By Sophia Rijo
Staff Writer
The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show of 2018 was broadcasted on Sunday, Dec. 2. Usually the esteemed fashion show would garner a lot of attention, but this year’s show had the lowest ratings ever in Victoria’s Secret broadcasting history, with only 3.27 million people watching. There are some factors that could be put into play, such as the company changing its broadcasting station.
The fashion show used to air on CBS on Tuesdays but this year, changed to ABC on Sunday night. That’s one factor, but the main factor could be because of comments made by Victoria’s Secret executive producer Ed Razek.
In an interview with Vogue, Razek said, “There’s a young generation turned on by the multiple sizes of women in that show, and there are all sorts of different upstart brands that are putting trans women in their advertisements, women who are size 40 in their advertisements. Does VS feel the need to address the way the market is shifting in any way?”
He responded “Yes” and thought about adding plus-size women and transgender people into the show. To be fair Victoria’s Secret did do a television special for plus-sizes…back in 2000. Razek then went off posing questions to himself such as “Shouldn’t you have transsexuals in the show?” and would respond to his own question with “No. No, I don’t think we should…because the show is a fantasy.”
This is the remark that caught people’s attention. The reason why he won’t add more inclusivity in the show is because it’s geared towards being a fantasy for men and women. Men when they look at the fashion show, they see beautiful, skinny women strutting their stuff in nothing but a bra and pantie.
Women when watching the show see a toned skinny woman wearing a bra or pantie of Victoria’s Secret and think, “Woah, I want to be like her. Maybe I can be like her if I get that bra” etc. Mr. Razek is saying that if they include plus-size women and transgender people, into the show it would disinterest the audience.
Mr. Razek’s statement didn’t go unnoticed, especially with Victoria’s Secret musical guest Halsey. Before the show aired on TV, Halsey went to social media and declared that “some comments were made regarding the show that I simply cannot ignore.”
Supposedly the fashion show was going to be “the best night of [her] year,” but when Mr. Razek’s comment reached her ears she said “I have no tolerance for a lack of inclusivity. Especially not one motivated by stereotype.”
Halsey is a part of the LGBTQ+ community as she identifies as bisexual. Even though she took some hits on Razek without naming him, she did promote an organization called GLSEN, which offers services that protect young LGBTQ+ members.
Not only that but she made a very generous donation to the organization, putting out a message towards transsexual’s stating that if they have read Razek’s comment and it has made them uncomfortable that they should know they have allies who stand together for support and acceptance.
While on the topic of things Razek has said, excluding certain types of people isn’t the only head scratching comment that he’s made. He’s often referred to Victoria’s Secret models as “thoroughbreds.”
Meaning that the models are of pure breed and have certain beauty standards such as being tall, thin, with long hair and white. Instead of promoting self-beauty, Razek promotes the women of Victoria’s Secret as racehorses.
Additionally, there have been certain employees who would want to change the standards of beauty placed by Victoria’s Secret, but when they pitch an idea they are led on for a month and then the company would tell them “’we love this but we’re going to do what we did last year.”
The lack of communication within any business has always led to a downfall, and this shows with Victoria’s Secrets stocks being once over $100 a share, to now being $40 a share.
The company has had a long line of female CEO’s taking the reins and building the brand to have a huge influence, but if Victoria’s Secret doesn’t pull itself together and adjust with the times then they will suffocate and new businesses will rise to the free market now available.
The current CEO for Victoria’s Secret will not be a woman, but a man, John Mehas who was the former president of Tory Burch.
Hopefully, Mehas will be able to clear his company away from the backlash and insert new concepts that will attract more customers to Victoria’s Secret, while promoting opportunities for diversity and variety.
