Victoria Beckham Slammed for Featuring ‘Sickly Skinny’ Model in Fashion Campaign

Victoria Beckham is under fire after she hired, what some consider, an “underweight” model to front her Spring Summer 2018 Victoria Beckham Eyewear collection. Critics, including British television host, Piers Morgan, are accusing the 43-year-old fashion designer of glamorizing thinness by hiring the model, who some are calling “sickly skinny” and “emaciated.”

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The campaign’s pictures feature the model, Giedre Dukauskaite, standing against an ornate background with a silk top draped over her body and Beckham’s tortoiseshell glasses perched on her nose. The pictures immediately sparked backlash among body-positivity activists who accused Beckham of promoting an unhealthy body type and continuing fashion’s long-standing trend of prioritizing thinner models. A few comments included:

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“Eyes didn’t even notice the glasses. The model was the focus. Sickly skinny! Beckham should be ashamed promoting eating disorders. Her young daughter is heavier than her models. Shame.”

“Model used for Victoria Beckham’s new glasses range looks emaciated. Not a great role model for women. It’s quite painful to look at.”

“A model who looks like a teenager with severe anorexia is the face for the #VBEyeware 2018 summer collection. This is the reason why every study done on social media and advertising calls the threat to young girls’ mental health ‘dire.”

‘Sickly skinny! Beckham should be ashamed promoting eating disorders.”

“Oh Victoria, how disappointing to see you using an emaciated mode. not something you should be proud of and not a good example for your daughter.”

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In an op-ed for The Daily Mail, Morgan took aim at Beckham for suggesting that “painfully thin” is good. Though Morgan admitted that he couldn’t make assumptions about the model’s health, he lambasted Beckham for “dressing” and “photographing” the model in a way that glamorizes her physique.

“I don’t blame the model, Giedre Dukauskaite,” Morgan wrote. “For all I know, she’s perfectly healthy. But the way she’s been dressed and photographed for this campaign is deliberately intended to propagate a message that painfully thin is good. And I’m sorry, but it’s not.”

As of yet, Beckham hasn’t responded to the criticism.