The insecurities of Victoria’s Secret
Facetune is being tuned out… at least by the Victoria’s Secret brigade, who spoke out en masse against the photoediting app, beloved of Instagram stars, at a book launch in LA last week. “I’ve told myself recently that I’m not going to change my body anymore,” said supermodel Sara Sampaio. “I’ll just fix a pimple here and there… But you see so many beautiful bodies on Instagram, so it’s hard not to compare yourself,” she added.
“There’s a danger to apps like Facetune,” chimed in fellow Angel Lais Ribeiro of the “magic” technology that allows you to smooth skin, remove blemishes, whiten teeth and slim down bodies. “It sends a message to girls that beauty is unattainable.”
All very valiant. But the truth is that, Photoshopped or not, their brand of beauty is unattainable. And I say this as someone who has interviewed four Victoria’s Secret models over the years, and knows that looking directly at them is as hard as staring at the sun.
But, oh, the insecurities! And they’ve cheerfully admitted to these over hours of recordings – recordings my husband was finally forced to ban me from transcribing in the house a few years back, when after a particularly lengthy monologue on the dangers of high-impact exercise and “thigh girth”, he interjected: “You’re killing the dream.”