QUIT! Tells Victoria’s Secret: Apartheid Isn’t Sexy

On the busy shopping weekend before Valentine’s Day, the Bay Area grassroots group QUIT! (Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism) launched their Victoria’s Secret Weapon line with a brief fashion show at the Victoria’s Secret outlet in Westfield Centre. The hot new lingerie line includes the Push ’Em Out Bra (1948 Traditional), the Total Control Boundary Reshaper (think girdles, settlements and apartheid walls), the Razor Wire bra (mmmm, what comfort) and the bulletproof Secret Armor set (keeping soldiers safe and sexy from Falluja to Nablus).

Many of Victoria’s Secret’s bras, cotton panties and sleepware are made by an Israeli company called Delta Galil. Most of the cotton they use (though it’s hard to figure out where there’s any cotton in Victoria’s Secret lingerie) is also grown in Israel, on confiscated Palestinian land. The “Shop Israel” website administered by the Israeli embassy in the U.S. urges people who support Israel to buy Victoria’s Secret products. QUIT!’s glossy brochure includes a card shoppers can deliver to Victoria’s Secret staff, asking the company to stop contributing to the Israeli economy.

"Victoria's Secret is a subsidiary of Limited Brands, which says that its values include 'Doing What is Right for associates, customers and investors' and 'Working for the Greater Good of the enterprise and the communities in which we operate,'" says QUIT's "Who’s Under Your Underwear?" webpage. “Tell Les Wexner, chairman and CEO and Tom Katzenmeyer, Senior Vice President, Investor, Media and Community Relations that doing what is right includes not supporting a country which is engaged in apartheid and ethnic cleansing.”

QUIT!’s full-color catalogue is available for download, along with photos from the action and lots of information at http://www.QUITpalestine.org/actions/victoria/VSWeb.htm.