Victoria's Secret Controversy

Victoria's Secret "Perfect Body" Campaign

In 2014, Victoria's Secret received a huge amount of criticism when they released a campaign in conjunction with their latest underwear range which suggested that their models had the bodies that everyone should have if they were to be considered "perfect".  The company has always been under fire for not featuring models with varying body shapes and for photoshopping their existing models, so it shouldn't have been a shock when they came up with this new campaign.

Dear Kate is another underwear company, and they thoroughly disagreed with the way VS handled their new product launch. They responded with the above image on their own website, but people were quick to notice that they more or less diminished the body type that VS uses, suggesting that it's not okay to look like that. While their morals were good, they didn't make an awful lot of sense. 

Yet another underwear company responded to Victoria's Secret with a short video in which a group of women state what they like about themselves and what they think makes them beautiful. This is exactly the kind of message that needs to be sent to women; that anyone can be beautiful. 

There needs to be a company out there which appeals those who look like Victoria's Secret models, as well as Dear Kate models and Lane Bryant models. There are so many responses to Victoria's Secret's campaign, but none of them have been able to label every single body type as beautiful. There are no in-betweens, instead, they focus on the polar opposites and completely eliminate one or the other. 

After the internet backlash, Victoria's Secret adjusted the text used to accompany the campaign to "A Body For Every Body" but it's not much of an improvement. They still only feature models with the same body shape, so the "every body" aspect is irrelevant. 

Since VS is widely known for photoshopping their images, how can they label their models' bodies as perfect? The models themselves have even taken to editing photographs of themselves on their personal Instagram accounts. 

As you can see in the image above, the one on the left is the original version released by Victoria's Secret and the one on the right is Miranda Kerr's version in which her waist is significantly slimmed down. She later released a statement in which she said that she had no idea the image was photoshopped and she'd screen-grabbed it from elsewhere on the internet, but even if it wasn't her who edited it, the fact that an edited version exists proves that Victoria's Secret is encouraging unrealistic body aspirations.

Above is further proof that VS is insistent on women looking like their models do but again, most of it is photoshop. In reality, who wears that much make up and looks that good whilst working out? Models with access to photoshop. So first of all, they are suggesting that you have to have a "perfect body" but then they take it a step further by suggesting that you have to look "perfect" whilst trying to achieve that. It's a never ending cycle.

Above are some VS models without make-up on the left and then with make-up on the right, you can see a clear difference but VS avoids showing their models looking "normal" because they are trying to change what is considered as "normal". 

Perhaps the most aggravating thing about Victoria's Secret is that they know exactly how to reach their target audience. They realise that younger girls are easily influenced and as they become young women, a lot of them are focused on looking like VS Angels so they aim their 'PINK' range at a younger demographic. Not only are girls constantly bombarded with negative messages regarding body image that lead to them feeling insecure, but now girls in the US are surrounded by such messages in a place where they should be focusing on studying and creating a future for themselves as if the pressure from their peers isn't enough. If Victoria's Secret featured a variation of body types in their adverts, they would appeal to a larger audience rather than make girls who are on the curvier side feel bad about themselves and go to extreme lengths to look a certain way.

What VS fails to mention is that everyone is built differently and sometimes it isn't physically possible for girls to achieve their desired body.