Watching the Victoria's Secret documentary as a Millennial is a Cringey Walk Down Memory Lane

Watching the Victoria's Secret documentary as a Millennial is a Cringey Walk Down Memory Lane

As a '90s baby who hit puberty in the early '80s, I walked past pictures of Victoria's Secret "Angels" in the windows of Brooklyn's Atlantic Mall on Flatbush Avenue every day growing up. Watching the VS fashion show on television during high school was akin to watching a championship sporting event, and their sculpted, thin bodies have been hammered into my brain as a pinnacle of beauty ever since. Now, years after the brand's popularity peaked in the early 2010s, a new documentary series on Hulu reminds me how central the brand was to the toxic beauty standards that I — and many others — still struggle with today.

The three-part documentary series "Victoria's Secret: Angels and Demons" examines the lingerie brand's influence on culture and fashion in the early 2000s and the ongoing impact of the unrealistic body standards the company promoted. Journalists and former VS employees use the word "unattainable" repeatedly throughout the documentary, while reels of models blowing kisses at the camera as they walk down the runways in elaborate wings play in the background, transporting viewers straight back to 2010. The documentary serves as a reminder of how problematic the brand was for women's self-esteem and body image in its heyday, and that doesn't even scratch the surface of what other controversies the docuseries has unearthed about the brand.

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The tall, thin, toned, big-breasted models presented by Victoria's Secret (and other brands at the time) were not only damaging to my self-image as a teenager, but also to young women everywhere. For example, according to an analysis of 25 different experiments published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders in 2001, exposure to "the thin ideal of beauty as portrayed in mass media" led to an increase in body dissatisfaction. Later, a 2004 study found that viewing "thin-ideal magazine images" had troubling effects, including negative moods, eating disorder symptoms and reduced self-esteem.

While there's still a lot of work to be done, the new documentary shows how far other brands have come in representing what women's bodies look like and what consumers actually want to wear (no more itchy lace thongs, please). It draws attention to Lane Bryant, a women's clothing company that focuses on plus-size clothing and even launched a campaign called "I'm No Angel" in 2015 to directly respond to Victoria's Secret's outdated beauty standards and signal a culture shift in the fashion industry as a whole. The series also reminds viewers of a particularly tone-deaf interview with former Victoria's Secret chief marketing officer Ed Razek that was published in Vogue in 2018. In the interview, he made it clear that he didn't feel the need to compete with newer, more inclusive lingerie brands, apparently because he wasn't interested in attracting customers who didn't fulfill that "fantasy." He even specifically referenced ThirdLove (a brand known for its comfortable underwear and authentic marketing imagery).At the time, ThirdLove published an open letter to VS criticizing the brand for its exclusivity, writing, "You market to men and sell a male fantasy to women."

With a major push from falling stocks, the #MeToo movement, and new and redesigned brands now offering (and visually showcasing) lingerie for a wider range of body types (like Rihanna's Fenty and Aerie), Victoria's Secret has embarked on a massive rebranding over the past few years. In 2021, the company replaced its Angels with the VS Collective, a group of diverse, accomplished women including soccer superstar Megan Rapinoe and actress and tech investor Priyanka Chopra Jonas. The company also has a new team dedicated to advising the women of the VS collective on product collections, content and internal programs. It even takes notes from TikTok star Remi Bader (famous for her "realistic" clothing hauls), who is now a brand ambassador and sizing consultant for Victoria's Secret PINK, a division of the brand aimed at younger consumers.

News of the brand revamp was initially met with a lot of skepticism, and whether consumers are sold on it or not remains to be seen. Although Victoria's Secret has recently launched comfort-focused collections like the Love Cloud collection and updated its marketing and e-commerce imagery to include more diverse body types, its stock price has fallen more than 20 percent since the start of the year. The company needs to prove that its relaxed collections and more realistic campaign imagery are not just empty PR stunts, but deeply intentional moves that reflect how Victoria's Secret truly understands how its reach can influence what generations of people consider "beautiful."

It's a big hill to climb, though, considering a song about how Victoria's Secret prayed for young women's insecurities is currently going viral on TikTok. A user recently wrote and shared a song pointing out that the lingerie brand was run by a man, profited from people's body issues, and perpetuated a fantasy that impacted their relationship with food. Now thousands of others are using the sound in TikTok videos.

Despite the fact that Victoria's Secret is attempting to rebrand itself and other more inclusive brands, including Aerie, ThirdLove and Parade, are leading the charge into a new era of inclusivity and diversity, the negative consequences of the so-called VS fantasy continue to live on in the form of social media influencers and diet culture. They also have a lasting impact on those who grew up with an unrealistic view of beauty. "It's still ingrained in my brain that being hot is the most important thing," I wrote to my younger sister while composing this story. Hopefully, more realistic and authentic examples of beauty in various forms in brand campaigns today will prevent some of my generation's toxic self-image issues.