[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]According to the International Business Times, more than 9.7 million people tuned in on Dec. 10 for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. This show is a huge deal for some women all across the world. Among those women, some even throw parties and watch the show together. However, I think that this is very detrimental to not only women, but also men. Women and men might not realize it when they are watching the show, but with each model who struts her stuff on the runway, the images of “perfection” are being solidified in each viewer’s head. The show leads women to think that they need to look like the models in order to be considered “desirable” to the world and leads men to believe that women should look like that, when in reality very few do.

Women from all over the world watch this show and believe, like the models, that they can be as thin or as “beautiful.” However, the women in the show are not typical women. Victoria Secret models devote their lives to being in the show. Ordinary women, like me, who go to school and have an ordinary job and a family, are only setting themselves up for disappointment if they believe they can be like the women in the show. The International Business Times states that “more than nine months of planning and preparation went into creating this year’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion show with models being subjected to grueling exercise schedules and healthy diets.” But for some of the women watching, it’s an overnight process. Then, women get discouraged and down on themselves when they wake up the next day and realize that they are not an “angel.”

In a UK Telegraph article, Angel Adrianna Lima stated that for nine days before the show, she does not eat any solid food and works out twice a day. Real women, with real lives, simply cannot function on no solid food. Women so often see food as an evil thing, but in moderation it’s a beneficial thing that keeps us functioning. This is heartbreaking to me, as a girl, because in a world that portrays food as an evil, we need women who are able to stand up and say that they are confident and comfortable with their bodies, just the way they are. Life has many different seasons and phases but for the Victoria Secret Fashion Show, we only see a final product, not all the work that goes into it.

The International Business Times states that during the show, there are 26 make-up artists and 22 hair stylists at all times during the show. On top of that, over 120 coats of mascara and over 80 coats of lip gloss were applied. When a man watches this show, he will probably begin to believe that real women should look like that. But in reality, any woman, not a professional model, cannot look like that. No woman has time to sit there and be pampered by a makeup artist while the artist applies 120 coats of mascara. This is harmful to men because they will never be satisfied with any woman if she does not fit this criterion. Wake up, men who watch this show; no woman who you want to spend your future with will look like this. And ladies, no guy is watching the show just to see the outfits.

Men and women who follow this show, I urge you to take everything you see during this show with a grain of salt. This industry is not going to disappear overnight but by shedding some reality on it, we can see that nothing good is coming out of this show. You may not realize it in the moment but each time a model walks the runway, men and women alike are forming images in their head of the way women should be. Men, no woman who is worth your while will look and act likes a Victoria’s Secret model. And women, no man who expects you to look and act like a Victoria’s Secret model is worth your while. Stand up for yourselves, women, and hold the men in your life to a higher standard and stay away from this show altogether.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]