2016 has undoubtedly been the year where feminism and
body image have been hot topics and with it nearing that time of year again,
where the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion show hits our screen, this year taking
place in Paris on November 30th, the show will no doubt get everyone
talking.
The morning of the event and days after, my news feed
is normally clogged with criticisms about feminism, the models being too thin; the
largest being a UK size 6 and how they have unrealistic and unattainable
body goals. Don’t get me wrong there are some praises too, as the fashion show
is really just for entertainment and celebrating the pop culture.
Image via FashionStock.com / Shutterstock.com
However, for Victoria’s Secret whose built up its
fortune and its image from hoisting up breasts and having their models wear huge
sparkly wings, while they walk across the runway, it seems as though they
aren’t very keen on the idea of having bodies that represent the majority of
women, but instead perpetuates a very narrow and unhealthy ideal of beauty. So
I find myself asking “How and
why does Victoria’s Secret’s model selection process result in the
objectification of women?”
There seems to be no attempt of body diversity across
the company as Monica Mitro – EVP Public relations, Victoria Secret states in Victoria’s Secret – Making of an Angel, “when you see them go into lingerie you see proportions are off and that
really stands out when you have 35 of the most beautiful models on the runway.” While
watching this video I noticed all the models looked basically the same, I
couldn’t really tell one from another. They were mainly all white, blonde and
skinny.
How does
Victoria’s Secret objectify women?
Victoria’s Secret objectifies women as thousands of
models across the world apply to be an angel, but only a small number of them
are selected and as the “judges” are only seeing the women as a body and not
the personality that comes with it. This ties in to the objectification theory,
“we live in a society where women
view themselves from a third person perspective, as mere objects to be
evaluated.” (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997)
Which is exactly what the
modelling selection process at Victoria’s Secret does, they look at the
personality and facial appearance after looking at the body of the model. This
puts a lot of pressure on the models to make sure their models are in top condition,
so models go as far to only having liquids one week before the modelling
selection or fashion show.
More research has gone into the objectification theory
and “research has shown that targets
depicted in revealing or sexualized attire elicit more objectifying perceptions
compared to targets presented in plain clothing,” (Graff, Murnen, &
Smolak, 2012; Gurung & Chrouser, 2007). I feel as though Victoria’s Secret sexually
objectives women, because if we refer what they are wearing to ‘sexualized
attire’, Victoria’s Secret in a way contributes to the porn culture, as their
audience (late teenagers/ young adults) are encouraged to engage in self –
objectification.
One of Victoria’s Secret objectives is to empower
women and make them feel confidence and sexy, however getting the models to
walk around on stage and adverts in lingerie and heels, is similar to the
attire of prostitutes. This re-enforces the stigma that women are sexualised
objects. In Kathy Miriam’s journal: Feminism, Neoilberalism and SultWalk she states:
“..a main slogan of SlutWalk – Most often
trumpeted by women dressed in Victoria’s Secret lace and stilettos.”
In a way the selection process is similar to (Singh,
1993; Tovee & Cornelissen, 2001) study where they said: “men are more sexually attracted to normal
and under –weight women.” I feel as though they are selecting women that
are ‘under-weight’, so men are more interested in the brand and buy these items
for their partner, similar to how the male gaze works.
Source: youtube.com
Victoria’s Secret sparked online criticism back in
2014 with their ‘The Perfect Body’ campaign, which was a play on the name of
their new lingerie range ‘body’. The campaign was illustrated with 10 models,
with the words ‘The Perfect Body’ across them, all of which have the exact
same, very slim body type, failing to celebrate body diversity among women’s
bodies by calling one body type ‘perfect.’
Over 10,000 people signed a petition for an apology
and for the campaign to be taken down as they agreed the campaign was “sending out an unhealthy and damaging
messaging about women’s bodies and how they should be judged,” after this Victoria’s
Secret changed the slogan to read ‘a body for every body.’ Although I agree it’s
a better choice of words, I feel as though the campaign should have at least
included a variety of models, even if they aren’t featured on the runway.
There’s no doubt, the brand intentions weren’t to body
shame women’s bodies with this campaign but at the time of the campaign being
released, unrealistic body images were and still is a controversial topic.
Don’t get me wrong the Victoria’s Secret models are
beautiful, I’d be a hypocrite if I said I didn’t care about the way I look to
compare with them. Don’t we all, on some level want to be prettier, skinnier,
taller? But it’s when people have an unhealthy obsession to become one of them:
skip meals, liquid diet in hopes of achieving those 23” waists. Beauty isn’t
the end all, there are more important thing to focus on: respect, morals and self
belief.
Image: http://bit.ly/2fWyHVu
Another thing that caught my eye when looking at this
campaign is the lack of ethnic diversity among the models. All the models
featured in the ‘perfect body’ campaign but one is white. Are we there to
believe that only white have the ‘perfect body’ and fit the narrow standard of
beauty? As well as the petition another response to the campaign came from the
lingerie brand Dear Kate. They released their own ‘the perfect body’ advert,
which featured a diverse range of women of all sizes and ethnicity.
Earlier on this year, Victoria’s Secret model Erin
Heatherton opened up about her decision on why she stopped modelling for them
after five years in 2013. In an interview, Erin said: “My last two Victoria’s Secret shows, I was told I had to lose weight…I
was struggling with my body image and the pressures to fulfil the demands of
perfectionism upon me.” I feel as though over the years; young women have
felt pressured to look a certain way, I mean the obsession with contour and
highlight and eyebrows on ‘fleek’ have gone too far. So it’s no wonder Erin
Heatherton felt pressured to lose weight. Todays society is way too involved in
what other people think of their own appearance,
It’s frightening to think the objectification of women
is still happening in 2016, although I think it’s getting better (slowly), quite a few men still see women as objects and not as a person,
where as men are known as possessions. (Women can I just remind you we DON’T need a man…just
remember "Destiny’s Child – Independent women.") Victoria’s Secret objectify women in their
selection process by focusing their attention on the shape and size of the
models bodies. This puts a lot of pressure for the models to stay in shape and
keep up with their workouts and diets. Victoria’s
Secret upload their workout videos and diet plans on YouTube, and they are
INTENSE! I tried one of their workouts the other day and I had to stop after
two minutes. I must say do admire their hard work, I can just
about commit to a two-hour netball session once a week.
While I think Victoria’s Secret should relax the criteria
size of the models just a tad, I’m not ‘skinny-shaming’ the models, (I’ll admit
I’m jealous of their size.) Instead I should be cheering on my fellow women,
otherwise I’m no better than them for selecting certain body types.
Due to the amount of press Victoria’s Secret has been
getting over the year about body shaming women and the amount of petitions
being listened to, I feel as though Victoria’s Secret will one day change the
brands image and allow more ‘average’ sized women to walk down the catwalk.
As feminism and body image have been hot topics over
the year, I feel as though more and more people are being made aware of these
issues and will hopefully encourage fashion brands and designers to think about
their model selection and how they advertise their products.
What do you think of Victoria’s Secret model selection? Do you think it
will change?
♥
