Well, we’ve reached peak 2019 and it’s only August.
Victoria’s Secret proudly announced on Monday that they’d hired their newest lingerie model, and while dude may look like a lady, he’s most definitely still a dude. Yes, the company has hired Valentina Sampaio, a Brazilian transgender model who has already made waves in the fashion world in South America. Now Sampaio will be bringing his/her feminish wiles to America under the VS Pink brand.
We’re sure it’s only a coincidence that Victoria’s Secret announced a few days ago that they were canceling their annual lingerie stage show.
From Fox News:
Valentina Sampaio, of Brazil, posted to Instagram a photo of herself at a shoot with “VS Pink,” writing: “Backstage click,” alongside the hashtag “diversity.”
The news was seemingly confirmed by fellow Brazilian model Lais Ribeiro, who tweeted she was “so happy” Sampaio experienced her first photoshoot with Victoria’s Secret.
The 22-year-old model was also the first transgender model to grace any edition of Vogue magazine when she posed for Vogue Paris, in February 2017.
Late last year, Ed Razek, chief marketing officer of Victoria’s Secret’s parent company L Brand, said transgender and plus-size models shouldn’t be included in the company’s famed televised fashion show “because the show is a fantasy.”
“I don’t think we can be all things to all customers. It is a specialty business; it isn’t a department store,” he said during an interview with Vogue.
Yes, but the world has moved on, and Razek was raked over the coals for his remarks. He later issued a statement apologizing for coming across as “insensitive.”
“To be clear,” he said, “we would absolutely cast a transgender model in our show. We’ve had transgender models come to castings…and like many others, they didn’t make it. But it was never about gender. I admire and respect their journey to embrace who they really are.”
No, no, nothing about gender, heavens be. Why would we want actual women wearing our women’s lingerie? That doesn’t even make any sense, lawda mercy.
Has the backlash begun yet, or are we going to keep pretending this is normal for a while longer? Just asking.
