The March 25, 2022 episode of The World and Everything In It podcast reported on a story of a Puerto Rican woman with Down syndrome who has become a Victoria’s Secret model. The expert who spoke on the matter focused on the fact that Victoria’s Secret objectifies women.
I didn’t understand why they were reporting on this since we already know that Victoria’s Secret has always objectified women. How could we expect them to do anything differently when they sign a model with Down syndrome? According to their worldview, they are the paragon of virtue by being inclusive.
Exploitation?
The commentator implied that because she has Down syndrome she is being exploited. I wanted to know more about the situation to know if that was the case or not. People with Down syndrome have varying cognitive levels. I would not assume that a person with Down syndrome is unable to comprehend what it means to be a lingerie model.
Digging deeper
I easily found what I wanted to know on YouTube, the fount of knowledge that you never knew you needed. In the video I saw that this woman is able to speak using short sentences and catchphrases.
Additionally, the translator expounded it on what she said to make it sound more polished. For example, switching between English and Spanish, she said, “I love hair, make-up y … y photos… me encanta los photos.” (I love hair, make up and photos…I love photos.)
The translator “translated” this by saying, “I’m going to be selling hair and make-up products and using them for photos and videos.” His augmentation of what she said highlights the fact that she cannot express herself well. It seems easy to conclude that she is being exploited, which is extremely sad and upsetting.
How does this make you feel?
Many of the YouTube video comments showed that you don’t have to have a Christian worldview to think this is exploitative at worst and uncomfortable at best.
One commenter said “dude absolutely nothing against her but I really don’t know how I feel about this.”
Another said “something feels off about this, its great but its kinda sucks (sic) when the translator was giving a whole speech saying things she didn’t say… hopefully they aren’t pushing her to do stuff she isn’t comfortable doing.”
One person bluntly and concisely said “her support system has taken advantage of her disability and convinced her to exploit her body for money, sad :(”
I agree that it would appear that her family has not protected her from exploitation.
🤔💭 Tell me what you think.
Is this a positive step forward for the disability community or heartbreaking exploitation?