The controversy around the most popular lingerie brand is not quiet. This time it’s about one of Victoria’s Secret stars – Barbara Palvin. The Facebook community described her as “the first model plus size VS”, even though she is very thin and 8th in size.

Model plus size in Victoria’s Secret?

The Hungarian model is not new in the industry – she made her first editorial at the age of thirteen, then worked with the biggest brands and went on shows at top fashion houses: Prada, Miu Miu, Vivienne Westwood, Chanel. She has also worked in the field of cosmetics. In 2012 Barbara Palvin signed a contract with Victoria’s Secret and in March this year she was chosen the new Angel of Victoria’s Secret. “I don’t know where to start, but I’ll try. I’m very excited to announce that I’m officially the Angel of Victoria’s Secret! Thank you for believing in me,” she wrote on her Instagram at the time. This decision turned out to be controversial – not for the brand, but for the audience.

Of course she looks healthy, delights and resembles a girl from the neighborhood, but to plus the size of her far away. A model with a height of 175 cm, dimensions 86-58.5-89 cm and a weight of 55 kg has a size of 8, or European 36/38. It’s not much for sticking her patch: for example, the most famous larger models who call themselves “ambassadors plus size” are Tess Holliday size 54 and Ashley Graham, who wears 48.

Fat shaming vs. Barbara Palvin

As the first “plus size model in Victoria’s Secret” Barbara Balvin was described as one of the facebook fanpages dealing with models, show business and pop culture. The “Superficial Doll” post evoked over 16 thousand comments – not only critical of the surprising opinion, but also from people for whom Palvin is really “too big”. It turns out that this is not the first time that a Hungarian woman has encountered fat shaming, i.e. criticism of her figure and size – a similar situation took place in 2016. She then commented briefly: “Wow. I got a lot of unpleasant comments about how fat I am. Well, I’m not as thin as I was when I was 18, but I wouldn’t call myself fat! Barbara Palvin mentioned several times that for a long time she was having trouble accepting her own body, and that she was torturing herself with training and dieting. She didn’t believe she could go this far. “When I finally accepted myself and my body and felt at ease in my own skin, magic happened and everything worked out.

All the confusion about how to describe a woman size 36/38 as a plus size and not from the fashion world (Victoria’s Secret doesn’t use that name and doesn’t refer to the matter), and the Internet users, only shows the sad truth about how much the world has a distorted perception of the human body. Even if this comment is a ridiculous joke, we’re making the chase for unrealistic standards of beauty go our own way.