s Secret has normalized discrimination over the years. The company’s minimal efforts to incorporate diversity and inclusivity into its campaigns and fashion shows has created dissatisfaction among plus-size and transgender women, in addition to gender nonconforming people. Although not explicitly stated, the show year after year included the stereotypical tall, white, thin model, showing no regard for transgender or non-binary individuals. Since the first show in August 1995, not a single plus-size or transgender/gender nonconforming person has walked in the show. After a direct remark made by L. Brands’ chief marketing officer Ed Razek in a Vogue interview, stating that the “show is a fantasy” and claiming that “transsexuals’ shouldn’t be part of the show, many took offense, creating an adverse effect on viewing rates and company sales. In 2017, the shows viewings fell 30% from the previous year, which calculated to just under 5 million viewers, and about 3.3 million in 2018. In addition, company sales plummeted about 5% in 2018, and had lost market share to more body-positive brands such as Aerie. Thus, Razek’s justification for the lack of casting of transgender individuals simply wasn’t enough, as seen through lack of sales, as well as the opinions of the people.
The fact that a powerful white man is claiming a disregard for the principles of a modern day society, and simply promoting ideals of contempt and disrespect toward gender communities is completely unethical, and has created havoc through social media platforms. An abundance of viewers and performers advocated their opinions about the matter, claiming that the show has aggravated hate and ignorance toward the transgender community and other marginalized groups.
The term sexuality does not just refer to the connotation of the word “sex” , it relates to the ability for one to feel confident and secure with his/her own body type. In an interview with Vogue Ed Razek, the chief marketing officer of Victoria’s Secret, said the show would not have transgender models and plus sized models because it wants to represent a fantasy. This notion is extremely problematic. Victoria’s Secret is quite possibly the most noteworthy womenswear manufacturers, with its fashion show garnering immense amounts of media and press coverage. It is a celebration of sexuality with the models being able to confidently show off beautiful pieces of lingerie. Women empowerment is not accurately represented, if only a certain mold of woman is being empowered. The brands places confines on the body type it wants to celebrate, by not acknowledging trans bodies and plus sized bodies. A study with Yahoo found that only 1 in 7 individuals actually feel satisfied with their body image and this is exactly why representation matters. When brands like Victoria’s Secret does not display diversity of body types, individuals will feel like that is the body type they need to strive for in order to be beautiful.
Razek said they want to have a fantasy. People who consume this media will actually believe that this fantasy is actually reality and will not feel comfortable in expressing their sexuality. In daily life, transgender human beings experience misogyny with others calling their bodies “sexless.” The real world is not a fantasy and consists of individuals who are different sizes and are different genders. If a platform like Victoria’s Secret would embrace that and be inclusive towards others who do not just fulfill a “fantasy,” that would normalize the fact that society is comprised of many different individuals. It would be reputable for brands of lingerie to be more inclusive, and represent more than a certain mold. Brands could possibly sell more and show that fashion has the ability to make all different types of people embrace their sexuality. More inclusive representation would give people confidence to see, yes there are other people who look like me and give those consumers the ability to realize the inherent value of their body and sexuality.
Victoria’s Secret has been the subject of much criticism for years for promoting standards of beauty that are not representative of most women. While they have made efforts to have a more racially inclusive in their cast for the fashion shows in recent years leading up to the cancellation of their show in 2019, they have been known for not being particularly sensitive to appropriating, sexualizing, and exoticizing other cultures or groups of people.
In 2010, they had a segment in their show called “Wild Things,” featuring tribal body paint, animal print, and male dancers performing what resembled a tribal or indigenous dance. All of their models of color were featured in “Wild Things,” compared to the other segments where only a few of them walked. This segment is reminiscent of how throughout history, many non-European cultures were seen as wild, exotic, or “other.” Following the broadcast, the brand was criticized by many for their insensitive interpretation of what it means to be “wild.”
Victoria’s Secret has also run into many issues involving cultural appropriation and culturally offensive outfits, most often for designs supposedly inspired by indigenous and Asian cultures. In one portion of their 2012 show, they dressed each model to represent a month of the year. For the month of November, model Karlie Kloss wore a Native American headdress and lingerie that looked like buckskin. After pictures of her outfit circulated before their show aired on television and many people spoke out against the brand, they decided to edit her part out of the broadcast and apologized.
However, they did not learn from that experience, because they decided to have a section called “The Road Ahead” in 2016, which was meant to honor the cultures of countries such as China and Mexico. Many viewers found some of their outfits offensive for being inaccurate and sexualizing the way that certain cultures dress. Some Chinese viewers were also upset that the outfits inspired by China were not worn by more models who were Asian. Again in 2017, they had a section called “Nomadic Adventures,” where models wore tribal prints and beading that resembled common stereotypical depictions of indigenous people. With the large amount of influence that Victoria’s Secret has, these kinds of decisions have an impact on how certain groups of people continue to be viewed and are disrespectful in the lack of understanding that they have for different cultures.
One notable step in the right direction, although long overdue, was in their 2015 show where model Maria Borges became the first Victoria’s Secret model to walk with her natural hair. This was an important moment because most of their models have always been styled to have long, flowing, and loosely curled hair, and Borges showed that people do not have to conform to traditionally Western standards of beauty. In their following shows, more of their models walked with their natural hair as well.
Business Insider argues that Victoria’s Secret’s lack of representation and inclusion is going to be the reason that the company goes bankrupt. Companies like Adore Me and Aerie are slowly catching up to Victoria’s Secret and are raking in revenue due to their policies of inclusion and representation as well as reality. According to Variety, the reason that the corporation decided to cancel their world famous fashion show in 2019 was because they were working on “evolv[ing] the marketing”. Hopefully Victoria’s Secret will move further away from their current status of being unrealistic and unachievable and will move closer to a sense of reality and diversity.
Fashion 
I think that this topic is so important especially now that we are reaching a time where body image is being spoken about more. The way we consume media and how it is marketed towards not only us but young girls around the world is so much more important than I think most people speak of. I love how you guys began the conversation with that topic because it truly is all about how these body images are being marketed to women all over the world both young and old. They teach us that women can not age, they can not be thick, they can’t have stretch marks, etc. What is being taught is that women need to be thin and absolutely perfect that only a math problem could solve. There are so many companies today that still fail to realize the impact they have and how times are changing. Their refusal to adapt and accept the beauty in all women is absolutely horrifying. It was very smart of you all to talk about Victoria Secret to begin that conversation.
To learn that Victoria’s Secret has failed to include women of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds to be in the show is truly horrifying. This brings to light that no matter how much society tries to educate or how much it changes there are still people or companies like Victoria Secret who refuse to be apart of that change. To hear that they deny transsexuals because somehow they don’t fit the fantasy is absolutely absurd to me. It’s sad to hear that they believe that white, thin, tall women are only fit for fantasies and that anyone else is not deemed acceptable to fit into that fantasy. Everyone should be deemed beautiful and should be portrayed in the media especially with so media coverage. It is important that women see that they too can look and feel beautiful in this lingerie as well as know that they will find something in their size. I am so happy to hear that they after finally cancelling the show after years of Victoria Secret getting away with such discriminatory language and refusing to be inclusive of all people.
LikeLike
This is a very educational blog. It was interesting to read about the marketing tactics that Victoria’s Secret has been practicing, especially the website that was created for the press. When people think of Victoria Secret models, and the fashion show, many think of the tall, white, skinny models stated in the blog. This is definitely an issue, especially in our society today. As equality and acceptance has been evolving and growing, it seems as if Victoria’s Secret has not been a part of this movement. This shows exactly what is still wrong with our society. This has not been a smart business move, as making negative comments about transgender folk has made more people mad than happy. The part of the blog that talks about women empowerment is extremely important. It is arguable that Victoria Secret is not promoting equality, especially between women. When certain women and body types are not being represented, especially by a brand like Victoria’s Secret, it can be really discouraging for women who are working on their self esteem. By only showing white, tall, thin women, every other woman is bound to feel not good enough and not pretty enough. This has been an ongoing problem throughout our society for a long time. Because a white male with power made the comments about the “fantasy”, it makes the situation less surprising. It has been a common theme for a while now for white male supremacy to cause issues within society. Regardless of this terrible situation, it is refreshing to see brands such as Aerie and Adore Me supporting all body types and women. Victoria’s Secret is eventually going to fade out, if they do not start making changes within their marketing and advertisement. Even if they do start making changes, it could be a while for people, especially women, to forgive them. It would be hard to look past what has been said about trans people. It is going to take a lot of work to gain the trust of women back, and especially enough to have them start shopping at Victoria’s Secret again.
Written by: Jenna, Sydney, & Zyhonna
LikeLike