Victoria's Secret campaign features first model with Down syndrome

[GenderNo]

This really doesn't sit right with me given some of the company's values and past campaigns:

edition.cnn.com/style/article/victorias-secret-sofia-jirau-love-cloud-campaign

This week, 24-year-old model Sofia Jirau became the first person with Down syndrome to appear in a campaign for Victoria's Secret.
The Puerto Rican model appeared alongside 17 other women to promote the new all-day-comfort Love Cloud collection, which the brand hopes will "reinforc(e) Victoria's Secret's commitment to welcoming and celebrating all women," according to a press statement.

The group is made up of both professional and non-professional models, of all different skin tones, body sizes, and ages. Famous faces like Hailey Bieber, Taylor Hill and Adut Akech join Celilo Miles, an Indigenous wildland firefighter who poses with her helmet and Sylvia Buckler, an accessory designer and mom who holds her pregnancy bump in her portrait. Valentina Sampaio, who became the lingerie brand's first openly transgender model in 2019, is also in the campaign.

I always thought their underwear was tat. I tried on a few bras once in NY. Full of padding that I most certainly do not require. They cost a fortune and looked rubbish. I did not make a purchase.

I recently listened to a podcast Fallen Angels about the company. Fascinating. I hadn't known about the J Epstein links. The lengths they make their 'Angels' go to to keep their position.

They once sold 1 in every 3 bras sold in the states. They are now in serious difficulty. This latest woke campaign is to try and claw back some market share which I hope doesn't happen.

I did buy a couple of very good sports bras from there, which I've never been able to find since (they changed the styles so they are no longer comfortable or fit well).

But I hadn't realised how extreme their model/brand rules were at the time. I ordered online when they were still only (mainly?) in the US so didn't see a lot of the campaigning.

It does feel a little fake - I don't get the feeling that they are celebrating every woman, but more than every woman is eligible to be exploited/sexualised for the male gaze - no-one can escape. That might not be the intention, but that is a bit how it comes across.

The article mentions the "first openly transgender model".. like it's a big secret and there have been lots of others who have someone been hidden away and nobody could tell!

DS is a spectrum and plenty of people with it are sexual people who can engage and consent in sexual activity

I’d imagine thats why the poster said that she was aware that her comments may not be true for everyone with downs

How insensitive. Presumably this women is a grown adult? People with DS still have a sexuality they’re not kids...

If they were doing it in some sort of weird fetishised way or there were signs she was being forced into it against her will you’d have a point OP, but unless you’ve missed something out your post I can’t see that.

I also agree there’s a lot VS in general can be criticised for, but this just seems like typical narrow minded attitudes to disabled people.

Does anyone know is this DS or mosaic DS that the model has ?

If they were doing it in some sort of weird fetishised way or there were signs she was being forced into it against her will you’d have a point OP, but unless you’ve missed something out your post I can’t see that. quite. Much in this post comes across as needing to protect the poor disabled girl from herself because she doesn't know better.

Sorry, this thread not this post. I agree with @user1471504747

All power to this young lady if she is enthusiastically consenting to modelling their tat. Given VS have only made diverse model choices since they've moved towards comfy/athletic gear, than lacy "sexy" stuff, their intentions are ridiculously transparent. Their concept of their ideal aspirational customer hasn't changed from a 6ft size 6 glamazon; they just want a piece of the bralette/athleisure market and know that a large proportion of the people with enough disposable income at moment are wealthy teenagers (who will also advertise them for free on instagram).

Once they make decent sexy underwear in an F+ cup and stock knickers bigger than a 14, maybe I'll believe them about wanting to provide for all women.

Yes, of course adults have sexual urges. It's also true that women with learning disabilities are far more likely to be sexually assaulted than women who don't have learning disabilities.

I'm not sure that this woman's image will generate wholesome "you go, girl" thoughts about adults with intellectual challenges for some bloody awful men.

She is a beautiful woman, but I'm uncomfortable about this.

It does feel a little fake - I don't get the feeling that they are celebrating every woman, but more than every woman is eligible to be exploited/sexualised for the male gaze - no-one can escape. That might not be the intention, but that is a bit how it comes across.

I'm not sure that this woman's image will generate wholesome "you go, girl" thoughts about adults with intellectual challenges for some bloody awful men.

I agree with these points.

lx.iriss.org.uk/sites/default/files/resources/behind_closed_doors.pdf

Here's a report about how women with learning disabilities get sexually assaulted.

Yes, people with DS have the right to work. Yes, they have the right to be in loving, sexual relationships. I was looking for a stat I heard at work, can't find it, that said that women with LDs are x7 more likely to be sexually assaulted as those of us without LDs.

Which makes no sense - because if it's 1:5 of your common or garden women, and women with LDs are x7 more likely...well, yes, I can see WHY VS would want this model, absolutely, if you like your inclusion "lite", yeah, great marketing. I also think @WeaverofWords makes an interesting observation.

It's capitalist woke washing. Whilst these diverse models are strutting down the runway, those horrid scratchy garments are being made - if the internet is to be believed - in sweatshops in the developing world, and are out of the price bracket for the ordinary working class. I've even seen a suggestion that prisoners in South Carolina have manufactured for VS in the past.

I wish this young lady every success. It would be a far more significant development in inclusion if she was walking the high fashion runways. The "inclusion" that VS encapsulates - namely being deemed hot enough for men to perve over you despite your "imperfections" - is hardly progress.