Femininity & Beauty Standards in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

The difference in gender performance between men and women begins in middle school when young boys and girls start to go through puberty. For many girls, this change means sports become secondary to becoming a “proper lady” in every facet of life—education, dress, behavior, movement, talking. Girls are told that women are passive and fragile, and as they grow up, women become stuck in a spot of being a subject that cannot move above the patriarchal society and standards that have been placed on them because of their gender. Women who continue in sports do not use their bodies in the same way as men, often constricting themselves, not extending their reach as much as they physically are able to, and underestimating themselves more frequently. Erica Rand talks about athletes Kye Allums and Johnny Weir in relation to gender performance in their sports and what that means for masculinity and femininity. The performance of gender is a self-identified action that is ties less to social constructions and more on the individual’s agency. The Victoria’s Secret models and the Buzzfeed models that came out following the 2016 Fashion Show are performing femininity in particular ways that reinforce the construction of it.

Every November the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show draws in viewers to watch specially chosen models and Victoria’s Secret Angels model lingerie in angel wings and high heels. The Victoria’s Secret models are known for the high beauty standards required to be in show, including being in extremely great shape, very thin and that they must be taller than 5’10”. Some women tune in to see the products that are being modeled, but more tune in to see the models—how they walk, what they are wearing, how their make-up is done, how their hair is styled, how their stomach and thighs look in the limited clothing they are wearing. This year, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was aired on CBS on Monday, December 5, and featured a total fifty-four models, eleven of which are Angels.

            On Thursday, December 8, Buzzfeed released a video of “everyday women” being glammed up like the Victoria’s Secret models and walking a runway in their underwear. They chose women of different heights and sizes to put on lingerie and walk in front of a crowd of Buzzfeed employees. Every woman involved has her hair and makeup done by a professional and their outfits planned out. Though many of the women adhere to parts of the ideal image of femininity with flawless hair and makeup and freshly shaved bodies, several of them stand out for moments of opposition to the standard when they tell viewers that they are walking without having shaved armpits and legs or by showing tattoos. At the beginning, all of the women share their concerns of not looking like the models and not being confident in being so public in their underwear. However, by the end, all of the women feel good about themselves, are happy that they did it and want to get every woman to feel confident in herself regardless of size. Buzzfeed uses their space as a large media platform to share a message about positive body image through this video.

 

While Buzzfeed is sharing a message on body positivity at all sizes, Cosmopolitan magazine is sharing a message that the models embody what every woman should strive for. On Saturday, December 10, Cosmo released on Snapchat a list of fifteen of the Victoria’s Secret models with no makeup on. The list is not prefaced at all, nor does it have a description of when or where each picture was taken; however, each model featured is dressed well, and though the photos are not professional and the women are not wearing makeup, the photos are in good lighting and angled well to show the best features of each woman. This list is meant to show “everyday women” that the models are just like them, even if they are still ‘prettier’ by stereotypical beauty standards with big eyes, bright smiles, cleanly-shaped eyebrows, high cheekbones and full lips.

        In a time when beauty standards are being critiqued in more places than ever with social media making it more accessible to share, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was talked about more for both the good and the bad. The show features confident women showing off their perfect bodies, and it is good for other women to see that confidence. However, many comments about the show are about how there should be more diversity in the models and that the image being shown to the world should be more accessible like Buzzfeed worked to achieve on a smaller scale.

Plus-size Women Recreate Fashion Ads

Women pictured in magazines and advertisements typically uphold the societal standards of beauty and what the ideal body is. However, in recent years, this is starting to change some as plus-size women enter the modeling industry and are featured in main magazine articles. When plus-size women are featured in these settings, the response from viewers tends to be comments about how special the issue is or how strong the women photographed are for being willing to reveal themselves in such a manner, even when the audience is plus-size.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/sheridanwatson/plus-size-women-recreated-fashion-ads?utm_term=.ai2OBm1k8#.txx8ebBzl

Buzzfeed posted an article on Oct. 31, 2016 about plus-size women recreating modern high-fashion ads, that originally feature very thin women. The premise of the article is this: “If you open up a magazine or drive down a street, it’s clear that plus-size women are rarely in high-fashion advertisements. In an industry where beauty standards seem so limited, we decided to break the mold and insert ourselves in the world of fashion” (Buzzfeed). The women photographed by Buzzfeed gave comments about how the experience made them feel, ranging from empowered to uncertain.

“I’ve heard so many times that my body isn’t really capable of doing ‘beautiful fashion things’ that seeing myself actually do it felt like a mistake.”

“When I was all glammed up and finally got on set with the couch, I felt sexy and I felt empowered.”

“Growing up, I never really saw myself as the model type because I always thought that to be accepted, or thought of as beautiful, you had to be a small size, or be a certain height.”

These quotes sum up many of the thoughts surrounding plus-size women modeling and showing off their bodies. Seeing themselves do what the media shows only thin women do shows them that they are capable, empowers them, and makes them feel good about themselves. Women are taught that to be a proper woman, one must be small, take up a little space as possible and be quiet. But not everyone fits that image.

This article stood out to me after reading and discussing LeBesco’s work on fat studies. LeBesco is interested in the stereotypes of fatness and the ways that can be changed in a culture, a shift from tolerance to acceptance. An idea that stood out to me was that the act of making a collection of bodies public, is a political statement. LeBesco argues that fatness is a subversive cultural practice—the concept disrupts the cultural norm of bodies. This idea means that fat people should have agency and fight back against cultural norms that say they cannot do something a thin body can do or that they do not belong in advertising or magazines photos. Through LeBesco’s writing, the way to intervene in the hegemonic ideology of fatness is by politicizing—through the discourse of the medical community, the dieting industry and the representations of fatness in the media. By politicizing and changing the language around fatness and by providing other representations in the community and in the media, a different concept starts to develop.

Buzzfeed is making a political statement in this article about plus-sized bodies absence in advertising and the empowerment that comes with sharing that image with the world. Personally, I had never thought about this type of article as being a political statement, though seeing plus-size women featured in the media always appeared to be a unique and different representation. The women that were photographed for this article, pose for Buzzfeed for other articles about plus-size women—whether the article is about one-size fits all clothing, Halloween clothing or feeling good about yourself regardless of size.

The comments the women made following their photos give them a space to show agency to direct how they are viewed and push back against being hidden from media. These women are changing the way they think about themselves and bodies like their own in the media, and in turn changing the discourse around plus-size modeling. When the women say that they felt like they were making a mistake by modeling or that they didn’t think they were the right type to model, they are reinforcing the historic image that thinness equaled beauty. But when they look at themselves and realize that they are capable, that they feel sexy and that their thoughts have changed, they are pushing against that idea and challenging others to do the same.

Having this article and discussion posted on Buzzfeed puts it on an international scale and targets a, generally, younger audience that will think about and adapt to the changing discourse surrounding thinness and plus-sized bodies.

The Latina Identity in 'Jane the Virgin'

            In “Brain, Brow, and Booty” Isabel Molina and Angharad Valdivia write about icons, tropes and hybridity in relation to the Latina identity and culture, with a focus on Jennifer Lopez, Salma Hayek and Frida Kahlo. First, I want to explain how they define those terms and what they made me think of.

            An icon is a representational image that holds meaning beyond simply what the object is or who the person is. Icons are recognizable, and for people who are icons, accompany a certain level of celebrity. Molina and Valdivia explain that iconicity involves the interaction of three things: the image or cultural commodity, the method of receiving the image, and the practices surrounding the deliberate construction and production of the icon (157).

            A trope is a “recognizable and recurrent media theme, story-line, or image” (155). Molina and Valdivia identify three tropes in Latina representation: tropicalism, personality/mannerisms, and over sexualized bodies.  These tropes are constructed over and over in the media and are continually performed by Latina actresses to create a Latina identity. Molina and Valdivia further explain that “Latina beauty and sexuality is marked as other, yet it is that otherness that marks Latinas as desirable,” meaning that the identity is further desired because it is different than the dominant white identity (159).

            Hybridity refers to a “new and distinct culture or identity that emerges from the mixing of culture or identities” (155). When ethnic or racial identities are absent in the case of many movies Jennifer Lopez appears in or when the identity is “on the margins of whiteness” but “outside blackness,” hybridity creates a new space (160).

            Through discussion about Molina and Valdivia’s writing and the Latina identity, I immediately thought about the CW show, Jane the Virgin, and the ways the Latina identity is constructed in the show. Jane the Virgin is described as a telenovela starring Gina Rodriguez as a young Latina woman who grew up with her young, fiery mother and her very Catholic grandmother. Jane’s ‘abuela,’ Alba, speaks almost entirely in Spanish and is constantly reminding Jane of her commitment to save herself until marriage. Jane’s mother, Xiomara, had Jane when she was young, never married Jane’s father, Rogelio, and is constantly going on dates with new men or trying to get back together with Rogelio once they reconnect. Xiomara is hyper-sexualized in the show, shown wearing short skirts, high heels, tight and low cut shirts, and always with full makeup and perfect hair. As for Jane, she has goals of being a teacher and having a successful, happy life with her white, American boyfriend, Michael, when she is artificially inseminated during a ‘routine’ visit to the gynecologist. The insemination causes a long chain of intense drama, that continues through the three seasons of the show.

            In class we talked about how Sofia Vergara’s character, Gloria Pritchett, is constructed as Latina on the show Modern Family, and the women in Jane the Virgin are constructed in very similar ways. Vergara is shown as a fiery, boisterous woman who is constantly mispronouncing words in English, she is over sexualized and never shown without tight clothing and heels on, and provides comedic entertainment for the audience. Her character is always yelling at her husband and son, and her son is often clarifying what she has said to the dominantly white population around them. In Jane the Virgin, Jane’s grandmother, played by Ivonne Coll, communicates with her daughter and granddaughter in Spanish, dresses conservatively, and is always there to provide words of wisdom and act as a voice of reason. Her constructed identity performs the conservative Latina woman in a very clear way, giving the audience a counter point to the fiery Xiomara. Jane’s mother, played by Andrea Navedo, embodies the same characteristics as Sofia Vergara’s character in Modern Family; she wears shorts skirts, tight and low cut tops, high heels in every day interactions, flirts with the men around her, and had Jane at a young age. She worked hard to be a good mother for Jane, but was never able to find success in singing and fulfilling her own dreams. Jane is the one character that pushes against the constructed Latina identity, but her character stills draws on those characteristics. Jane does not want to repeat her mother’s mistakes and wants to reach her goals of being a teacher and getting married before starting a family, and when those goals are challenged, she only works harder. Jane grew up watching telenovelas with her grandmother and mother, and at many points in the show mentions to them that her life is becoming one as the drama unfolds.

            Alba and Xiomara are constructed through the tropes of Latina identity in the media, but Jane shows the beginnings of a hybrid identity with her college education, perfect English, relationship with Michael and desire to break free from the mold of her mother.

The “Monstrosity” of Intersex

Through the first two weeks of class, we have talked about sexing the body, gender differences, and how politics and medicine impact the ways society interacts with these topics. By gender, society means male OR female. By race, society means black OR white. These binaries leave little room for difference and push people into a category, regardless of how they feel about themselves.

Elizabeth Reis gives a broad 340-year history of intersex in America in her piece “Impossible Hermaphrodites.” The three time periods she finds from 1620-1960 show how society viewed intersex people as monstrous, deceptive, and anxiety producing. Through all of these shifts, doctors, government officials, religion and the court molded societies views on sex and gender, giving only their “expert” views as options on sex and gender. Reis says “when biological cues proved inconclusive, medical men turned to social indicators—such as a person’s mannerisms, clothing or tastes—to make their determination of sex” (412). Medicine was the first step, but if those tests did not give clear answers, the person’s physical presentation was investigated and judged to make a decision about their sex, often without consultation by the individual.

The part of her article that stood out to me in particular was the “monstrous” idea; that people early in Reis’ history who were intersex were “sent by God as signals and warnings” (Reis, 415). The idea that people born intersex were therefore abnormal, linked to the devil, and their parents, particularly mothers, were being punished for their sins is an outlandish idea. There were theories of what mothers should not do during pregnancy, what she was expected to do and what sins would make her have a monstrous child; all of which turned a genetic occurrence into a shameful thing that placed blame on the mother for carrying the child.

Reis’ history continues, going through the 19^th and 20^th century as deception and anxiety became the large concerns. I think these fears deep down held on to the early fear of monstrosity; we as a society don’t like when we don’t see the clear answer and are deceived, and fear exists in that unknown space. Members of society did not know what to ask, or how to ask, the questions they had, and that confusion makes people wary. When the categories we have created to organize and identify people are collapsed (or expanded), the fear becomes apparent.

And as much as it seems like these worries may be almost gone (or at least slowly dissolving) in today’s culture, they are still very apparent in the lives of intersex, gender non-conforming and trans groups.

            Catherine Graffam wrote an article for the Huffington Post where she discusses how intersex is more than a diagnosis, and how as an intersex, trans woman she felt “deformed” and “inadequate” rather than existing at some point along a spectrum of sex. Graffam’s article was part of a series following Pride that shared trans and gender non-conforming voices to the Huffington Post audience. At one point she shares: “Once I started identifying as intersex I was able to begin the healing process. I no longer blamed myself for the way I was because I learned that there was nothing wrong with it.” Her article being part of a series of sharing and supporting individuals going through similar struggles as she did, where she shares these fears and breakthroughs, shows readers that though the fear is not gone, acceptance and support has grown in recent years.

            Another Huffington Post article followed a Dr. Phil episode where two parents were arguing over the gender identity of their child, Aubrey, who was born intersex. When Aubrey was born, the parents and doctors chose to do surgery to have Aubrey be female, and raised her as a girl for the first three years of her life. But then the parents divorced and their ideas of how to raise their child changed. This story shows too clearly the challenges and harm choosing an intersex child’s sex and gender identity at birth causes through their lifetimes, starting so early on. This practice of choosing for the child has happened since before Reis’ history begins, and the large consequences on the mental health and identity of those children have not changed.

            Reis showed us that fears of intersex people have existed for all of history, shifting from monstrous to anxiety producing and unknown. The issues surrounding intersex identities and non-conforming gender identities are not going to go away overnight, and filter through our everyday lives through media and society’s concept of history.

References:

Reis, Elizabeth. “Impossible Hermaphrodites: Intersex in America, 1620-1960.” 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/catherine-graffam/being-intersexmore-than-a_b_10264652.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/is-their-child-identifying-as-a-boy-or-girl_us_565c0070e4b072e9d1c2454f