Whilst I will try and take a lighthearted view of my own depression problems, I simply cannot make a joke of the latest mocking of mental health problems by a large (and until now) reputable shop chain. In their wisdom Urban Outfitters have decided to stock the two items in the photo below -
On the right we have a grey t-shirt bearing the caption "Eat Less" on an already gaunt and generally ill looking model. I could go into an entire rant about how terrifyingly thin she looks but that is another post for another day. What disturbs me the most about this shirt is firstly the mass-marketing dictation that skinny is the ideal shape for all women. There will be impressionable 12-13 year olds looking at this top whilst their bodies are changing due to puberty who will now be feeling fat and ugly because they don't conform to this ideal. Urban Outfitters may well use the excuse that girls this age aren't their target demographic but that is not the point, sending this message to women of any age is a disgusting and poisonous thing to do.
As if the body facism wasn't enough, ladies and gentleman of the court I now direct you to the top on the left. Here we have an example of the trend of the last two years of the cropped slogan t-shirt bearing the term "Depression". Where to start with this one? Firstly the use of a serious medical condition to sell t-shirts makes me feel frankly sick. Would having a t-shirt emblazoned with "Heart Disease", "Brain Hemorrhage" or "Cancer" have passed the taste watershed? I think not.
Sadly we have yet another case of the powers that be seeing mental health as an easy target to joke or to be (to quote hipster's favourite terms) 'ironic' about. You may argue that Urban Outfitters are merely a clothing chain of little influence but in the eyes of teens, young people and more middle-aged to older people than would like to admit to it they, like many other such chains, hold up an idealised life-style and all the values that come with it.
In the most basic terms Urban Outfitters are telling us that eating disorders and mental illness are trivial, fashionable conditions that can be thrown out at the end of this season and forgotten about. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. Whilst the fashionistas and trend-setters of this world will be in search of the next big "thing" people like me with mental health problems or with eating disorders or with terrible conditions like Body Dysmorphic Disorder will still be struggling to cope and heal.
Conveniently the offending items are no longer listed on Urban Outfitters' website and I imagine that they will be concocting a watery PR statement as I type stating how sorry they are to have "caused offence" (might I suggest a donation to a charity such as Mind to show how truely sorry they are?). In reality the statement will be made and this will have all been forgotten in a couple of days by the media and 90% of the social media world. It will only be us who are directly affected by the problems that the chain deemed to be "cool" who remember and wonder to ourselves that in a supposedly modern, tolerant world why is it still ok to trivialise mental health problems?
Love Jen
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This is another sad, bang on example of it being shown that mental illness is my no means regarded in the same way as physical illness, which it should. Physiologically, any illness is, in essense, a change for usual activity in a molecular pathway; the outcome can vary between physical and mental... they're equal to me (I'm a biochemist!)
ReplyDeleteGreat post (:
Nin - http://www.prettypug.blogspot.com
Hi Nin thanks for your comment. I hadn't even thought about it that way until now! If only more people would open their minds a little.
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