Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show (VSFS) is a big deal. Every year, about 800 million viewers tune-in to watch the show unfold, which features massive angel wings, diamonds, painfully high stilettos, shiny waves, and one overarching archetype: ultra-thin, tall, and fair women. And, by fair, the supermodel line-up is overwhelmingly white.
Despite a decline in sales, Victoria’s Secret hasn’t really budged in their efforts to diversify shows, advertisements, or commercials. Other more inclusive brands such as Aerie, American Eagle, and Savage X Fenty have embraced inclusion by representing models of all sizes as well as those with disabilities (including garments that fit a wide range of sizes and shapes). As a result, their profits have increased. In the face of a market finding profit through inclusion, it is surprising that Victoria’s Secret continues to be strongly glued to their historically white, thin, and voyeuristic image.
While Victoria’s Secret has attempted to diversify their supermodel line-up with Winnie Harlow who has vitiligo and Kelsey Merritt who is the first Filipino model to be cast on VSFS, many marginalized groups continue to be left out. Already a prevalent problem within the fashion industry, the plus-size, disabled, transgender, and minority communities are largely missing from this monumental and influential fashion show—which is only part of the issue.
Beyond being blatantly whitewashed, VSFS features an army of impossibly thin women parading down the runway. Every year, these models chosen for the show overwhelmingly represent the desirable westernized, eurocentric norm: perfect (often light) skin, immaculate bone structure, glowing teeth, luscious hair, and skin-and-bones (except for the voluptuous boobs, of course). It is this structured and unrealistic idea of beauty that is the central issue. What is Victoria’s Secret teaching women, of all ages, when they mass represent this narrow and rare type of beauty?
For most women, such a specific kind of beauty and body type are only possible through extremes: dieting, working out 24/7, cosmetic surgery, and both an extremely expensive dermatologist and dentist from Los Angeles. In fact, this sort of beauty is incredibly elitist, in that only a select few can afford or have the opportunity to alter and conform their bodies to this unrealistic beauty norm (that, or they have an incredible set of genes). This is precisely why brands such as Savage X Fenty and Aerie are reaping profits—they represent beauty in all its varying forms, and not just an extremely tailored, unattainable, and whitewashed form.
Yes, Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is still pretty cool when speaking strictly of fashion. Every year, designers go crazy with their creative visions and spit out some amazing get-ups. In the upcoming years, hopefully Victoria’s Secret will reach their full potential and diversify the line-up of models who wear these incredible designs. Until then, don’t let the narrow, elitist, and whitewashed beauty represented on VSFS ever let you doubt your own individual, unique, and awesome beauty—in and out.