The Hypocrisy of Nostalgia

The past is better, right? Even though you sat on your bedroom floor every night sobbing, hoping for the future to come. The past, your history, can’t help but look attractive to you. It’s gone, it’s unattainable, it’s a time you’ll never have the opportunity to relive. Because of that realization, you, me, all of us can’t help but romanticize and crave a time that we probably didn’t enjoy to begin with.

This thought first came to me after the total wrecking ball that hit the internet following the fall 2026 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. More specifically, the reactions to Kylie Jenner debuting the new, highly anticipated $30 million Fantasy Bra.

Like most 20-year-olds, I instinctively opened social media to tune in. As many of you might know, the most critical, horrible and outlandish comments almost exclusively come from X. Though I don’t frequent the app very much, I thought, Why not open it? I’m bound to see something crazy—especially with someone as famous as Jenner being the star of the show.

And boy, was I right!

Initially, I was flooded with an abundance of comments condemning Jenner’s presence, stating it was “disrespectful to REAL models” to incorporate her into the show in such a vital role. That was to be expected with a controversial character like a Kardashian or Jenner. But what I wasn’t anticipating—even though I definitely should have, knowing the internet’s inclination toward total hypocrisy—was the stream of comments claiming that Jenner’s inclusion was a hindrance to the body positivity movement, and that featuring someone with plastic surgery was wrecking body standards.

“as an OG Victoria’s Secret fan, it pisses me off that a botched influencer who damaged the beauty standards is wearing the most expensive fantasy bra instead of the real hard working supermodels there.” (Reddit)

“Adrianne Curry brutally slams Kylie Jenner’s Victoria’s Secret debut: ‘She doesn’t have a model’s body’” (Page Six)

“Kylie totally disrespected all the other @VictoriasSecret models. Sorry but it’s the truth they desreved that spot more than her. – Kylie Jenner accused of buying her way into Victoria’s Secret Fantasy Bra as angels allegedly snub her” (Twitter/X)

Excuse me? Condemning Victoria’s Secret for its laundry list of ethical issues is more than valid—encouraged, even. But claiming that Kylie Jenner’s inclusion is a new, emerging problem that totally destroys the audience’s perception of realistic bodies is absurd. Not because the statement has no merit, but because the company—and more specifically, the fashion show and the “Angels”—have been doing this exact thing for years. It’s almost as if that was one of the main attractions driving the popularity of the show to begin with.

The Victoria’s Secret show is the same event known for setting some of the most unrealistic body standards of the early 2000s, and for inducing eating disorders in both its models and its audience.

This reactive response from the public got me thinking: what else have the internet and humanity rewritten history about? And why do we continue to redraw the past in order to yearn for a time that never existed, removing ourselves further from the present?

Why do thousands of people feel the need to overwrite the toxic, unethical and extreme environment that consumed Victoria’s Secret, just so they can tear down and criticize the face of the label today?

It is because, for some reason, a deep part of us cannot accept the reality around us, and certainly cannot fathom the idea that the life we are living now is the best it’s going to get. To accept your present—to live in the moment without sinking into the fictional joys of the past—takes real, true courage.

It’s called nostalgia bias—when people view the past as fonder and better than their present (Andy Fell, UC Davis). Our minds don’t want to hold onto the dark, painful memories of the past, not if forgetting them is an option. So, they don’t. We forget the sleepless, hard nights and the sadness that warped our bodies and minds. We wipe away all memory of that—or as much as we can—and hold onto those very few smiles and limited laughs. Anything joyful that can take up space is what will hold primary memory in our heads. And when you find yourself acutely aware of your frustration, anxiety and pain, your gut instinct is to reflect back on those endearing memories and wish for that feeling again—to wish for any feeling but the present.

But you can’t remember the magnitude of that joy unless you allow yourself to sit and bask in the hardships of the present. Until once again, you find that pain becoming a faraway, distant memory, and find yourself wishing and yearning for a past that doesn’t exist.

So remind yourself the next time you take a trip down memory lane, looking at old photos of a time you can’t help but remember fondly: your present, your life right now, is the best chance you have at fulfilling that deep, unending desire for nostalgia.

• beauty standards
• body positivity
• fashion show
• internet culture
• kylie jenner
• nostalgia
• pop-culture
• victoria's secret