Debbie Schlussel: Victoria's Secret's Strange New "Positions" for Mannequins and Cross-dressing "Men"
I'm no prude, but you don't have to be one to find two "news" stories about Victoria's Secret, disturbing:
* Cross-Dressing/Transsexual Customers now welcome at Victoria's Secret: The "customer" trying on lace bras and panties in the next dressing room at VS may not be a female. Or a male. He/she may be an "it." Yes, as Detroit Free Press writer John Smyntek reports, male cross-dressers and transsexuals are now welcome at VS. Sounds like the chain is pretty desperate.
The new welcome mat to "non-traditional" women's undergarment customers began Sunday Night with HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," on which nebbish Larry David was invited to try on bras by a VS saleswoman. VS gave its seal of approval to--and willingly participated in--the episode. These customers, which the store chain calls "male clients" are allowed to use dressing rooms.
Hmmm . . . Maybe Elton John can buy his boyfriend this year's VS diamond-studded, platinum bra, for the holidays.
* Victoria's Secret's Mannequins' "Positions": VS has decided to pose mannequins in windows in explicit positions. Even if it's not a real human, it's just a tad inappropriate to see a thonged, kneeling mannequin facing you on all fours on a bed, butt-end forward--right in the store window for all to see. We all know the various purposes of lingerie, but the thing that best sells it is mystery, not obscenity. That only buys the sexy underwear protests and boycotts from rightfully angry parents. Abercrombie & Fitch discovered that eventually. Time for VS to, also.
Ditto for the whips-and-chains on some VS mannequins. VS doesn't sell those items, so its not even truth in advertising. Besides, if the chain wants to be as sleazy as Fredericks of Hollywood, they might as well go out of business--as FoH might, if its profits keep sinking.
Posted by Debbie on October 14, 2005 02:06 PM to Debbie Schlussel