Abstract

In February 2022, Victoria’s Secret announced the launch of the Love Cloud collection, which aimed to change the image of the brand. The collection was inspired by eighteen ordinary women, including a firefighter, a design consultant, and a woman with Down syndrome. Victoria’s Secret described this as a groundbreaking campaign that celebrated and welcomed all women; however, the introduction of models with disabilities received mixed reactions from Instagram users. The paper examines Instagram users’ responses to Victoria’s Secret’s campaign, focusing on the intersection of sexuality and disability. The concept of framing is used as an interpretative tool to analyze how the issue is framed and discussed in public discourse. A corpus of Instagram comments was collected to identify cognitive frames, linguistic patterns, and recurring features related to the debate. People with disabilities are often underrepresented, overmedicalized, infantilized, and desexualized in the media. Therefore, the contrasting images presented by Victoria’s Secret made some viewers uncomfortable, as they felt the campaign either objectified or manipulated individuals with disabilities. The study reveals that ableist attitudes were camouflaged with patronizing concerns in the online responses, indicated by the language used by commenters. The campaign sparked a discussion about the representation of bodies with disabilities and highlighted the need for more inclusive and nuanced portrayals in the media