–OpEd–
Is sexy still sexy? On Tuesday evening, 30 models in lingerie and glittery high heels walked down a catwalk in New York — it’s the new edition of the famous Victoria’s Secret show, invented in 1995, and canceled in 2019 in a wave of criticism. It was the usual naked women whirling around in front of cameras, and although U.S. fashion model Gigi Hadid was wheeled out of the ground in pink satin, it was surprisingly boring. Or rather: reassuringly boring.
Even if it may sound counterintuitive, women are the main target group of this show in which supermodels decorated with angel wings wear bras with crystals and thongs with pompoms. The audience at the Victoria’s Secret catwalks was almost two-thirds female at the last shows, and even back then the men were shyly looking elsewhere.
These supermodels in bras made of wire and tulle are supposed to ensure that women develop inferiority complexes and then storm the nearest Victoria’s Secret shop.
But the show probably left the audience rather cold. It wasn’t even outrageous. The women looked pretty. There were plus-size models and trans models and models over 50, among them Kate Moss and Carla Bruni. Many of them smiled a little embarrassedly or waved shyly.
Women in lingerie, in 2024? Almost cute, in a way. But not at all exciting.
Where have all the angels gone?
It is striking how, at least in the viewer writing here, no feeling arose of wanting to look like that. Not sexy at all.
It just felt like the whole thing was no longer appropriate in the post-#MeToo era
The Victoria’s Secret show used to be a mega marketing event. The models — called Angels — were the highest earners in the industry; pop stars such as Sting, the Spice Girls, Rihanna and Justin Bieber provided musical accompaniment on the catwalk. In 2011, the catwalk achieved record ratings with over ten million viewers (for comparison: almost 14 million people watched the 2022 World Cup final in Germany).
In 2019, the show was temporarily canceled — ratings had fallen to a third of the record, and it just felt like the whole thing was no longer appropriate in the post-#MeToo era. What also didn’t help were public statements by marketing director Ed Razek, who said Victoria’s Secret does not hire trans models because “the show is supposed to be a fantasy” and that curvy models are not there because nobody wants to look at them. Also not conducive to the brand image was the close friendship that Les Wexner, CEO of the Victoria’s Secret parent company, had cultivated for years with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Female emancipation?
Victoria’s Secret has repeatedly tried to sell its products as a means of female empowerment: women could own their sexuality with lingerie and fantasize about becoming an angel or a princess (or, according to the shows: a giant sexy clover, a hot firebird, a wild Pocahontas).
The idea that a push-up bra could promote female emancipation was always absurd, but since #MeToo it has become more difficult to convey than ever. Men may still stare at pushed-up breasts, but it is women who are supposed to buy and wear them. And they are not falling for it anymore.
In a new survey by the U.S. women’s magazine The Cut , 92% of the 300 women who were interviewed said that comfort was “very important” to them when buying a bra (the remaining 8% found comfort “important”). Only 9%, on the other hand, rated the sexiness of a bra as “very important”, while more than half of those surveyed said it was “irrelevant” or “totally irrelevant.”
Kim Kardashian’s Skims
Sure, we cannot consider 300 readers of a progressive New York magazine as a representative sample. But it still shows an interesting trend: sexy is no longer sexy. Comfort is much more in demand — and a body that feels comfortable can be very erotic. The great success of Kim Kardashian’s brand Skims, which sells elastic bras without underwire and seamless panties, is the best example of this.
It all seemed like a magic trick that we’ve seen a hundred times.
Instead, once again, Victoria’s Secret sent models to the catwalk wearing the same old tight polyester lace, some of them with slightly larger bodies, but that doesn’t surprise anyone anymore. It all seemed like a magic trick that we’ve seen a hundred times. Which is why it doesn’t work anymore.
But maybe this is good news. Maybe, if we just yawn and switch channels when we see half-naked women, then we may have really taken a big step forward towards emancipation.
