Victoria's Secret: Where the Asians, and sexy versus sexual object

Friday, December 07, 2007

With the help of the DVR, the Victoria's Secret Fashion show was watched, sometimes fast-forwarded through, and the bottom line is simply this - where were the Asian models? Does Victoria's Secret really expect the world to go on believing that they can't find any Asian women for what they (and CBS) bill as the "sexiest night on TV"?

Or does Victoria's Secret just think they don't belong there?

In addition to not having any "featured" models who were Asian, when they also went across the country to college campuses searching for young women to walk the runway, where one girl was picked to actually be on the show - they were almost all white - there was one Asian girl out of almost 30.

One.

Sexy versus Sexual Object

We all want to be sexy in our own way - smart sexy, slim sexy, geek sexy, big and beautiful sexy - but there's a big difference in being looked at as sexy, versus a sex object.

If you look at some of the media images and portrayals of Asian women today, it has to be confusing at times for young Asian women who aspire to be a top model in the fashion industry. On one hand, good enough for the massage therapist role, the submissive comfort woman role - the sexual object media role - but not good enough for the supermodel role, the your name in lights travel the world your an IT girl go endorse products role.

It's a dual message in some cases of being good enough for a media image of a sexual object, but not necessarily beautiful and sexy.