Myer Called Out For Double Standards In Underwear Ad Campaign
"When you get the body positivity message half right."
Myer has been called out on body positivity double standards for its selection of underwear models on its homepage.
The shopping giant featured a range of diverse body shapes, ages, and ethnicities on its women’s lingerie and sleepwear spotlight, but only chiseled young men directly beneath.
When you get the body positivity message half right pic.twitter.com/MDxQu9hyw6
— oliyoung (@oliyoung) May 16, 2022
“It’s sad not seeing the same body diversity for men,” a Reddit user commented. “It’s not just about body positivity, but also about making good spending decisions. I’ve been able to save a lot more money and time regarding clothes shopping when I can see the same outfit worn on different figures.”
“This is almost certainly marketing images provided by the brands themselves,” said another Redditor. “It would be nice if the brands would get on board though.”
While there aren’t recent Australian statistics on the topic, an American body image study in January found that between 30 to 40 percent of men are anxious about their weight, and 85 percent are dissatisfied with their muscle mass.
The Butterfly Foundation says that over a third of Australians will experience an eating disorder, and 40 percent of people aged 11 to 17 experiencing disordered eating behaviours, are men. Muscle dysmorphia — or bigorexia — is also on the rise, which involves a fixation on growing muscle to fit a masculine ideal, according to The Feed.
“Myer takes diversity seriously and has a proud record of embracing and showing the diversity of the Australian community in our advertising,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “This includes all body types, ages, heights, and backgrounds.”
“In our latest campaign we have a diverse range of models across men’s and women’s fashion, and you will see the diversity of the models used as this campaign rolls out.”
The department store has since updated its homepage to spotlight a regular-sized male briefs model, and separated its images by brand instead of gender, saying they are also rolling out more body positive male models in the coming weeks too.
Junkee has reached out to Myer for further comment.