There is thin but healthy, and then there is practically skeletal, and designer Victoria Beckham seems to need a refresher course in how to differentiate between the two, particularly when it comes to using models to advertise her products. The British designer, model and singer has once again earned the ire of social media for promoting unhealthy body images - this time through a photograph she shared on social networks to promote her latest eyewear collection. Posh Spice, as Victoria Beckham is called, has been subject to criticism herself as too thin. This time, it's a model she used who has prompted controversy.
Back to work! Start the year with new frames from the Spring Summer 2018 #VBEyewear collection inspired by 1970s retro classics and updated for a feathery-light, fresh and modern look. Available at https://t.co/z8jKj9nMGH and #VBDoverSt. #VBSS18 pic.twitter.com/SDq0onL2EJ
— Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) January 11, 2018
The photo in question features 29-year-old Lithuanian model Giedre Dukauskaite in a nude satin tunic and pink pants, wearing a pair of square-framed tortoiseshell glasses from the collection. The problem? Dukauskaite looks almost unnaturally and unhealthily thin, eliciting fierce and angry reactions from the women and men on social media. We can't say the scorching criticism is unwarranted or misguided.
#models shouldn't be forced to be disgustingly thin to get work in the model industry. Its a bad influence on the younger generation who think its ok to look like this. #VictoriaBeckham and others should be ashamed of themselves..what is that telling their children?
— Annie Dwyer (@angelannie84) January 16, 2018
. A model who looks like a teenager with severe anorexia is the face for the #VBEyeware 2018 summer collection. This is why every study done on social media and advertising calls the threat to young girls’ mental health “dire”. Toxic imagery works - in the worst way. pic.twitter.com/5JXSdJRSoC
— Amanda Foreman (@DrAmandaForeman) January 15, 2018
Apart from looking absolutely ridiculous this is totally irresponsible. Images like this should be banned. We should be so past using models like this. But hey these sociopathic millionaires live in La La land.
— Mark Heaney (@Mark_Heaney) January 14, 2018
#VictoriaBeckham She should get her OBE stripped for this: hardly an honorary to be encouraging eating disorders.
— lovinlife (@davidsonjack50) January 16, 2018
Far be it from us to pronounce judgements or shame someone for their body size or type - there is, after all, the possibility that Dukauskaite is naturally that size, not suffering from some eating, body image or weight disorder. And if she is, it would be grossly unfair to use her photos as to make a point about fashion and its obsession with skinny bodies. But when it is a repeat offender like Victoria Beckham at the steering wheel, it's difficult to chalk it down to an unfortunate coincidence.
Using ultra-thin models and getting panned for it has become a something of a tradition with Beckham. In 2015, when she released photos from her spring-summer 2016, the move earned her a lot of flak for the underage, underweight models showcasing her clothes.
#VBSS16 x vb pic.twitter.com/iU0EPoSNt0
— Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) September 14, 2015
In 2016, when she posted behind-the-scenes photos of French model Marine Deeleuw from her pre autumn-winter 2017 fittings, hundreds of commentators called her out for the damaging message it conveyed to impressionable young people, and those who struggled with eating disorders.
The same year, another one of Victoria Beckham's models, Chantal Habscheid, was heavily criticised for being so thin, it looked unhealthy.
Victoria Beckham, who herself has been called excessively thin, had in her 2011 biography admitted that she has battled eating disorders in the past. She has also repeatedly claimed that her casting agents were directed to confirm with the models' agencies that the women were in good health. She has even pledged herself to the 'Health Is Beauty' campaign, committing that her brand would only use models who maintained healthy weights.
But photographs don't lie, and the ones from Victoria's campaigns persistently seem to be telling a different story.
It is disappointing that a global icon, who also happens to have young, impressionable kids of her own, can be so resolutely deaf to the message she is consistently sending out into the world. At a time when research shows that kids, particularly girls, as young as 6-years-old - the same age as Victoria's daughter Harper - are being diagnosed and hospitalised due to severe eating disorders, isn't it time that 'icons' such as Victoria Beckham start showing a shred of empathy and responsibility towards the thousands of people who suffer because of harmful messaging like her brand's?
Thankfully, even though brands growing a social conscience might be a work in progress, at least there's social media to help people call out the more awful transgressions.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
