I will no longer shop at Victoria Secret

When I was about 14 years old, magazines from Victoria Secret would flood our home weekly.

Or at least it seemed weekly.

Before I was even 14, I had self-esteem body issues. I began dating the man who is now my husband at that age.

I was fairly mature for a 14-year-old and desired to feel sexy any way I could. I spent many hours flipping through the pages of the glossy books and analyzing each woman in the picture. If she could look that pretty, and sexy dressed in that, so could I! Or so I thought. When the clothes came in the mail which wasn?t overly often because I wasn?t making bank, I would often feel disappointed in what I had bought. One dress I had ordered was addressed on my body as a maternity dress by a friend! I was mortified. ?Why are you wearing a maternity dress, Prudence?? Look the woman in the picture made it look so slimming with her skinny, hairless leg displayed through the button up cut. It obviously didn?t work for me but I had to wear it a few times to figure it out cause I believed the lie I could be really hot in it.

I went to the VS store regularly, thinking that hot sexy underwear would make me feel that much better about myself. It always ended up ill-fitting and scratchy and causing a rash somewhere.

As a young woman, I would get pulled in to the shop with the soft porn posters in the windows always promising me that these perfect breasted women were what I should be, follow and lust after for myself and I could be them if I?d just wear their brand. Each time I shopped there I felt robbed of their lipstick promise and out a lot of money.

Then as my boyfriend started to tag along, there were the twangs of jealousy I began to feel. I soon realized that the women portrayed in the posters who just had to be all real, was an attention grabber for him. Is this what I wanted? To allow these beautiful, big breasted, perfect skin, long-legged, doe-eyed bimbos to capture his attention? Um, No. I came to the conclusion fast that my feelings over the matter weren?t sitting right. I began hating my body even more as no matter what I did my young body just wouldn?t fit the pictures and measure up. And from the look on his face, he was enjoying the shopping trips and walks past the store.

I never have realized how much damage that store did to my young self-esteem. It wasn?t the panties and bathrobes and perfume. It was the push from the front windows to be something that was fake and unrealistic for the average girl and woman. It was the voluptuous, lip plumped sex machine with her hair blowing in the warm sandy air that spoke this doesn?t get any better. ?The ?she? in the pictures affected me greatly when she told me I wasn?t enough and never would measure up to what she was.

Recently, I have been working through some of my fears that have laid dormant inside me since I was a teen. The fear of my husband viewing porn and lusting after other women. For 25 years I have believed my husband was hiding this from me. My fears are not completely unfounded as he is a man and falls prey to the flag of seduction. But one thing he did mention to me, is that he purposely avoids Victoria Secret?s storefronts whenever possible.

And that did it for me. It flipped my switch and I have thrown in the ragged towel.

I?m done with them.

The store is not on my regular shopping cycle and hasn?t been for several years now. But, I will no longer support the degradation of young girls. I?m done with their purposeful ads and posters sprawled out across their storefronts, tv ad?s and magazines crawling into your home to tell adult women that they are nothing without their crappy underwear. Not to mention, the magazines are pleasurable to your sons and husbands. Good old soft porn… And I?m done with the lustful, lewd pictures that turn the men in my life?s eyes and produce thoughts of impurity and desire that is unholy. I?m done with it all. And any panties I have in my drawer from that store right now is going in the trash.

What is the purpose of writing a post telling the world that I?m done with Victoria?s Lost Secret? Because who will speak out to defeat these problems and point out that certain brands hurt in so many ways?

Who is called to do it? I am. What about you?

Don?t give me lip about how self-righteous I am for writing about this. This affects every single person. Most importantly how you think about yourself. You don?t have to be all religious to get this picture. Nope, religion need not apply.

For the record, if you’re worried about giving up your Victoria Secret habit, you can find sexy lil panties all over the place for a fraction of the cost VS charges.

Think it through. Just think this through.

~Prudence O’hair