This past Thursday, the chief marketing officer of Victoria's Secret Ed Razek and the company's executive vice-president of public relations, Monica Mitro, sat down for an interview with the prestigious Vogue magazine. When the interviewer asked the two executives whether the show was attempting to increase diversity amongst the models, Razel revealed that brand had "considered" the addition of transgender and plus-sized models in the show, but ultimately decided against the move because the aforementioned models "did not market to the whole world."
Razek expressed, "Does the brand think about diversity? Yes. Do we offer larger sizes? Yes... Shouldn't you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don't think we should." He added, "The show is a fantasy. It's a 42-minute entertainment special. That's what it is. It is the only one of its kind in the world."
Razek's comments were immediately met with a great deal of backlash, prompting the senior creative to issue an official apology. “My remark regarding the inclusion of transgender models in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show came across as insensitive," he wrote. "I apologize. To be clear, we absolutely would cast a transgender model for the show. We’ve had transgender models come to castings… And like many others, they didn’t make it… But it was never about gender."
The issue has sparked debate on social media, with many commentators offering varying perspectives. Check out some of the tweets below.
https://twitter.com/_/status/1061106626583822338
https://twitter.com/_/status/1061244756917936129
https://twitter.com/_/status/1060709503614808064