Victoria Secret 2018 Runway Scandal

The article Plus-Size, Transgender And Disabled Models Speak Out Against Victoria’s Secret  Jessica Andrews writes about the upsetting events that happened this year.

In 2018 at the Victoria’s Secret annual fashion show, there was a bunch of controversy due to the fact that there were no plus size, transgender or non-binary models in the mix of all the women that they choose to be angels to be  part of the show. They later put an add with a bunch of models of all nationalities saying the “perfect body” yet none of the models were plus sized in the photo. This just goes to show how they were not including a big majority of models that would like to be a part. Victoria secrets fashion show is one of the biggest fashion shows that occurs every year. They are only hiring a small percentage of Models there are many plus sized models that mentioned in the past that they would want to work  with the company such as Ashley graham and Tess holiday. Already not being the majority in the industry there are mainstream plus sized like Ashley graham she has modeled for many mainstream brands that would like to show that they are there for the average american/north american. As of transgender models and non binary models are not only not very underrepresented in the fashion industry but as of today there are only 91 spots on the runway that were filled by trans/non-binary models with the huge impact that Victoria Secret has on the fashion world they should be open to changing the industries ideal beauty standards. In 2013 there was a petition against the company due to them not having any transgender models in there shows or in there adds.Carmen Carrera is a well known model that is transgender. Why can’t the trans model be included in the brand? Then again they will not even consider the  plus sized models. These “plus sized” models are the average american women. When Victoria Secret is not considering that you do not have to be there ideal beauty standard in order to be beautiful. It shows that they do don’t care about their consumer. They do not want them to be included due to the fact that their own head of the company said when asked if they will be including plus sized models in the show his response was“No… because the show is a fantasy.”  meaning that plus sized, transgender and non binary models could not be a fantasy to the world in his eyes. In this case he is wrong for thinking this because  The majority of women in america are size 16-18 plus size and this is taking into account the women that identify as a woman they may be transgender . the representation of trans models in the Victoria Secret show was answered by a trans model her answer “ It’s important to have transgender representation because we represent the forthcoming generation” . this will be the future women who will be buying these items.  The women who are buying their brand are everyday women. As said in the article “ (PS. Us fuller ladies like to wear lingerie and look sexy. Get with it).” although they have only just started recently including women of different ethnicity. Victoria secret this year hired there very first model with Vitiligo Winnie Harlow and there first Filipino model (Kelsey Merritt). The different bias that I found in the article was Bias by Spin and Bias by selection of Sources. Bias by Spin is when a reporter’s perspective in an article seems like it supports one side than another and as a reader you might get influenced by what the argument is leading towards. For example when spin  is being used throughout the article Jessica Andrews shows more of the victims side being the transgender women and the plus sized women. She even goes into detail about how they are only opening up with models thats have rare skin disorders such as  Vitiligo. She does mention the other side to the story but still makes the minority look better than the chief of  Victoria Secret. She makes the reader understand the struggle of these models. While making the other side look not great. Jessica Andrews also uses selection of sources at the end of the article she as three interviews with different sources from Teen vogue. One being a plus sized model another being a trans model and then the chief of Victoria secret. The reporter for teen vogue asks specific questions that go well with Jessica Andrews points that she has proved in the article. This helps her have a concrete message for her reader.  The article has the exact impact that she wanted to hit by including these two biases.

sources:

https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/victorias-secret-fashion-show-plus-size-transgender-disabled-models