The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show has been around for over 20 years. It first aired in 1995 as a much more low-key event with only two cameras and has since evolved into much more of a spectacle. Over the years, the show has had its fair share of controversies, and while some of them flew below the radar or are now long since forgotten, there are a number of others that have just happened. Here are 8 shocking Victoria’s Secret controversies:
8. Pressure to be Lose Weight
In 2016, Erin Heatherton revealed that she dropped out of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in 2013 because she felt too much pressure to lose weight. “My last two Victoria’s Secret shows, I was told I had to lose weight,” she told The Telegraph. “I look back like, ‘Really?’ I was really depressed because I was working so hard and I felt like my body was resisting me. And I got to a point where one night I got home from a workout and I remember staring at my food and thinking maybe I should just not eat.”
The show has reinforced, whether intentional or not, impossible standards for beauty. In the 2012 show, Adriana Lima walked the Victoria’s Secret runway eight weeks after having her second child while Lily Aldridge was on the runway four months after giving birth. According to Lima’s personal trainer, she would work out twice a day, seven days a week to get back into shape for the show. “So we were working out twice a day, seven days a week, for two to three hours per session. We’d start around 9 a.m. and finish the first session around 11 a.m. or 12 noon. Then she’d be back in the gym at 5:30 p.m. or 6 p.m. to put in another couple of hours.”
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