Aug
15

Carrying Sizes for Real Women? You Don’t Say!

filed under body image

Ever since I bought two pairs of panties and two tank tops from Victoria’s Secret I have been bombarded with summer sale emails. Emails in which the subject cheerily reminds me that it’s summer and that in the summer, the women who shop the sexy lingerie store must go out and buy several swimsuits that look as if they are made up of nothing but string and three strips of small fabric. Of course by the looks of these swimsuits that I am greeted with like a punch in the face as soon as I open the email, they weren’t exactly thinking function here. I have been receiving these emails every single day for the past three months. Three months! You would think they would catch on that no, I’m not particularly interested in the three strips of light weight fabric held together by string that they are trying to sell me, but then I remember–I am a number. I am a figure that goes into their sale reports. I am a random name @ random email provider like so many other women that were sent a catalog, said “ooh, cute!” and then bought two pairs of panties and two tank tops online and now forever must suffer while their unsubscribe page politely tells me that I will be removed; apparently that means I will be removed when they damn well feel like it.

I suppose that it could be viewed as a somewhat positive thing that Victoria’s Secret likes me so much that they refuse to stop sending me their daily and sometimes twice-daily emails because I recently received another email from them. This one was not of the “Buy this swimsuit or die!” nature as they shoved their airbrushed, eating disorder-inducing model down my throat, but was about their brand new revelation that they seem to be very excited about since I received this email three times.

Apparently Victoria’s Secret thought it would be a great idea to widen their range of bra sizes, as their sizes have sucked tremendously many, many times.


Victoria's Secret

So you would think this is a victory and all ‘hooray’ for Victoria’s Secret. I, however, knowing better, looked into it a bit more since their new sizes would mean that I could actually shop for bras through them because sometimes, yes, they have a lot of sexy stuff that I would love to be carried in a size that could fit approximately two small honeydew melons in.

Victoria’s Secret is now carrying their new, full coverage bras (new? what? *looks around*) Over 20 bras, the majority being plain, boring, one color types up to a size 40DD. Now let us turn our attention to the advertisement for these bras once more.

Victoria's Secret In what universe does this model wear a size 40DD bra? She doesn’t look to have scary implants and her stomach does not look to be the stomach of a normal woman who wears a bigger size bra cup than a B. So while Victoria’s Secret now claims they offer a wider range of sizes, although they should really put a disclaimer that says ‘for online purchases only’ because they do not carry a bra over a cup size of a C in their store–I know, I’ve made that mistake before; they simply refuse to show the public a normal sized woman. Nice ab indent, model of supposed 40DD bra; really. Psh.

This whole marketing scheme has me a little confused, to be honest. Why is it such big news that Victoria’s Secret has finally realized not all women come in sizes 0-2? What made them realize it now, rather than before? Why do they have the audacity to market themselves as the place to shop for sexy lingerie yet refuse to cater to all women?

Like I said before, I’ve made the mistake of trying to shop in one of their stores. I walked in, had a stick of a woman approach me and ask me what I was looking for. I replied with I was just looking, thanked her and moved on to peruse through the displays and racks of items. I came across something that I thought was nice and went back to the same woman who had approached me when I had walked in, asked her if they carried what I had in my hand in any other sizes because I didn’t see the size that I needed on display. She looked at me rather smugly and said ‘I think you will have better luck shopping online rather than in the store for the sizes you’re looking for.’ I felt like I had been punched in the gut, fell to the floor and had a gaggle of size 0 women crowding around me throwing Twinkies at me. It was a very Carrie-like scenario of what I had going through my head in just the few seconds I stood there, utterly dumbfounded. I gave her an ‘oh no you didn’t’ look, handed her the item I was carrying and walked out.

I’m not saying that Victoria’s Secret is the only company who markets this way, but they are one of the most popular and their marketing tactics are rather disgusting. I will not be shopping there anymore, I know that much and probably shouldn’t have when I made my purchase a few months ago; but then again, I thought it was going to be that one time and I would have my pretty new stuff and that would be the end of it. I didn’t anticipate on being on the email list that refuses to unsubscribe people.

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