.jpg "Lacee Solis")
Victoria’s Secret is known for its quality lingerie, but the models who wear the lingerie might be more recognizable.
The new Victoria’s Secret “Body For Everybody, Love Your Body” ad campaign encourages women to admire the body they have. It promotes the addition of three new styles to the lingerie company’s best-selling Body by Victoria bra collection. The mini-collection is titled “’Love My Body” and introduces the newest faces to join the notorious line up of VS supermodels.
I always endorse any publicity that initiates women to appreciate their body type, regardless of shape and size. I believe health should triumph the external desire to be thin. Yet, when I look at the ad with the words “I love my body” next to lanky, goddesses of women, I don’t have the urge to love my body.
Actually, my reaction is quite the opposite. I felt almost insulted and thought the tone seemed more narcissistic than supportive.
I’m sure most women’s reactions when they look at any Victoria’s Secret model is not complete admiration for their own body in comparison. Envy, insecurity, motivation to go to the gym and put down the cookie is what comes to mind when I look at scantily clad Victoria’s Secret models.
The Victoria’s Secret latest ad campaign appears to mimic Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty.” The vital difference is the Dove campaign does feature a diverse group of women who represent various body sizes, shapes and ages. Victoria’s Secret’s “Love Your Body” does nothing more than put more young, slender, tanned and toned women in a bra and panties. How original.
Certainly all women deal with personal insecurities and body image issues that may lie deeper than what spectators can imagine. I’m sure even Victoria’s Secret models have bad days when they look at the girl next to them and feel insecure about their own self-conceived problem areas. However, they are glorified for their impeccable body and faces, so I’m sure they get over any issues rather quickly.
Dove went against the normal stereotypes by showcasing women who looked confident, healthy and larger than a size 2. The campaign Dove launched in 2004 was empowering and advocated women to learn how to love every bump, curve or other imperfection that didn’t fall into line with what society has deemed as beautiful.
One would imagine if Victoria’s Secret was serious about its ad campaign aimed for women to “Love Your Body,” it would include more than the stereotypical lingerie and swimsuit model in the campaign.
The theme for the new collection is the promotion that there’s a “body” or bra for everyone, so put women of all figures into the ads to actually show that.
Laura • Jul 30, 2012 at 6:08 pm
Ana, that is a very good point. I think, however, that it was not Lacee’s intention to say that skinny girls are perfect or aren’t allowed to be insecure about their bodies. It seems the point is that Dove’s campaign features all kinds of bodies, while the VS campaign featured very skinny models. It’s not that these models aren’t beautiful. However, it is not entirely encouraging when a campaign that tells us to “love our bodies” displays only one body type. It’s almost as if the ad is saying “Love Your Body…if you look like this”.
You, of course, deserve as much confidence and encouragement as any other girl. The point is, if society claims to be trying to get women to love their bodies, it is not being entirely successful in presenting just one or two female bodies to which women can compare themselves. There shouldn’t be any comparing at all. What’s wrong about the VS campaign, and what this article probably is (or should be) saying is that it is quite offensive for the company– especially one that plays a pretty huge role in what we are told is “sexy” and “beautiful” and “desirable”– to just put up slimmer girls on their “Love My Body” ads, as opposed to saying to their viewers “Skinnier, heavier, curvy, athletic, hourglass, muscular, short, tall…you should ALL love your bodies.”
Also, I really hate to be “that guy”, but is there no such thing as grammarians or editors anymore?
Ana • Mar 17, 2010 at 3:19 pm
I have to say that being a skinny girl my whole life, I find it increasingly annoying whenever people think that only fat girls have image problems. I am not anorexic nor bulemic and had never had an eating disorder, but I am skinny and not by choice. It’s genetic. I do not like being so thin. I have to say that I like most of Lacee’s articles but this one just constantly kept reminding me of how people view skinny girls such as myself, thinking we are only scarcely self conscious and that we don’t have any body image problems, which in my opinion leads to people having the idea that they have the right to tell some skinny girl that they see “Eat a cookie, eat something” which in my opinion is as rude as telling someone that they need to lose weight because they look like a cow. Also, it seems that this article perpetuates the idea that skinny girls aren’t normal.
Ana • Mar 17, 2010 at 7:19 am
I have to say that being a skinny girl my whole life, I find it increasingly annoying whenever people think that only fat girls have image problems. I am not anorexic nor bulemic and had never had an eating disorder, but I am skinny and not by choice. It's genetic. I do not like being so thin. I have to say that I like most of Lacee's articles but this one just constantly kept reminding me of how people view skinny girls such as myself, thinking we are only scarcely self conscious and that we don't have any body image problems, which in my opinion leads to people having the idea that they have the right to tell some skinny girl that they see “Eat a cookie, eat something” which in my opinion is as rude as telling someone that they need to lose weight because they look like a cow. Also, it seems that this article perpetuates the idea that skinny girls aren't normal.