Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Reckoning Day - The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2011


Well it is time. The day has arrived. The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show of 2011 is almost under way. Well, actually it was under way a while ago but will be available for mass viewing by millions of viewers in just a few hours. And before it happens I think its time to take a moment and reflect....have I done enough yoga this year?
     

Okay, kidding aside for now. I first began pondering the idea of this blog just after last year's show occurred. As may have been casually mentioned before, I hang out with a lot of dudes. No seriously, a lot of doods. So around this joyful time last year I was unceremoniously booted out and un-invited over because this miraculous gift from heaven of a show is -- didn't you know? -- a Man ritual (and most likely anyone favoring a female in bed with them at night. Although, and I might be wrong on this, I doubt groups gay women have huge gatherings where they drink beer and ogle their TV for this show). Naturally, my jilted female mind wanted some sort of counter-fun which got me thinking...do women have an entertainment equivalent to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show?

Now this is going to take some audience participation here because I still have yet to come up with an answer. It has been one whole year where I have pondered this...and I have come up with nothing. There is a list of things I have come up with that don't quite cut it though:

-Men's Professional Sports: although a strong majority of the hotties in the NBA and the NFL (or really whatever you are in to watching) are in tippity top shape, let us be honest here. Seeing sweat and bad tattoos, not to mention butt padding, in HD is just not sexy.

-Male models: are the living Peter Pans of the world. They are all bred to remain 17 years old for their entire careers. With the exception of underwear models who, I think it safe to assume, are mostly interested in inter-breeding with the lovely ladies pictured on this page.

-Chippendales (no not the furniture): well, they're strippers. And as much as some of us may hate to admit it, the models in the VS Fashion Show aren't strippers either...they just have huge boobs. While these fellows may be attractive to watch do a little dance I wouldn't say they could rivet me just by prancing down a runway.

Which then brought me to the idea that maybe females don't have the ability to watch/desire other human beings strut around in uncomfortable outfits for an hour when you know they have been consuming only water and protein shakes for the past week? But why? Why, after we have worked so hard to liberate ourselves into the professional world/homelife have we somehow not developed our own tongue waggling version of this event? (maybe it is because women are not programmed with tongue wagging capabilities?). If there is one, why don't I know about it? Any one have an answer or speculation?


And now, time for some:






Opinion poll of this post (okay, maybe I am whoring for participation here. So sue me.) - Do you hate the show? Or do you kind of enjoy it for its entertainment value?


All photos courtesy of Tommy Ton for Style.com

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I do not think that women need an equivalent to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. I'm all for cute and sexy underwear, and I understand that you have to sell it somehow. However, the way it is viewed by many people, such as the dudes described in Adrien's post, clearly objectifies those women. Are those guys watching the show to decide which bra and panty set is the most stylish? Probably not. They want to see beautiful women prance down a runway.

Although objectification is plainly obvious in something like this fashion show, it is present in many advertisements, movies, and music. The detrimental effects of objectification reach the majority of the American population. The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, as it is viewed and set up, normalizes the idea that it is acceptable to view women as purely sexual objects. It also instills superficial ideals in women, which is not something any woman needs.

Judging by the effects of the objectification seen throughout our society: do we really need to fight objectification with objectification? All it would do is spread these effects into other arenas. Instead of finding a women's substitute for the fashion show, we should focus on changing the values and purpose as viewed by the public.