Do you know Victoria’s Secret?

February 22, 2023

Do you know Victoria’s Secret?

The Ohio-born Leslie “Les” Wexner is the billionaire founder of L Brands Inc., the one-time parent company of The Limited, Bath & Body Works, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Victoria’s Secret, the crown jewel of his retail holdings. Wexner bought the lingerie brand in 1982 from its founder Roy Raymond for just $1 million, turning it into a billion-dollar company within the span of a decade. In Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons, Wexner is described as a “genius” whose corporate shrewdness and foresight helped him dominate the malls of America. His megalomaniacal focus on retail dominance led him to become the inventor of fast fashion. “He’s the guy who figured out how to make Americans shop, shop, shop, shop, shop,” Teri Agins, the author of 1999’s The End of Fashion, says in the docuseries.

@TIME

And it's not only girls who go through this kind of pressure, created solely by an old man who lives in Ohio to make money. One look at Gay Instagram (c) and you're bombarded with the insane amount of perfect bodies looking back at you from your phone/laptop/tablet. It made me think about something that Upton said in a post I wrote about an artist featured here:

Out in Palm Springs for a week and it was very nice. So are these drawings. All of a kind. I saw a lot of different body types during my stay and came to appreciate something about each and every one. The idealized ones may get all the attention from others, but the more common variety capture mine. We all wish to be valued for who we are and part of that has to do with our physical selves.

@Upton

This pressure to conform to and try to imitate a body image (and age) that some consider 'ideal' is just plain bullshit. And it's very gay. I know for a fact some of you follow the 'perfect body' trail on Instagram and maybe really there's nothing bad with it. I also like to look at pretty men with nice bodies. Especially if they are half-naked while doing stupid dances or pretending to try on clothes while sporting a soft-on. Been there. Ogled them.

But there's something pernicious about that seemingly harmless pastime: you start judging real people by those standards. And those men and women on Instagram are not real. They project that 'perfect' image (whatever that is) with their useless six packs and gym toned bodies not suited for hard work to keep you watching. It's their job, literally. But they are as real as the men the artists I post draw and the women on Victoria's Secret commercials and runway shows: they are there to sell an idea. It's like porn: it takes an inordinate amount of smart editing, time and dedication to look like that. Those 'perfect' men on Instagram are there to sell you an almost impossible (to the common man) idea of what a beautiful body is.

Will this post make you drop all the toned, young, muscular dudes you follow on Instagram? Probably not. And that's not the aim of it, either. But it's important to know, dear, that they are not real. They exist for that photo and that photo only. They starve and dehydrate themselves to look like that. They spend hours and hours a day alone with free weights and exercise machines to look like that. And they are following foolproof steps to show you what you wanna see. Just like Victoria's Secret and the artwork I post, these men are made up by a dude.

Probably in Ohio.

XOXO

P.S. if you have Hulu, watch the documentary on Victoria's Secret. It's very interesting, to say the least...

Comments

Debra She Who Seeks2/22/2023
Literal belief in those body beautiful lies is as pernicious and damaging as literal belief in religion or fascist ideas.
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Xersex2/22/2023
it's exactly the same relationship between real sex and what we see in porn. However, if one is intelligent enough to understand that it is sex performed not only by the actors, but above all by the director, one can bring the same reasoning back to bodies and life in general.
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Anonymous2/22/2023
HuntleyBiGuy:
I’ve mentioned before how I’ve struggled with weight practically my entire life. I’ve always been self conscious about it. I was finally able to lose most of it through WeightWatchers a few years back and have been fairly successful in keeping it off. But the thing is, we need to eat and learning HOW and what to eat is key. After losing the weight am I a sculpted Adonis? Far from it. I’m healthy and feel OK about myself. I don’t need a hard body to be happy, though I do like parts of the body to get hard 😜.

Thanks for the recommendation, babe. I’ve added the series to my Hulu for later viewing. We are a marketing driven society and equate value in ourselves based on what other people think. I say fuck ‘em. They don’t know what they’re missing.

XOXO 👨🏼‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏽
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Dave R2/22/2023
Actually, I don't follow and toned, muscular dudes on Instagram. This may sound crass, but one of the main reasons men look for perfection in either men, or women, and why they're drawn to those more youthful, is that genetically speaking we are looking for the perfect breeder. It became ingrained in our DNA a long, long time ago, when most people rarely survived their 30s. This doesn't mean that your perfect match won't be older, rounder, and less attractive, just that when it comes to spreading your DNA, you'd prefer someone attractive and healthy enough to insure your DNA is still around 8 or 9 generations from now.
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Anonymous2/22/2023
Big says,
Dave is right...it's been that way for millenia as we strive to spread our genes. The folks who buy into the falsehood hook, line, and sinker are the ones you'll find at the gym every day, the ones who will buy only designer labels, the ones who go to the in-spot clubs. Those are the ones chasing the lies they're fed through advertising.
Of course, I love ogling the hard bodies as much as the next person, but I'm wise enough to know they're fake. XOXO
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Moran-Newman Farms2/22/2023
I had a 46 year long relationship with an ordinary man. What he looked like when he looked in the mirror and what he looked like in my mind were to radically different images. Today, I am nearing 75 and am just an ordinary man myself. Cursed with the mind of a teenager, the heart of a middle aged man and the body that seems to be falling apart in slow motion. But, guess what, even though I do have a few soft porn blogs that I routinely visit I do not really find the men on them all that attractive. I guess I am just a fan of the ordinary man.
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uptonking2/22/2023
Wow... thanks for sharing something that came out of my head. :) LOL I'm blushing. No... it's true - appreciate the incredible looking dudes, too... but I've come to see them for what they are - and you nail it, my dear. I get that they are there because that is what they choose to dedicate their lives to doing... and, honestly, you covered it all very well, so I have nothing else to add. I do appreciate you saying it though... because body-shaming has to stop. It's not healthy. Not for either party - the shamer or the shamee. We need to be more body positive - period - and lift all of us up. You did that today, with this post. Kizzes.
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