Eat Less, Lie More?

Urban Outfitters Shirt, Bush

Recently, former WB star Sophia Bush has taken great issue with a new garment from trendy brand Urban Outfitters that says "Eat Less" on the front. While I generally disagree with the shameless promotion of the whole “eat less, feel and look better by proxy albeit for shallow reasons” idea (although I tend to think that a good percentage of Americans could serve to benefit by only doling out only one scoop of ice cream after dinner as opposed to four), I have to wonder what Urban Outfitters has really done besides taking the veritable mantra of the fashion industry and ironing it on to a shirt. 

I open up fashion magazines like Vogue and Elle, both of which have as much substance as swill (in my opinion, at least), and am immediately inundated with advertisements featuring waifs and meth-addict look-a-likes who are both, given their makeup and location in  magazines that promote beauty and style, allegedly the epitome of the female form. Obviously having a BMI that matches the age of Justin Bieber isn’t healthy, but that’s what the industry, not just UO, promotes in a supposedly subtle way. Why the outrage, then, when yet another fashion big brand simply isn’t as cryptic? Isn’t it really just because as both women and people, while we appreciate truth, we prefer it diluted? As far as I’m concerned, we’re all still drinking the same kool-aid, at least now the ingredients are more apparent.

If we want to change this, it’s not going to happen by getting pissed about a stupid t-shirt (which I doubt will sell much anyway, it’s ugly and overpriced) and refusing to go a single store, it’s by taking down the faceless behemoths that are behind the ad campaigns of every big fashion label out there. Granted, that’s hard to do, so naturally it makes sense to pick on something smaller, although also something that, regardless of how you feel about it, at least comes by its warped views honestly. Yes, as Sophia Bush stated, it could promote anorexia. It could promote a lot of things, actually; just like anything can. But since when is fashion family, and since when does it have to come with a warning label?  

Tacky? Definitely. Irresponsible given UO’s demographic? Sure. But any different than anything else we see with other trendy brands? Absolutely not.