Victoria's Secret (5-20-2015)

I've been shopping at Victoria's Secret since I was in eighth grade. All of my friends love it there, and whenever I go in, it's filled with girls my age to mid twenties. It's always packed! I think this is because Victoria's Secret delivers something that all girls want to achieve in some way: sexy. Buying Victoria's Secret makes you feel like the perfectly fit models they use to advertise their products. However, I know that when I put on anything from that store I just feel disappointed in myself for not looking like them.
Victoria's Secret is telling teens that looking like the models in their advertisements is the only way to be sexy. How do you look like their models? Buy their swimsuits, lingerie, or any other clothing or perfume they are selling. I've been wanting to look just like their "angels" and "bombshells" since middle school. They are acting under the reality assumption that many young girls want to look sexy and are unhappy with their current bodies, they sell unattainable standards for girls to reach. It is almost impossible for girls to look like the supermodels that they are surrounded by, especially while they are still growing and some still going through puberty.

This is an ad that I remembered seeing once and found online as well. It is promoting a variety of new bra fits, so every girl can find the perfect "body" of their bras.

The term "The Perfect Body" is a double meaning, which anyone can see by simply living in this culture and looking at the picture. All of the girls in the image have the "perfect" body that everyone in this culture, including those shopping at this store, desire. Girls are encouraged to somehow get this perfect body, and can do this by having the perfect "body" in their bra. 

Nationwide, teens are surrounded by images such as this, creating unrealistic ideals for both genders. In Merchants of Cool, teens also found themselves as huge consumers of whatever media was presented to them. Girls found their bodies to be more valuable than themselves. That was 15 years ago, and this issue has not gotten any better. Humans are still surrounded by all of these images all the time, more now than 15 years ago. This ad is a norm. If this pattern continues, by 2030 you could only expect girls to be acting like they are in their twenties when they haven't reached puberty more so than today. Maybe models will roam city streets in their underwear encouraging people to buy a bra! I just hope that someday my children aren't as scrutinized by our culture as people today are.