Why We’re all Boycotting Victoria’s Secret (and you Should Too)

I think it’s safe to say that Victoria’s Secret reign as the most popular women’s lingerie company is coming to an end (thank goodness). Whether it’s because of the company CEO saying he doesn’t want to include the trans or plus size community in his shows, the horrendous tokenism happening in their social media/advertising presence or simply because they don’t fit your size, people are shopping less and less at Victoria’s Secret. There are several things that the company will have to fix if they want to remain current and regain the trust of lost customers /keep the trust of current customers. Some of these things to fix include; stop using cultural appropriation in their annual fashion shows, create inclusive marketing strategies (NOT tokenism), include more sizes in store and more plus size women in their advertising as well, and lastly put their core values into action (lingerie to make EVERY woman feel sexy). The only thing that Victoria’s Secret has continued to do somewhat right is create luxury lingerie for the middle-class woman who wants to feel sexy. Their prices are on the higher side but nothing compared to real lingerie and their slight price increase from other Lingerie companies such as La Senza keeps their luxury and high class edge. However, that one trait aside, Victoria’s Secret’s is still doing it all wrong in terms of its social media, advertising, fashion shows and in store experience because they are all less than satisfactory in terms of today’s market of women.

The most pressing problem with Victoria’s Secret marketing is their lack of sizes, ethnicity, and age. Majority of Victoria’s Secret social media, advertising and in-store posters are straight-sized white females in their twenties-early thirties. These women embody the Western Beauty Standard (and they are supposed to). In an attempt to be more diverse Victoria’s Secret has added few women of colour to these images, which has only shown just how lazy and ignorant they are. They are adding token women of colour to their branding as opposed to fully taking the time to including women of colour, as well as women of all different ethnicities, sizes and age. Tokenism s making Victoria’s Secret increasingly outdated and irrelevant in today’s market because of other power-house companies with more diverse and inclusive marketing (Aerie Real, Savage x Fenty, etc.).

Another large problem that Victoria’s Secret has yet to fix (despite being told time and time again that their wrong), is the cultural appropriation which they use in their fashion shows. Like their use of tokenism, cultural appropriation in the Victoria’s Secret fashion show displays just how ignorant the company is of their market and of the generation. A solution to this problem (other than not stealing ideas from other cultures), would be to find models who can properly portray the narrative of the certain garments (the model wearing traditional indigenous clothing should come from the specific clan/tribe which the clothing originates from). Victoria’s Secret, being the white company that they are, have no ground for stealing from other cultures and meshing them together for the purpose of “fashion”.

Lastly, Victoria’s Secret desperately needs to fix their sizes and catering to women of such a small age group. As someone who very briefly worked at Victoria’s Secret, I know that one of the mottos which they tell new employees is that there is a bra for EVERY woman in the store. This is so far from the truth. The largest size they carry around is a 38, and i’m guessing that that only covers about half of the women who go in there everyday looking for a bra. What makes it worse is that the manager who was training us actually said that ALL women who are over a 38 band width can be squeezed into a 38 (SO not true). This other part of this issue is that in their marketing not only are plus size girls not represented (because VS doesn’t carry their size) but older women aren’t either. Victoria’s Secret is a company that prides itself on making all women feel sexy- not matter the age. Their branding needs to match their incentive, and it needs to fast.

In conclusion, until Victoria’s Secret decides to be less ignorant and acknowledge all of the problems wrong with their branding and company overall, I and a large amount of women will continue to boycott.