Today’s Daily Mail’s article about Victoria’s Secret model Alessandra Ambrosio is great, because it underscores what happens when women visually compare themselves to the thinnest woman.
Part of a Victoria’s Secret threesome, my first reaction on seeing Ambrosio is that the other Victoria’s Secret models Doutzen Kroes and Brooklyn Decker look pretty hefty — translated gorgeously healthy but visibly curvier.
In women’s relentless body-image self-scrutiny, it all depends on who you’re standing next to — or the image in the photo.
Talking about Victoria’s Secret, the Brazilian Yummy Mummy said recently: ‘I’m very lucky to work for a brand (Victoria’s Secret) that wants women to be healthy. You need to be able to fill out the bra and the panties, so yes, I’m a curvier girl.’
VS is seling bikinis to a wide range of women, and this photo shows a range of body types. Studying the photos of Brooklyn Decker (great name), she may be the beneficiary of a bit of airbrushing herself for the VS catalogue.
Prada picked Miranda Kerr, Alessandra Ambrosio, Doutzen Kroes and Isabeli Fontana to walk her recent runway show in Milan, after insisting that she wanted more voluptuous models in her lineup.
photo via denimbog.comA few days ago Ambrosio modeled her Victoria’s Secret Denims with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley at a local VS store. Alessandra Ambrosio is simply not voluptuous and she can describe her body in any terms she chooses. This is not to suggest that the model isn’t positively gorgeous.
Being so influential as an influencer of body image and self-perceptions, we only hope that Victoria’s Secret continues to use a range of model sizes. For those who criticize VS for not carrying larger-size swimwear or photographing size 12 American models, that’s really their brand decision.
If all VS models were as thin as Ambrosio, I would be writing negatively. My only use of these photos is to demonstrate how a thin woman suddenly appears ‘fat’, depending on the woman next to her. Anne
