The article Plus-Size, Transgender And Disabled Models Speak Out Against Victoria’s Secret  Jessica Andrews writes about the upsetting events that happened this year.

In 2018 at the Victoria’s Secret annual fashion show, there was a bunch of controversy due to the fact that there were no plus size, transgender or non-binary models in the mix of all the women that they choose to be angels to be  part of the show. They later put an add with a bunch of models of all nationalities saying the “perfect body” yet none of the models were plus sized in the photo. This just goes to show how they were not including a big majority of models that would like to be a part. Victoria secrets fashion show is one of the biggest fashion shows that occurs every year. They are only hiring a small percentage of Models there are many plus sized models that mentioned in the past that they would want to work  with the company such as Ashley graham and Tess holiday. Already not being the majority in the industry there are mainstream plus sized like Ashley graham she has modeled for many mainstream brands that would like to show that they are there for the average american/north american. As of transgender models and non binary models are not only not very underrepresented in the fashion industry but as of today there are only 91 spots on the runway that were filled by trans/non-binary models with the huge impact that Victoria Secret has on the fashion world they should be open to changing the industries ideal beauty standards. In 2013 there was a petition against the company due to them not having any transgender models in there shows or in there adds.Carmen Carrera is a well known model that is transgender. Why can’t the trans model be included in the brand? Then again they will not even consider the  plus sized models. These “plus sized” models are the average american women. When Victoria Secret is not considering that you do not have to be there ideal beauty standard in order to be beautiful. It shows that they do don’t care about their consumer. They do not want them to be included due to the fact that their own head of the company said when asked if they will be including plus sized models in the show his response was“No… because the show is a fantasy.”  meaning that plus sized, transgender and non binary models could not be a fantasy to the world in his eyes. In this case he is wrong for thinking this because  The majority of women in america are size 16-18 plus size and this is taking into account the women that identify as a woman they may be transgender . the representation of trans models in the Victoria Secret show was answered by a trans model her answer “ It’s important to have transgender representation because we represent the forthcoming generation” . this will be the future women who will be buying these items.  The women who are buying their brand are everyday women. As said in the article “ (PS. Us fuller ladies like to wear lingerie and look sexy. Get with it).” although they have only just started recently including women of different ethnicity. Victoria secret this year hired there very first model with Vitiligo Winnie Harlow and there first Filipino model (Kelsey Merritt). The different bias that I found in the article was Bias by Spin and Bias by selection of Sources. Bias by Spin is when a reporter’s perspective in an article seems like it supports one side than another and as a reader you might get influenced by what the argument is leading towards. For example when spin  is being used throughout the article Jessica Andrews shows more of the victims side being the transgender women and the plus sized women. She even goes into detail about how they are only opening up with models thats have rare skin disorders such as  Vitiligo. She does mention the other side to the story but still makes the minority look better than the chief of  Victoria Secret. She makes the reader understand the struggle of these models. While making the other side look not great. Jessica Andrews also uses selection of sources at the end of the article she as three interviews with different sources from Teen vogue. One being a plus sized model another being a trans model and then the chief of Victoria secret. The reporter for teen vogue asks specific questions that go well with Jessica Andrews points that she has proved in the article. This helps her have a concrete message for her reader.  The article has the exact impact that she wanted to hit by including these two biases.

sources:

https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/victorias-secret-fashion-show-plus-size-transgender-disabled-models

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Throughout the years women have fought in order to be able to wear what they deemed appropriate meaning the length of a womens skirt does not make her who she is. In my last post I wrote about dress codes. In life there is a general dress code in order to be able to go in public for example if you go to a mall you will see a sign that you must wear shoes and a shirt and basically you must cover what needs to be covered. This is needed because its not socially acceptable to walk around naked. Women have been fighting in the workplace to be seems as equals no matter what they wear. Feminist groups have started movements like #freethenipple it is a protest against bras. And the censoring of nipples on television and in social media. Like the dress code the rules only apply for women. Mens nipples never get censored. So here’s the argument  if nipples are the issue why not just ban all of them in media to call it fair. The argument is sex sells so adds of old spice with shirtless men getting all the women. Makes money so this is why it is allowed and when there is shirtless women it is seen as inappropriate. They make it a negative for women yet praise men for making money. When money is involved rules do not apply. Money does make the world go round but is that fair? In today’s society money is so important and its making the world more selfish and unkind to one another. Women especially new mothers are fighting to have breastfeeding rooms. Women breast feeding have got flack from men and women for publicly feeding their child. How is this such an issue when these women are just trying to feed their children and they are being sexualized for nothing. They are getting the same flack that a teen gets when her bra strap is showing in class. These are things as women we have to deal with but can they make it a bit easier on us. We get the short end of stick no matter what. And there are men that see these issues as well in our society. This is why fashion is so important it is giving people the freedom to say what they want to the world though there style. Fashion is raw and uncensored and one of the biggest statements that can be made other then words thats why its so controversial. Fashion is unstoppable and the impact it has on the world is major. The controversial and political world enhance the fashion world with ideas and creativity. Female celebrities of today still get seen in public in short skirts and crop tops and people say it’s inappropriate and they should be dressing more conservatively. Why should they? If they feel they can wear it and be comfortable why not give them the freedom and not bother them. Not everyone has the same style that’s why fashion is so individual. So can we just let people live their lives and turn a blind eye if we don’t really love what someone is wearing. And make everything fair by just having a clear cut rule for all and not just targeted to one gender?    

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As a girl when I was in school especially high school I was always in to fashion and growing up as a girl you always had to have the newest trends especially in my high school. But I always wanted to be different and when you try to make things your own you get “dress coded”. Now this is one of the topics I have experienced because I am a girl and I have been “dress coded”  by my teachers, and I did go to a coed high school with a uniform. We had free dress day which meant basically ware anything that was school appropriate. As a student you would think that free dress day was a good thing but it was the complete opposite as growing up as a girl. Many times a days at school where our education should have been first. It was always about what we were wearing. In the morning teachers would see that all the students were in the proper uniform. While reading on this subject I found some interesting stories of girls in the US being sent home for wearing shorts with black leggings. This girls legs were completely covered and followed dress code. Yet teachers thought the shorts would be distracting the male students. This reminded me of when I was 12 and I got dress coded for wearing scoop neck top that showed not even an inch of my shoulder. I had to go into the detention room for the rest of the day and all my work was sent there for the day. I thought that was a lot but then when I read the numerous amount of articles about having to go home because of breaking “dress code”. While writing this I was  searching for the opposite side the of the story to see if there were times where boys got stopped and punished for their clothing or being to distracting to their peers. But the only thing that they did get in trouble for was not being formal enough. So why is it that girls are the only ones with the consequence? As a young women i can see how in the future we will need to change this in order for it to be more fair and to avoid even having to dress code students.

sources:

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/09/05/do-school-dress-codes-discrimate-against-girls.html

https://thetylt.com/culture/dress-codes-sexist-schools

https://www.nola.com/interact/2018/09/are_dress_codes_sexist.html

Throughout history minorities have been put through tough times like public shaming,torture the example I will be using today is black face. The main purpose of black face was so white people Could openly mock people of color. It was basically done to make sure they would humiliate African american people. So why would a fashion house as big as Gucci do something like this? you would think that companies would stop to use controversial\ racially incorrect ways in order to get more publicity. This should not be happening to a brand like Gucci that has so much money the companies net worth in 2013 was US$12.1 billion. which means I think they have the means to get a reaction another way. They have teams that are paid for trend research and along with this comes the background of where this trend derives from. Basically meaning someone had to do their homework to see if this was “okay” to put into the collection. The fact that Gucci then pulled this from there store just shows they knew they were in the wrong and their public apology is a sign that they felt guilt. This just shows Gucci’s lack of Research on their behalf to be caught in a scandal like this. When a brand as well known as Gucci has made a mistake like this it makes us question how? They have many departments and not to mention they have means and there cheapest item is a 500$ t shirt . The argument is that they have enough resources and money to know that this should not have been a mistake that they have made. Other well known companies have been in the news since for similar situations for their controversial designs as well. The backlash is believed to bring a lot of new attention to these brands yet it also makes them lose customers and respect in the fashion world. For such a high end fashion house how can they make a mistake this big? People think they are pulling stunts like this because they want to get more publicity. As the old saying “No such thing as bad publicity “. yet in this case I personally think it backfired due to this the company lost money by pulling the controversial garment that was priced at $890. The garment is basically a turtle neck that is extended over half of the face and where your lips are there is a cut out and along the cut out there is red as if they were making the lips bigger. Within moments the garment was compared to black face and later taken out from stores and there collection.