Victoria's Secret Models win bogus award

If you've been reading this blog for a while... you know that I hate random marketing ploys.

I also hate the gratuitous glorification of models, celebs etc....

So you can imagine how I'm feeling about the "Award of Excellence" that has been bestowed on the Victoria's Secret "Angels."

PuhLEASE.  An honorary star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?  Not that that is some great thing... but if I were a film legend and had worked hard to earn that, I'd be pissed that some people were getting the same honor primarily because of how they look.

And "excellence"?!  In what?  In bikini wearing?  BFD.

PS.  The utter self-importance and smugness on the faces of some of the models in the photo also really rubs me the wrong way.  Um, hello... are you about to cure cancer?  Did you help someone through a major life crisis today?  Well, then.....

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Sorry for the vitriol... but it's my first day posting after book tour (YAY!  It went really well!) and I just had to vent a little bit.....

Comments

[Shaping Youth]

The Golden Era film star folks must be rollin' in their graves...And vitriol? Gosh, this is a polite little hand-slap compared to my rants on Shaping Youth ;-) Thanks for this Audrey, and btw, I haven't forgotten the post on the Get Real tour and the session we attended...

AND I need to interview you on a piece I'm doing about tween wannabes and that developmental phase so many go through when they start taking pictures of each other in 'model' stance style, and want to 'try out' modeling. (hey, I did it too...back in the era of those Hallmark greeting card poses of sweet-long-haired ingenues sniffing flowers in a field)

Did you see my post called "Unilever Disrobed" on the filmmaker who did the mashup using Axe/Dove in an 'Onslaught' video spoof? Here it is if you missed it: http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=773

[Shaping Youth]

Hey Audrey, I just posted all about the VS absurdity in this post called "Hollywood Walk of Lame" http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=786

Thanks for the hat tip...back atcha!

[Sara]

I for one am happy for all the angels!

"Did you help someone through a major life crisis today?"

Do you know how many homeless children Adriana Lima helps on a daily basis? A HUGE amount of her income goes to helping street children in Brasil.

[Morton]

Your blanket snobbery is very narrow-minded and bitter. Since you seem to dislike the glorification of the Victoria's Secret Angels and celebrities in general, may I point out that it's nothing new. Hollywood in the 1930s was just as glamorous then as it is now. I happen to be a major film buff, too. As an example, I am a great admirer of Groucho Marx. Using your wrong-headed logic, that must mean he's also unworthy of his star on the Walk of Fame. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I know more about movies, past and present, than you do, so don't even think of trying to debate me on this issue. The Victoria's Secret models are incredibly beautiful women, too. You obviously are nowhere as pretty as them, which would explain your bitter demeanor. Your loss is their gain.

[anon]

Wow mort - you are SO completely correct.I think that only men like Donald trump are allowed to decide what makes a woman beautiful. How dare these women or those who have the star be critized for anything. At all. Ever. Anyone who criticizes this award must be bitter. The only problem is that they only got a star, not what they truly deserve - a Nobel peace prize.

[anon]

Wow mort - you are SO completely correct.I think that only men like Donald trump are allowed to decide what makes a woman beautiful. How dare these women or those who have the star be critized for anything. At all. Ever. Anyone who criticizes this award must be bitter. The only problem is that they only got a star, not what they truly deserve - a Nobel peace prize.

[Mort]

Amazing how I posted my comment almost one year ago, and NOBODY (capitalized for emphasis) has attempted to refute me. Maybe it's because you morons know I'm right and you're wrong! I know what makes a woman beautiful: a good sense of humor, an infectious smile, a beautiful body, and a good mind. I go to Hooters once a week and get lots of attention from the lovely ladies there.

[Cindy]

OMG! "I go to Hooters....." Pleeeese! You're a walking billboard advertising exactly who I want to STAY AWAY FROM!! I am almost 50....incredibly intelligent, incredibly beautiful, and incredibly living my life with purpose. I am saddened to think that I will not live to see a day where, our society will NOT promote SEX, youth, and a "certain look," which nothing modest, nothing intimate, nothing sacred, will ever come from and will continue to be hard to allow two individuals to figure out together what that is for them....statistically....why do you think there is so much infidelity, divorce, eating disorders, priority on money, power, and sex? Sad, sad, sad. I stopped shopping VS a long, long, time ago! I can find my own beautiful look/lingerie at other stores without sharing with the whole world what I'm supposed to look like for my husband! VS models...model for your partners....I do not respect any woman who promotes sex for others or contributes to the hurting of MANY MANY women in our society because they've been domesticated to think they are LESS because they don't look like that and there are many male partners that cannot perform today because of the inability to become intimate in a loving and caring way....isn't that what makes humans different from animals...the heart...the soul....why don't we all just go out and be one big orgy? VS models...be beautiful and modest in your everyday life and wearing clothes! STOP contributing to this insane "ideal" that we've created....shame on you women for helping to create these emotionally retarded men in our society today!