The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Returns. It Shouldn’t.

The wings were there: faux feathered, quilted, tulle, tinsel and star-spangled. So were the crystal bustiers and bras; the lacy thongs and boudoir silks. So were the superstars: Lisa, hopping off a motorcycle and hip thrusting in little bits of leather; Tyla, shimmying in hot pants; Cher, in sparkling cargo pants and a corset.

And so were the supermodels, almost all of ’em: Gigi and Bella Hadid, Paloma Elsesser, Joan Smalls, Ashley Graham, Valentina Sampaio, Kate Moss and her daughter, Lila. Even Eva Herzigova and Carla Bruni, the 56-year-old former first lady of France, strutting down the runway in a lace body stocking. Even, especially, Tyra Banks, in leggings, a silver waist cincher and a cape.

All the ingredients were there for the rebrand of the rebrand of the Victoria’s Secret show, six years after the whole shebang was canceled under a cloud of shame and in the wake of #MeToo.

That was when the world suddenly woke up to the fact that what had been billed as a camp spectacle of madonna/whore kitsch was actually complicit in creating a culture that prioritized a certain body type over all others and that treated women simply as vehicles of male fantasy. (Naughty Santas! Naughty lion tamers! Naughty Rob Roys!)

Cher sang her message-appropriate songs “Strong Enough” and “Believe” during the VS show. Here she is with the model Vittoria Ceretti (in red).Credit…Landon Nordeman for The New York Times