All too often, women look at the models plastered around Victoria Secrets and crave to be their size. The perfect body shape with bras fitting without any side bulge, and underwear the seems to be painted on perfectly. Every model looks like a perfect piece, which is why many people tend to claim that the popular store body shames. Especially with the recent "Perfect Body" campaign out, which has people steaming. But does it really? Society is much too often jumping to the conclusion that just because an ad endorses a smaller size, they are automatically body shaming. That is not only the case. Just because an ad tends to look more appealing to the public when a thin model is the star, it does not mean that the store is against someone not so thin shopping there unlike some popular teen stores that will not be named in this article.
As a teenage girl, almost everyone I go to school with owns a Pink or Victoria Secrets article of sorts, whether it be a jacket, pants, or undergarments. And for the readers who have not shopped there, I am sure you have seen the logos plastered on most teens and adults in public. In case no one has noticed the clothes, Pink in particular, tend to be on the larger size. I am not scared to admit that I am a larger teenage girl who often times feels self-conscious when shopping at teen enforced stores, such as Hollister. I worried that when I walked into the world of Pink Nation it would all be the same story of gazing and hoping I would fit into the clothes someday. After trying on my first outfit, I realized I was happily wrong.
In most stores, I have to search to the back of the racks for XL or 2X shirts and pants, put after only finding a large shirts and yoga pants, I guessed the shape and decided to try it on anyways. To my amazement, it fit! For once, I fit into clothes that I only dreamed of owning, and it wasn’t too tight or too shorts, or anything. If anything, the sweater I tried on was actually a little too loose. The feeling of fitting into clothes that all other teens wore made me feel over joyed and gave me the self confidence boost I had needed for a while. Now I am not embarrassed to say the size out loud, not too embarrassed to look at the tag, and not too embarrassed to be wearing tighter clothes just to try fitting into today’s society.
I understand why so many people jumped at the company for their campaign slogan, but they should not be so quick to judge. The play on word of "body" was placed in the wrong diction since it is the name of the bra (which is my favorite), not a comment directed at the human body. Of course social media tends to add fuel to the fire and make things explode when they are really nothing. I discourage body shaming of all shapes and sizes, and would of course defend my fellow non model thin friends, but that is not the case in this situation.
Victoria Secrets and Pink gave me the confidence I needed to be okay with trying on clothes again and not being a shamed of wearing a large. Therefore, the company is actually boosting teen confidence levels instead of pushing them down and making people feel as though they aren’t good enough for certain brands. Who cares about the models when the clothes are the most comfortable and best fitting articles in your draw. I think the whole outrage over the campaign was drawn out due to unpleasant wording and a simple misunderstanding. If the company did believe only a model could have a "perfect body" they would only sell sizes for teens that actually could only fit small children.
