Victoria’s Secret held its annual fashion show Sunday night. It aired on ABC, a prime spot. The show got more attention than usual because several other newsmakers, in addition to the dozens of gorgeous, scantily clad models, were there: Shawn Mendes and Halsey performed; Kris Jenner was there to cheer on her daughter in classic Jenner/Kardashian style, and the brand paid tribute to retiring model Adriana Lima. As usual, controversy also followed the airing of the show. Singer Halsey released a statement after her performance that Victoria's Secret and unnamed executives did not support “inclusivity” since they have yet to allow a transgender person to strut down the catwalk in their underwear.

Still, that’s not the biggest problem I see with the Victoria's Secret fashion show (other than my obvious and insane jealousy over all of their super-flat abs). The biggest issue of the Victoria's Secret fashion show, as airing on prime-time television demonstrates, is a dichotomy the event itself creates. In an era of #MeToo, of men in power and women abused because of it on a scale ranging from inappropriate and disgusting to criminal and revolting, how does one reconcile a night of television dedicated to watching women walking down a catwalk wearing hardly anything, portrayed as seraphic and fantastical?

Of course, beauty, art, and sexuality all have their place in society and on television. I’m guessing most of the Victoria's Secret models, producers, and executives might scoff at the mere suggestion that #MeToo has anything to do with Victoria's Secret, and my question might be labeled as ignorance and naivety. She just doesn’t understand beauty and sex!

But let’s eschew all pretense and get real with one another: Victoria's Secret isn’t selling art. If it were, it would be at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., in a free exhibit for fourth graders, not on ABC touting Kris Jenner, Shawn Mendes, and Halsey. Victoria's Secret is selling the idea of sexuality, in all its glorious possibilities and fantasies: It is soft porn for men and women alike, and it feels titillating and exciting because the visual human species is sexual, love-starved, and ravenous for both.

But people have just slogged through a year full of indictment after indictment, accusation after accusation, for the Harvey Weinsteins and Matt Lauers of the world to stop violating women, and for said women to try their best to stand up to their verbal, mental, and physical attacks on them.

It’s not that all of the victims of #MeToo asked for it via their attire or behavior — that is atrocious victim blaming. But women do have agency when it comes to how they present themselves to men. It’s not at all popular to say this, but they must be aware of the vibe they portray toward men, who are far more visual than women, and for whom testosterone, coupled with a lack of discipline or restraint, can be a monstrous animal to behold.

It’s not that I have a huge problem with the Victoria's Secret fashion show in and of itself (although it’s not my favorite for reasons I’ve previously said), it’s that women cannot and should not both exhibit themselves as gorgeous, naked, sexual beings, clamoring for sex, love, attention, and photographs, while at the same time complaining and whining that a man has looked her up and down, grabbed her butt, or made a sexual innuendo. A woman wants to have both so she can feel exalted when she wants and yet also claim victim status when she wants. This is unfair to both sexes. (To be absolutely clear, I am not saying assault or rape is ever okay or that women somehow "ask for it" even when scantily clad, drunk, etc.)

In an interview with a writer at the Fire, feminist icon Camille Paglia addressed this exact dichotomy. But she didn’t point to Victoria's Secret models, rather female journalists based in New York who are “constantly complaining about men.”



At the same time they dress sexy, okay? It makes absolutely no sense. There is a real irrationality in the way feminism treats sex. They deny, and I think it is very neurotic, that their fashion choices contain any erotic messages. They deny that clothing is a form of communication, that they are actually using — and I applaud that! — it to draw attention from both women and men. It is all neurosis. Every clothing choice you make is a form of communication in which you are conveying something, for example if you are sexually interested or not. These women don’t accept that the urban environment is dangerous, that the world is dangerous. I say: you are responsible for yourself. So I always complain that these bourgeois women have lost contact with reality.



How do we reconcile the Victoria's Secret fashion show with the #MeToo movement? Until women recognize, appreciate, and respect the power they have regarding their own sexuality, they will likely always feel at odds with their peers who also want to champion #MeToo.

Only one movement can experience complete freedom and momentum. The other must recognize its own limitations.

[Read more: Haters of 'Baby It's Cold Outside' are killing the thrill of the chase in the #MeToo era]

Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.