What Are You Selling?
July 29th, 2010
Dear Urban Outfitters,
What are you selling?
Are you selling clothing? I thought clothing was supposed to accentuate and flatter our bodies, not devalue them.
No, I think you aren’t. In fact I think you’re selling out. Selling out to what people want to see and hear and feel. You are selling an ideology, which is funny because in my experiences, the only ideologies with price tags on them and so ghastly disguised are the ones that are destructive and harmful. These are the ideologies that ruin lives.
And it’s funny because we buy the clothes that make us feel good about ourselves and make us comfortable and confident in our skin. But look at how you have turned something so innocent into something so malignant. Getting girls to wear these shirts just promotes the cancer that so many people struggle their entire lives to overcome.
But you’re preying on the weaknesses of women everywhere that outer appearance is somehow reflecting self worth. You’re making a few bucks off of the naiveté of young girls everywhere, and you’re fostering destructive and deadly feelings of body image.
Am I wrong?
Then tell me, Urban Outfitters, what are you selling?
Sincerely appalled,
Abby Normally
Categories: Uncategorized
OMG I can’t believe this! It’s sad. Just sad.
Sing it girl. Lovely post. Awful shirt. Shame on UO.
thank you.
So eloquently said. More people need to see this.
Well said. I hope no one buys it.
Are you effing kidding me with that? I can’t even verbalize how I feel right now. Thanks for pointing this out.
I am aghast! What an awful awful shirt. Good on you for this post. You ought to seriously send this to the UO headquarters.
Wow. I’m stunned! I can’t believe that people thing it is ok to send a message like that to some of the most vulnerable members of society. Stunned.
Wow. Just wow.
I actually wrote about this a while ago. I think people really overreacted to it. Yeah, it’s a stupid shirt, but people really shouldn’t take advice from a tshirt. If urban outfitters sold a tshirt that said jump off a bridge, would we be shunning them because they were promoting suicide? probably not. because people shouldn’t be naive enough to do what a tshirt says. This is just my opinion, so please no one be offended.
this is serious? appalling.
wow, shocking! Does that actually sell? I sure hope not!
I thought I heard that they had stopped selling these shirts after the obviously needed outcry of how inappropriate this shirt is and the horrendous message it’s telling our younger generation.
Holy. Well said.
I don’t shop at Urban normally because things are overpriced and way too small on me (though I should go in there just to prove myself wrong and that I can fit!) but yeah. That’s just bogus. Look at that girl’s expression too.
Yeah, I want my teenage daughter buying THAT…
*shakes head*
It’s sad that somebody would even consider designing this, and even worse that people in marketing are like YES THIS WILL SELL.
It’s a dumb shirt but so are half the other shirts out there.
Ugh, gross. It’s unbelievable to think of all the people who must have seen this and given it the go-ahead for it to actually wind up in stores. How did nobody in that chain say, ‘You know, this is a terrible, awful idea!’
That’s terrible and a shirt like this would only be worn by and affecting a target audience that it shouldn’t be.
I saw this on the news and this is disgusting. I don’t know who would even want to wear that.
I’m horrified and disgusted. Nothing else to say.
wow. i seriously can’t believe this. i’m surprised there hasn’t been more of an uproar. appalling.
yeah….i don’t get it. who’s going to buy this? guess the store is just trying to grab some attention. sad, really.
I am disgusted and appalled at this. Seriously disgusted and appalled.
Great post! I hate that they even made the model look more sickly! See, this is why I love Kim Kardashian (sp?) so much bc she promotes being a woman and filling out dresses! I will be following your posts, hope you stop by mine sometime ( I am a newbe).
I’m honestly sickened by this. What is wrong with companies like this? I think Ralph Lauren had some shirts like this a while back that were just as bad. When are they going to learn that people come in all different shapes and sizes. We need to be proud of our different bodies!