Victoria’s Secret models strutted down the runway in their annual nationally televised fashion show this week on CBS.
Absent from the runway were any Asian American models.
There are those who see this as a lack of diversity. Asian American models deserve the exposure of such a high profiled program.
Skeptics, however, feel the absence of Asian American models is a sign of progress as Asian American women for too long have been seen as sexual objects instead of human beings. Women strutting in lingerie is not the kind of diversity we want, they say.
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The first Asian model to appear on the show which has been televised for 20 years is Liu Wen in 2009. She was born in China. Apparently she did not have official status as a Victoria’s Secret model and was only appearing as just a plain old regular model. Still her appearance generated a lot of buzz because she was the first Asian model ever to appear on a Victoria’s Secret runway.
This year Sui He once again walked in the VS show. She became the second model of Asian descent to walk that runway in 2011. She also walked in 2012, 2013 and 2014, according to Wikipedia.
To the best of our knowledge there have been no Asian American models to appear.
Where do you stand on this? Do you want to see Asian Americans on the program and when do you think we’ll see the first Asian American Victoria’s Secret model?
(This article has been corrected to indicate that Chinese model Sui He walked on the runway in this year’s show. We are also clarifying that Liu Wen is Asian and not Asian American. We apologize for any confusion)
Additional Coverage:
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