IN RESPONSE TO CRITICISM, “THE PERFECT BODY” IS NO MORE
By Liz Gunn || Having worked in advertising, I know how long and arduous the process can be for a company the size of Victoria’s Secret. Victoria’s Secret was founded in 1977 in California, is now headquartered in Ohio and has more than 1,000 retail stores in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, China and Israel. It has to be the most, if not one of the most, recognizable brands in the lingerie industry.
Last week, after some negative backlash and a petition.org campaign, the company quietly changed what some deemed a “body shaming” tagline. While I think it’s commendable that the company is listening to its audience, I personally think changing the ad was completely unnecessary. I actually support the fact that, so far anyway, it’s only been changed on their website. (aka – it hasn’t likely cost them much money.)
The ad is for one of their most popular lines and it features a line-up of models with the tagline “The Perfect ‘Body'”. Although in my opinion these women do have pretty amazing bodies, it was also a play on words. The line Victoria Secret is promoting in the ad is the Body by Victoria line.
I, for one, found it clever. Even though I don’t look anything like a Victoria’s Secret model in my matching Body by Victoria sets, I’m not at all put off by the ad. I will continue to shop there because I like their products, not because or in spite of the long legged women in their advertisements.
The copy on the retailer’s website was later changed to “A body for every body”, but using the same photo of the same line up of stunning supermodels. Someone explain to me how this makes a difference. The complaint was about insinuating that you have to look like these girls to have the “perfect body” – so they changed the text but not the photo.
As a woman, and even more so now as a mother of a little girl, I completely understand people’s issues with the media and the fashion industry and its affect on body image. I actually did a research project in college on that very topic, back in 19…err…well, more than a few years ago. But isn’t petitioning companies with beautiful, thin spokeswomen to change their advertising just putting a band-aid on a bullet wound?
I wonder if these same angry shoppers have also petitioned advertisers like Sonic Drive-In, Coca-Cola, Golden Coral and CC’s Pizza? Where is the outrage for all the companies that encourage an unhealthy lifestyle? By this logic, Hardees should really be the first under fire, seeing as how they combine very unhealthy food with a scantily clad supermodel enjoying it…usually on the hood of a car.
I personally would like to petition adults to take matters in their own hands. Stop blaming the media and start doing your part.
Little girls don’t seek approval from the Victoria’s Secret Angels. They seek approval from their parents, their teachers, their coaches, their peers, etc. If those people would stop worshiping celebrities, stop shaming themselves and/ or others especially in front of children and start giving more attention to qualities like intelligence, humor, kindness and talent rather than just superficial qualities like the size of a woman’s waistline or the fullness of her lips- it would go a long way to counteract the images put out all day everyday my the mainstream media.
Growing up, especially since I was involved in cheerleading, dance and gymnastics (sports often known to promote unhealthy body images), I had some very good and some very bad role models. Luckily, the good outweighed the bad. That’s not to say I never had moments of self -doubt – but when I did it was always at the hand of someone who I wanted approval from, not because I didn’t look like the girl on the cover of Glamour Magazine.
Instead of picking up a copy of the latest Victoria’s Secret swimsuit catalog – might I make a suggestion? Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Tina Fey’s book, Bossypants, and be prepared to laugh until it hurts. Fey is exactly the kind of woman I would want my little girl to look up to – smart, funny, talented and beautiful.
As Aaron Sorkin famously said to his daughter in his Golden Globe acceptance speech, “Honey, look around, smart girls have more fun, and you’re one of them.”
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Liz Gunn is a wife, mom, travel enthusiast, food snob, daydreamer and lifelong Gamecock fan. A graduate of the University of South Carolina, she lives in Columbia, S.C. with her husband and daughter.
62 comments
Oky-doky!!!!!!!
I liked the first pic better.
So did I :(
I didn’t see it. It was a hot VS model, wasn’t it?
Damn, this brave new over-sanitized version of FITS is so tame it puts the Saturday Evening Post to shame.
Yep. I linked to it in the very beginning if you want to see it. It’s the VS “perfect body” ad.
Eh. Buncha twigs!
Hope that wasn’t too insensitive. Just my first thought.
We’re living in the world of SJWs and “fat acceptance” naggers now, so every time someone even remotely suggests that the perfect body probably isn’t someone who is morbidly obese and requires handicapped carts to haul their wide load around the store, the SJWs start screaming their usual crap in unison. “Fat-shamer! Thin privilege! Ableist! HAES! Oppression!”
Seriously, Tumblr is full of this crap on a normal day, so I can only imagine that thousands of Tumblristas destroyed their keyboards typing furious rants over this one image alone.
VS is just one company that churns out products intended for a clientele that they make the most profit from. If they carried every size, every shape, for every sex, in every color, for every price range, they would go out of business. They don’t owe you anything.
I know tall people have a difficult time finding clothes in stores since many stores carry little to nothing of tall sizes (at least, tall sizes that aren’t XL or higher). In their defense, though, height isn’t something you can change. Weight is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwrUkeYxUF0
Wrong, but funny.
Until our society acknowledges that not everyone has to accept and like you, that you’re not a special snowflake, and the world owes you nothing, we’ll see more of this.
But…but…I *am* a special snowflake! No?! Damnit…
Yes, you are special, here’s your gold medal.
Whew…I feel better now.
I agree – it’s not okay to tell a fat person to push away from the table, but apparently it’s fine to tell a skinny supermodel to “eat a cheeseburger”. I don’t get it. Thin shaming is actually just as prevalent these days as fat shaming.
My wife went to a VC to purchases an Item for one of our daughter-in-laws. A bitchie sales woman walked up to my wife and said, “We don’t carry anything in this store that will fit you”. My wife being the classy lady she is said “Thank you” turned, walked out never to return, I wish she would have said, “Well bless your heart”.
You’re full of shit, and you know that never happened.
Sorry but it did and I could care less if you believe it or not, ass hole.
It’s cool man. Get her a gym membership and be supportive.
I happen to love my wife just the way she is. If a man needs to buy their wife a gym membership to be supportive, the wife needs a different husband.
She should have just picked up a size 4 nightie and headed for the dressing room saying “Well I’ll just try this on.”
Yet in some relationships couples actually are honest and open with one another and encourage each other to work to better themselves spiritually, physically, emotionally and mentally. It’s your call friend, nothing says love like coming home with a dozen hot Krispy Kreme donuts.
Don’t Lie About Victoria, Biggest Loser, Food is Love…do all you trolling posters (or poster) with one time user names fill fulfilled, superior, I’m sure glad it’s you living in your world. I don’t want any part of your pompous existence.
By your definition a commenter is a troll if they disagree with you.
Newsflash – in my world my wife is thin and hot and has never been chased out of a Victoria’s Secret store and if she had I would never broadcast it on the internet.
So you would be ashamed of your wife if she were chased out of VS, what a pompous ass you are.
Diamond Jim, Sandi Morals, pogo, etc., etc. He’s got a million of ’em.
This is the one in the wheelchair, right?
… the one you haul all over the nation, supposedly, in an RV?
I have seen her, and I mean this in every respectful way, she doesn’t need a gym membership.
Thank you my friend.
she is just “big-boned”.
Thin shaming? No man..there just aren’t that many skinny chicks any longer.
making fun of a cripple, vs making fun of a body builder.
making fun of the homeless, vs making fun of the rich.
making fun of the mentally ill, vs making fun of nazis.
most of the time, being overweight is a choice.
I think it’s a form of mental illness, like alcoholism – a genetic predisposition without an offsetting intensity of will.
If you look at people’s pets, you can see something interesting about the effect of environment and genetics.
Some people are susceptible to “messages” – why we’re always talking about “sending messages” with this law or behavior – and some are not.
Marketing works because people are basically gullible, suggestible and, quite frankly, stupid.
The current trend is to blame the victim.
Agree and disagree. Being overweight is more often the cumulative effect of many many small choices each and every day.
I can agree with that. I didn’t mean to insinuate that someone has a choice between fat & skinny and literally chooses to be fat. But typically, people become overweight by choosing the wrong foods (or too much of it) and choosing not to exercise enough.
For people with certain disabilities, though, it can be at least 10 times more difficult to exercise than it is for you. Easy to say others should do this or that. Not so easy to really get inside that person’s mind and body and know what their reality is like. And yeah, I know that’s impossible to do in a total way. But any and all efforts toward that degree of empathy expands our capacity for love and understanding.
A total pussy statement on my part, no doubt, to some of the trollish die-hard cynics on here. But … you know … fuck them!
In your opinion. Or have you done a peer-reviewed scientific study on this issue?
No scientific study – just my opinion. Although it’s fairly well documented. I don’t deny that it’s harder for some than others & that a lot of factors are at play. But at the end of the day for the majority of folks, yes – my opinion is that it’s a choice. Not one singular choice, but a series of choices…made all day, every day. If it’s important to you – you find a way. If not – you find an excuse. Ask anyone who spent a long time being overweight and then changed their lifestyle. They all say the same thing. They were choosing to remain “fat”.
I do wish people would look at weight from a health perspective, not just a vanity issue. I know some beautiful bigger women, and some really unattractive skinny ones. I don’t think weight defines beauty AT ALL.
Just checking.
There’s no doubt that morbid obesity is a major health problem, especially as one gets older. I’m painfully aware of this fact. I also know it is possible for some of us to make choices in the matter, but I’m not certain that is the case for every individual.
It’s much like the POV expressed by Mande, and by her friend Faith, that because some women are able to get away from an abusive man, as Faith did, ALL women can do the same. Too many causative and contributing factors not examined in such an assertion.
Obviously, anorexia can be even more unhealthy that morbid obesity, and to the degree that fashion models have too often appeared to be borderline anorexic, maybe that really is a “message’ that needs to be examined. So if that is true, might not some “messages” also be harmful to women who are larger than the VS ideal? After all, there are a hell of a lot of sizes between that ideal and the body of a morbidly obese woman, of any age.
I agree, though, that too much was made of the ad campaign in question.
Agreed. That’s what I did my research project on, that I mentioned in that article. About the messages the media sends and how it’s affects young girls and their body image. But I want to take the power back. We can’t control the media -but we can control the messages we send at home, in public -to our friends, our peers, our children, etc. This is a topic that needs a lot more discussion, IMO.
Thank you!
Run an ad of typical American women at Disney World wearing the Body Bra and tight shorts – and you will really see a backlash. I mean, it’s OK to be “all about the bass” but geesh – take a walk around the Mall – you still need a little treble.
You can’t call people naggers on here!
I know what Victoria’s Secret is – she’s a slut. Sorry, old joke.
And just what does an old soldier have against sluts?
Not nary a thing – especially since getting married…
My daughter receives a catalog in the mail every few months. I have no plans to tell VS that my daughter moved out 3 years ago. It beats the hell out of the SI swimsuit edition.
My wife gets at least 1 catalog a week from VS; and AFAIK, she doesn’t shop there that much.
My biggest complaint with their advertising scheme is that with that many catalogs, it makes it difficult to keep up a masturbation routine that doesn’t border on dehydration.
Was in San Diego for work once and had to stay over the weekend. Decided to take a nice long drive, headed out to the Mexican border town of Calexico CA. Got there, and found that it’s connected to Mexicali, Mexico, and a lot of the women come over to shop for under-garments and jeans (since the Chinese deliver the better quality stuff to the US). As most posters are aware, I have a great admiration and love for Latinas and their shapely bodies. All the maniquans were shaped to accomodate the styles the Mexican women were looking for. Sat down at a cafe, got me a carne asada taco, a Coke and some salsa and chips and enjoyed watching the shoppers. Maybe VS needs to take a lesson.
” I have a great admiration and love for Latinas and their shapely bodies. All the maniquans were shaped to accomodate the styles the Mexican women were looking for”
———
C’mon, Rocky, you make that complimentary statement and then follow up with exactly what you ate and drank? What VS needs to take a lesson on is to not model outfits where food is being served.
Were any body parts of all those “Perfect Body” models Photoshopped?
If those body images are “unattainable’ (except by Photoshop) by most women, then maybe some Truth in Advertising is called for. If boobies are ‘shopped’ to better fit the image of the bra, let the customer know it.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/support-mandatory-disclosure-altered-body-images-abi-advertisements-and-publications/MNmG7j3L
PETITION:
Support mandatory disclosure of Altered Body Images (ABI) in advertisements and publications
Advertisers and publishers regularly use image editing software (e.g., Photoshop) to alter human body images of models and celebrities used in print and electronic media. This includes changes to the visual appearance of the subject’s body, face, size, proportions, shape, skin color, and removing signs of aging. These image modifications are collectively referred to as an Altered Body Image (ABI.)
It is requested that the Federal Trade Commission create an ABI disclosure
requirement for advertising and publication (e.g., magazine) images, and other media that promote commercial products, of images that have been altered to change the visual appearance of any human body parts. The ABI disclosure should list the altered body parts in the image.
Seriously? I could give 2 rats asses if they shopped a third arm onto them. Do we need warning labels on everything since someone is too naive to navigate ads. Is Tony the Tiger real?
Did you keep your health insurance or doctor, if you liked them? Because you were told you could.
WTF does that have to do with Photoshop and Victoria’s Secret?
Politicians like advertisers lie because both want you to buy what they are selling.
PETITION:
Support mandatory disclosure of Altered Intelligence & Hallucinatory Images (AIHI) for commentators on Fitsnews….
Victoria’s Secret apparel is nowhere as classy or of the quality as it used to be. They market to teenagers and women in their twenties who fall for the marketing but get inferior quality stuff.
God bless Hardees and their “Mile High” and “Like a G6” commercials!…. otherwise, a wonderful and important article, Liz!
Lyz, even if a woman maintains an ideal weight, she will still lose her youthful beauty at some point. I am in agreement with your article. But, keep in mind that there are no 50 year old Victoria’s Secret models. My point is that girls and women should feel good about their bodies even as they age.
this is true —and I can relate at well past VS model age. My goal is to age gracefully. Otherwise you come off looking ridiculous, in my opinion.
petition CC Pizza? and the Golden Hogg Trough…. because they suck