Victoria’s Secret Is Finally Out

December 17, 2011 7:30 pm     Posted in News, Reality  Ashley Lee g+ page


By Ashley Lee

When I was a kid, my friends and I would make jokes about Victoria’s Secret: the bra cups are infused with chemicals that will permanently make your boobs bigger, any male who buys gifts there actually gets an amazing discount, the mysterious “Victoria” is actually a man who is selling his personal lingerie collection.

Well, earlier this week, Victoria’s Secret finally got out. It’s not pretty, it has nothing to do with being sexy, and it’s not even the least bit funny.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg Markets Magazine released an investigative report linking the lingerie company to child labor practices in West Africa: Victoria’s Secret manufactures its cotton underwear in Sri Lanka, using textiles made in factories in India; a portion of those fabrics use cotton picked in the country of Burkina Faso, a landlocked country that was supposed to produce organic, fair trade cotton. Victoria’s Secret originally entered into the production deal in 2007 with the goal of ”improving the lives of some of the world’s poorest women and children through the responsible sourcing of cotton,” yet was unknowingly exploiting children and endorsing the practices they aimed to fight.

The article follows Clarisse, a 13-year-old child laborer who was pulled out of school to work in cotton fields, doing everything from carving plots that span the size of four football fields to fighting away harmful bugs usually controlled by inorganic pesticides, all while barefoot and susceptible to 100-degree heat during the summer planting season. And what happens if Clarisse gets tired and slows down? Let the farmer himself share his genius technique: “I sometimes beat her…This is when I give her work and she doesn’t deliver.”

The parent company Limited Brands released a statement:

“If this allegation is true, it describes behavior that is contrary to our company’s values and the code of labor and sourcing standards that we require all of our suppliers to meet,” the statement said. “These standards expressly prohibit child labor.” CNN reported that the company claimed to have immediately “began working with key stakeholders internally and externally to fully investigate this matter…we are prepared to take swift action to prevent the illegal use of child labor in the fields where we source Fairtrade-certified organic cotton in Burkina Faso.”

Though the news is shocking to those at VS headquarters, the practices are nothing new to farmers and regulators in Burkina Faso. The U.S. Labor Department has repeatedly cited the country for the worst forms of child labor, while the State Department has done the same regarding child trafficking to conventional cotton fields there. Somehow, this flew under the radar; even Fairtrade International, the world’s largest group of its kind, certified that Burkina Faso’s organic crop met its standards.

Some people are saying that though not all of VS’ cotton supply comes from Burkina Faso, the company should be boycotted; Victoria’s Secret should’ve been more aware of their own contracted labor practices, even if fair trade officials weren’t. However, others argue that it’s just another part of American consumerism that we customers blindly support.

For example, if you wear jeans, use eye shadow, or own a pair of gold earrings, you have at least 8.3 slaves working for you — according to Slavery Footprint, a new online campaign launched in collaboration with the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, created to raise awareness of modern day slavery. Here’s another not-so-fun fact: there are more slaves in the world today – an estimated 27 million people – than at any other time in history.

After taking the interactive, online lifestyle survey, it’s clear that it isn’t just our overpriced cotton underwear that’s supporting modern day slavery: it’s everything. Daily essentials like cars and coffee, college staples like smartphones and laptops. Oranges, cocktail shrimp, mascara and mouthwash, the list goes on.

Find out your Slavery Footprint now — college students can enter the Slavery Footprint Campus Challenge for a chance to win a trip for two to the 2012 mtvU Woodie Awards!

Read the full Bloomberg article here and watch the video coverage online.

What’s your Slavery Footprint? Will you continue to shop at Victoria’s Secret? What companies are endorsing these practices, unknowingly or otherwise?

Ashley is a UC San Diego grad who is holding on way too tightly to a potential career in magazines and goes to Vegas all too often. She’s fascinated with celebrities and strawberry beer and doubles as a pathological texter/emailer/blogger. Feed the addiction with tweets @cashleelee. Thanks in advance.

12 Comments on "Victoria’s Secret Is Finally Out"

  1. Jessica says:
    Sat, 17th Dec 20118:30 pm 

    i think it's unlikely that any company knows exactly how they're getting every single material for every single product. they know what factory they get it from, but probably don't dive too deep in the workers making it. and while i don't support child labor, i doubt that boycotting every single company that has unethical business practice will do any good. let's face it: even if we're in the age of information, there is still a lot we don't know. and all businessmen/politicians do is find even sneakier ways to do the things they do.

  2. Mol says:
    Sat, 17th Dec 20119:32 pm 

    If more companies took responsibility for knowing where/how their getting their materials, and refused to use slave labor, then less instances like this would happen. Ignorance is no excuse.

  3. princessmahina says:
    Sat, 17th Dec 201110:21 pm 

    Oh God, that was depressing. I feel like mine should be lower though- doesn't it count for anything if I buy used clothes? Buy local food?
    http://textbooksandtofu.blogspot.com/

  4. Maura - Rider University says:
    Sun, 18th Dec 20113:32 am 

    God, this is so scary. For consumers, it is almost impossible to know where the products came from. For companies, they can have some idea, but unless they constantly monitor their plants in third world countries, anything could be happening. Not that many if not most of them pretend nothing wrong is happening just for the sake of cheap labor.

    I don't even know what I could buy that I can be sure is totally slave labor free.

  5. virtuos and beautiful says:
    Sun, 18th Dec 20113:37 am 

    It seems like most mainstream stores are involved in corruption one way or another. I wonder why governments do nothing to stop it.

  6. Carrie says:
    Sun, 18th Dec 20114:56 am 

    If American consumers didn't have such an insatiable appetite for cheap goods, there would be less slavery in the world. Why do you think most of the things you buy aren't made in the US but in poor countries?

  7. Deb S. says:
    Sun, 18th Dec 20116:01 pm 

    Because government itself is corrupted. When the hell are people going to realize this?

  8. Lisa says:
    Mon, 19th Dec 20112:33 am 

    We need to be cautious though. First time I was watching a program on child labour, i was about 8 years old (a serious childrens documentarty).
    Here they explained that the families need the money, and when in the 80's a lot of costumers stop buying clothes made by child labour, the poor families still needed the money that the children earned. To sum it up, most of the children enden up working with poison toxis from getting the usable metal out of batteries and such.
    We will therefore have to trust ther Fair Trade project, and realize that these childrens reality is just different than ours. (Tried to make this short, didn't work :) )

  9. Meg says:
    Mon, 19th Dec 20113:31 pm 

    While this is a complicated problem, my understanding is that All the "fair trade/organic," cotton grown in Burkina Faso is being purchased by Victoria's Secret.

    While there are thousand of companies with a share of responsibility (as well as consumers), this seems to be a case with a pretty clear connect-the-dots. If Victoria's Secret demanded that this practice end on the part of their Burkina Faso suppliers, life would be better for these children. I cannot imagine any person of good conscience stepping foot in their stores until there is some evidence they've done so.

  10. Michael Zelmer says:
    Wed, 4th Jan 20121:54 pm 

    Following its own investigation of the claims made by Bloomberg, Fairtrade International released its response yesterday.

    It can be found on the front page of http://www.fairtrade.net (or directly at http://www.bit.ly/FIBlmbgResp). In particular, it refutes the claims that the person featured in the articles was involved in cotton production at all (Fairtrade certified or otherwise) and that she was under the age of 18. It also raises serious concerns regarding the journalist’s methods.

    Nevertheless, it should be noted that no system can guarantee that a product is 100% child labour free. However, the Fairtrade system has standards against it, an audit-based monitoring system to catch it if it occurs, and clear protocols on what to do if it does that focus first on the safety of any at-risk children and second on mitigating the risk of it happening again.

    Michael Zelmer
    Fairtrade Canada

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