But, cruelly, no matter what preparations you have or have not made, the Victoria's Secret swim suit catalog arrives, with its photos of lithe women with improbably large tits.
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This catalog doesn't just sell a swimsuit (although it does that very effectively), but it sells their bodies--I find frequently it's not the suit that really would look best on me that I fixate on, but the one that features the body I most wish I had, that tousled beachy hair I could never achieve, that relaxed and affluent lifestyle that is so incongruous from the one I have where I work too much and wake up in the dark to lumber out in the cold.
Marketing this impossible body and this impossible lifestyle, companies like VS get rich off of making women feel like shit. Which infuriates me the more that I think on it.
Especially because it feels so personal when things fit incorrectly, when your breasts are just too big to look classy in anything, when you butt can't fill out the bottom but you somehow have a muffin top. It feels like it's just you that there's something wrong with. But as my girl Tina Fey points out, we are all in this ship feeling terrible about ourselves together.
Remember that, please. Nothing is wrong with you.
Much love,
The Sheriff
Follow me on twitter @ff_sheriff or get at me on Facebook!
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ReplyDeleteI definitely believe that JLo made asses acceptable in none Black and Latina women. It goes like this, from a man who loves women, a regular body is sexy. I don't mind love handles or a slight gut. Cellulite is real. Stretch marks are real.
ReplyDeleteSo I have a question, mostly out of ignorance: If all of this material is degrading to women (I'd agree with that), why continue to get it and not opt-out of the VS catalog, etc.?
ReplyDeleteThey actually just send it to you if they have your address at all/if you've ever purchased anything from them. I haven't bought anything from them since I've lived in my new apartment (over a year) and I get the catalog from the previous tenant, which is unfortunate.
DeleteBesides, VS is just the most prominent, successful, and widespread example of it. It's hard to avoid this kind of shit entirely while existing in the world.
So how should they market swimsuits? Showing one on a hanger or on a table is kind of...boring.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I sometimes find these body image complaints just a tad bit insulting - sort of a "let's celebrate bigger gals and ignore all the skinnies" or a "skinnies not allowed to complain" vibe.
@Cynthia--It's certainly not a skinny girl versus curvier girl thing, for me at least. The models are photoshopped to have much larger breasts than are typically found on most skinny women, so we're all feeling inadequate on that front.
DeleteI think they could market it with a variety of shapes! Point blank. It's that easy
VS convinced me that I would always have to deal with ill-fitting bras because they closest fit to me was a 32A. The fact that I had gaps on the inside and it dug in on the outside didn't matter, I measured 32A. For years I thought I was wrong, and many women are in the same boat. Whether it's the impossibly large boobs or ridiculously slim thighs, VS is very good at promoting a body that is out of reach for most women without some form of major surgery.
ReplyDelete