A young woman has penned a powerful open letter to Victoria’s Secret claiming she was body-shamed by a sales assistant at a store in Cardiff, Wales.
Abbie Walsh-Greenfield, 20, said she was just browsing the store’s lingerie with a friend when an encounter with a sales assistant left her feeling shamed.
The UK woman said she wasn’t expecting necessarily to find items to fit her plus-sized frame, but had picked out a pair of “stunning” shorts she thought about trying on.
She quickly changed her mind after the sales assistant questioned her on her size.
Abbie said she was standing with her friend, shorts in hand, when a “very important looking and tall” sales assistant approached, stopping about 2m away.
“Hi.. Are you aware of the sizing in this store?” the sales assistant asked Abbie.
Describing the incident on her blog named ‘Dream0Graphy’, Abbie said she “stood there in silence for about 10 seconds” before responding she was aware and then “shuffled away, with my tail between my legs”.
“She smiled, and it just all of a sudden looked so fake. And she had a headset on that made her look so important, and the way she stood about a metre or two away from me, made me feel like she didn’t genuinely want to help me,” Abbie wrote.
Top Comments
Um... ''size shame''... she was asking if she needed help to get her what she wanted in her size, see what they had in stock. Various stores size differently, particularly re lingerie. It was an honest question, asked of a VERY prickly and possibly unhappy young lady.
FFS - seriously?? Anyone recall a time when people actually went about their lives without presuming everyone's else intention is to "shame", "slam" or my personal favourite, "judge" them? To all the people who cry "don't judge me", guess what? We ALL judge people all the time - either positively, negatively, or more rarely with complete antipathy. Compliments are just as much someone "judging" you as criticism is!!
This sales assistant was paid to be there and not pass judgement. It is not in their job description to give a customer unsolicited advice on what will or won't fit them. You ask if the customer needs any help, then you allow them to try it on and then offer to get them a different size/style if it doesn't fit. I don't see how your comment is relevant to this article to be honest.