Victoria’s Dark Secret: Sex, Scandals and Starvation
A new docuseries Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons, which aired on Hulu on July 14, looks into the misconduct of the fashion brand, delving into horror stories of sex, power, and money.
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| Credit: The New Yorker. |
The
multibillion-dollar lingerie company first became a phenomenon in the 80s and has carried
on its reign for nearly four decades. It’s known for its glitz, glamour, and gorgeous
models. Behind the beauty lies harassment allegations, bullying and undesirable
connections as well as misogyny, transphobia and body shaming. Controversies
first came apparent in 2019, when some models began rebelling against the brand
on social media and it has only been downhill from there.
Most
interestingly the docuseries sheds light on Lex Wexner, former billionaire CEO
who stepped down last year, and his close ties to convicted sex offender
Jeffrey Epstein. Wexner enabled Epstein’s access to both wealth and women, by
giving him power over his finances and private life, even allowing the disgraced
financier to pose as a talent scout for Victoria’s Secret in 1997. During this
time, he lured model Alicia Arden to a hotel room before groping her. Wexner also
facilitated the purchase of both Epstein’s townhouse and private jet – two key
places used to traffic and abuse his victims. The former CEO continues to deny
any knowledge of Epstein’s sexual misconduct. Wexner’s dodgy associations have
only recently come to light, but Victoria’s Secret has been a damaged brand since
its creation.
The
brand is rife with misogyny; models have been groped in the crotch, pressured
into going nude, and treated like prostitutes. The Victoria’s Secret Angels
runway show was launched in 1995 and has been televised across the US since 2001.
Only a year later, The US’ National Organisation of Women protested at the event
against the ‘soft-core porn infomercial.’ The brand’s teen-oriented line, Pink,
is particularly eyebrow-raising with previous adverts featuring tweens in
minimal clothing with giant lollipops. Clearly, the brand has no age boundaries
on who gets sexualised.
According
to former VS Executive Sharleen Ernster, the brand pictured ‘a woman born
perfect and made better with push-ups and padding.’ Again and again, the brand
has faced backlash for its damaging promotion of unrealistic body standards.
Becoming
a Victoria’s Secret Angel is a clear goal for many up-and-coming models,
boasting a repertoire of famous supermodels; Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, Kendall
Jenner and Naomi Campbell. The scary reality is that the job isn’t as glamorous
as it may appear; its full of eating disorders, mental health issues and poor
health. Erin Heatherton, past Victoria Secret Angel, took phentermine daily to
lose a pound a day for the show, as prescribed by the showrunners. Veteran model
Adriana Lima even admitted to cutting out all solid foods nine days before the
show. Sadly, these pressures were not hidden from society; the brand
consistently posted the models’ pre-runway fitness and diet regimens on social
media with the tagline ‘Train Like An Angel.’
In
2019, the famous fashion show full of scantily-clad models was axed; however, two
years later, the new CEO, Martin Waters, suggested reviving the sexist show. Last
year, the already damned company attempted a rebrand, bringing in more diverse
spokespeople like Megan Rapinoe and Priyanka Chopra Jones. The new smokescreen
of female empowerment is struggling to hide the dark reality exposed by the new
series.
In 2019,
the lingerie giant hired its first plus-sized model, Ali Tate Cutler. However,
after ingraining the damaging picture-perfect sample size onto young girls
across the world, it’s a little too late. Former Executive Ed Razek refused
this move for many years after saying that plus-sized women were not the brand
of Victoria’s Secret. Shortly after, the label hired its first transgender
model, Valentina Sampaio seeing Razek resign just a day later. This record move
came after Razek refused to hire ‘transsexual’ models ‘because the show is a fantasy’,
showing the true transphobic feelings of the former Chief Marketing Officer.
After
years of domineering the lingerie business and dominating women’s bodies, Victoria’s
Secret is finally on a downward spiral. With stock prices falling 75% since
2015 – and predictions to only plummet further since the exposing docuseries,
perhaps this is the end of the darkness hidden inside Victoria’s Secret or even
the end of the brand itself.