The holiday season means loads of your favorite annual TV specials. And what would December be without the Victoria's Secret fashion show? Each year when the show rolls around, it's the same awkward mixture of glitz, glamour, and low self-esteem. Girls watch to gawk in awe at the flawless models, guys turn it on for the same reasons and then some, and then there are people like me, who occasionally watch to hear who's performing.

I never watched the full show, until last year with a couple of my college friends. I love my friends to death, but the amount of body image comments they said made me sick. Critiquing every last part of their own bodies and that of the models made me want to reach for the remote and end the whole circus. Even the strongest of women can begin to nit-pick themselves when hearing men and women alike idolizing these models. Models who don't depict average women. When the show was filmed a couple months back, and behind the scenes footage was shared on Snapchat, it really got me thinking what the whole purpose of the show was, and how it affects viewers worldwide.

Upon watching the Snapchat story, I really tried to keep an open mind. Maybe the point isn't to objectify women; maybe it isn't complete brainwashing; maybe these models have other talents and higher levels of intelligence than stereotypes make them out to have. As I watched the "story" unfold, I changed my mind a little bit. I saw women flaunting their stuff because they wanted to, embracing their sexuality and bodies. I saw a craft in styling and artistry. But at much as I saw these events with a new perspective, the old one was still saturating the picture. Girls on platforms in next to nothing, surrounded by older men and blinding flashes of paparazzi, like meat on display. Models who had little to say when the camera turned on them, aside from a rehearsed pout and girlish giggle. I tried my hardest to see these models as individuals, people with separate passions, personalities, and stories. And while I don't doubt those things exist, everything can so easily become confined to the mentalities of a satin, pink-striped bag. If the ad campaign comparison below doesn't sum up my point, I don't know what else will.

The Victoria's Secret fashion show is a love-hate relationship for girls around the world. As much as we want to hate the objectification, the unrealistic body images, and the marketing which feeds off insecurity, there will remain a childhood fantasy of dressing up, looking pretty for the camera, being appreciated by all. The glitz and glamour may be tainted, but the sparkle doesn't fade. Because when it comes down to it all, even if the most righteous of us was offered a chance to don those iconic wings, would we say no?