Entertainment

8 times Victoria's Secret models slammed body shaming and diet culture

EntertainmentPublished Mar 20, 2018
By Izabella Zaydenberg
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It doesn't matter what kind of body you have — thin, curvy, athletic, anything in-between — chances are, you've been on the receiving end of body-shaming comments. And while culturally, Victoria's Secret models are seen as the "body ideal" (cue eye roll), that doesn't mean they're exempt from bullshit body-shaming rhetoric.

In light of multiple Victoria's Secret models recently coming forward to talk about the pressure to maintain a "perfect" body, we rounded up the times that the lingerie models got super real about their bodies, explaining how there's nothing glamorous about the diet culture that goes hand-in-hand with the quintessential Victoria's Secret bod.

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Victoria's Secret body-shamed
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Bridget Malcolm revealed she was told to "show more ribs" at a photo shoot.

In a recent blog post, Malcolm stated that a swimwear shoot quickly turned ugly when the unnamed brand was flat out rude after realizing Malcolm didn't have 34-inch hips. The brand then requested Malcolm fake a thinner appearance by asking her to protrude her ribs more, suck in her gut, and tie a sarong around her hips to hide them.

"It makes me enraged when a woman is made to feel fat at a size four," she wrote. "What messed up parallel universe is this? The fashion industry should be celebrating women of all body sizes."

Same, girl. Same.

Nina Agdal stated she was denied a cover and a story because she "did not fit [their] market."

In a damning Instagram post, Adgal revealed that following a shoot, her agent received an email from the creative team, stating that Agdal's cover and story was cut because it did not "reflect well on [her] talent," and "did not fit their market." She also apparently did not fit into the sample sizes.

"If anyone has any interest in me, they know that I am not an average model body — I have an athletic build and healthy curves," she wrote.

She revealed that her body has evolved from when she was younger and had "unhealthy and insufficient eating habits" so now she has developed a more athletic build.

"Let's find ways to build each other up instead of constantly finding ways to tear each other down," she wrote.

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Victoria's Secret Cara Delevingne
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Cara Delevingne has clapped back at body shamers for years.

Following a 2016 story that Delevingne was booted from the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show because she was "too bloated," the former model slammed The Sun for the BS claim. 

"It's shameless to discuss women's bodies just to sell papers," she said in an Instagram post.

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Cara Delevingne left modeling
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Delevingne also attributed her graceful exit from modeling to body image issues.

Following nonstop shows, flights, and work, the model revealed that she had a psoriasis breakout on her skin.

"People would put on gloves and not want to touch me because they thought it was, like, leprosy or something," she shared with The Times in 2015.

She also revealed that the industry caused her to have mental health and body image struggles.

"I was, like, fight and flight for months. Just constantly on edge," Delevingne said. "It is a mental thing as well because if you hate yourself and your body and the way you look, it just gets worse and worse."

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Gigi Hadid body-shamers
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Gigi Hadid has routinely slammed critics who claim her body is "too thin," "too muscular," or "too curvy."

In an Instagram post from 2015, she insisted that she "doesn't have the same body type as other models," and that she represents a body image that "wasn't accepted in high fashion before" — specifically, that she has more curves than the traditional high fashion model.

"If I didn't have the body I do, I wouldn't have the career I do," she continued. "I love that I can be sexy. I'm proud of it."

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Gigi Hadid body-shamers Instagram
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Hadid also reminded trolls that her body is allowed to change.

“I loved my body as a 17-year-old athlete and I love my body now," she stressed. "Yes, I’ve lost some ‘baby fat,’ but muscle mass from my intensive volleyball training in high school has changed over the years into lean muscle from boxing, and work stress can have its affect [sic], but purposefully changing my body has never been my thing."

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Blanca Padilla body-shamers
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However, not everyone is impressed with Hadid's takedown of body shamers.

While model Blanca Padilla agreed with Hadid that the industry is "slowly" accepting models who are minimally curvier, she also acknowledged that the reason Hadid is so widely accepted has to do with the fact that she's a social media star.

"If it was me with your same measurements going to a casting they would send me home to lose weight," she said in an interview with Spanish show "Al Rincón." "Most of us have to conform to extreme measurements because otherwise we won’t book any jobs while others have the privilege to say that designers love them despite their curves. Well then, why do they love you? Maybe your millions of followers on Instagram might have something to do with it as well."

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Erin Heatherton body-shamed
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Erin Heatherton, a former Victoria's Secret model, also revealed that the company asked her to lose weight for a show.

“My last two Victoria’s Secret shows, I was told I had to lose weight,” she told Motto in 2016. “I look back like, ‘Really?'”

While preparing for her last show appearance in 2013, she realized her weight just wasn't coming off, and she was resorting to unhealthy eating habits. Shortly after, she parted ways with the lingerie brand.

“I realized I couldn’t go out into the world—parading my body and myself in front of all these women who look up to me—and tell them that this is easy and simple and everyone can do this,” she said.

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Media Slide 9

These models' stories prove that we still have so much work to do.

There is no one body type that's immune to body shaming, and attacking another person because of their weight or the way their body looks is never going to be OK.

While we give Victoria's Secret a lot of flack for the culture the company perpetuates and the lack of inclusivity the brand continues to endorse, we do have to commend the models who took a stand — both against the brand and against the industry as a whole.

WATCH: Women talk about being body-shamed  — Subscribe for more!

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