Today, WWD reported that the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was canceled this year so the company can work on rebranding and new, improved ways to do the show. The news comes after years of dealing with controversy from transphobia, race inclusion, body diversity, and cultural appropriation.
The angels are no more (for this year at least) and I'm not mad about it.
Victoria's Secret was the reason behind my personal health issues as a pre-teen because all I wanted to do was be an angel.
I wanted to be tall, but my genetics failed me in that department, so then I settled for wanting to be skinny and become the next Alessandra Ambrosio, Tyra Banks, and Lily Aldridge. Those were three women that I looked up to and I based my whole life and diet on being a VS model and angel.
My obsession, like most pre-teen and teenage girls who watched the show religiously, became unhealthy to achieve a false concept of who I was supposed to be and what I needed to look like to gain social acceptance and be considered "beautiful" to society's standards.
The last time I watched the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was in 2017 when Alessandra walked her final show as an angel, but even then I was still growing and trying to accept that I was not going to be Alessandra. I didn't look like Alessandra and I needed to get myself to understand that by starving myself and exercising for hours without proper rest wasn't going to get me there.
Many girls who struggled (and continue to struggle) with their body would watch the show with wide eyes and gaping mouths. We'd dream of the day we could look like the girls in the show, perfect smile with pearly white teeth, tall and lean legs, long flowy hair, and a walk that would stop the Earth's rotation. The power the VS angels had (and has) over young girls is not healthy.
Victoria's Secret knows this.
They know that girls will dream of being the next best angel to wear the Angel bra in the show, so they only cater to women who fit their standards — tall, skinny, and overall "perfect." This is how they get us, catch us, and make it hard to let go and we continue to feed their pockets just to meet their standards of beauty.
They could cancel the show altogether and I wouldn't shed one tear. Victoria's Secret isn't the key to having a sexy look that'll make your partner keep coming back for more — a good personality and clear conscience will do that. What you wear (even if it can't be seen) doesn't make someone beautiful, but the energy they give off does.
My life has been so much better once I stopped trying to be an angel and look like one and hopefully more people will realize that the "angel way" isn't the only way to achieve true beauty.
