Virginia Tech won Victoria’s Secret PINK Party Collegiate Showdown (the actual name is probably a lot shorter and catchier than that), so on Thursday night my friends and I went to watch the free concert hosted by VS.
Gym Class Heroes performed, but they went on stage last, and we ended up sitting through some of the worst opening acts I’ve ever heard in my life.
For a company that’s supposed to be centered around women, Victoria Secret really shocked me with their choice of performers. A rapper and a DJ opened the concert, and I can’t even repeat their lyrics here. It wasn’t just the emphatic, non-stop cursing, it was the vulgar, detailed descriptions of what these rappers would do to a woman if they got her alone that disgusted me.
Really, Victoria’s Secret? I should listen to a man tell me to meet him in the bathroom of a club, where he’s going to “make my cheeks jiggle” - and I should be wearing your underwear at the same time? What demographic are you trying to market to? Obviously not independent, self-respecting, highly intelligent Virginia Tech women. We have some of the top engineering and research programs in the country, several headed by women. We are confident in our own sexuality - confident enough that we’d laugh at a man if his pick-up line involved a filthy club bathroom.
At least, I’d like to hope so.
Thankfully, Gym Class Heroes came on stage and redeemed the evening. Still, I left with a semi-bad taste in my mouth and a lot of cognitive dissonance. A night devoted to women’s underwear had rapidly become a lesson in objectification - and we were sitting there, just taking it. That disconnect was driven home even further when I read in Ephesians the morning after, particularly where Paul writes about the relationship between husbands and wives.
Ephesians 5:25-27 says:
“Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church – a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness.”
Talk about extreme contrasts to having a man cuss you out and tell you he’s going to “make your cheeks jiggle.” This isn’t about whether you are sexually active or not - this is about respect. Ladies, we are worth so much more than what we were told last night. Regardless of whatever brand of underwear you wear.
Grace Hayes is a Communication major and InnovationSpace Lab Assistant. She serves on the Creativity at BCM and owns a photography business.
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