Why do Urban Outfitters Have to be Such Assholes?

Back in my (albeit brief) skinny days, I could often be found at the sale racks in Urban Outfitters. To my mind, it was a more affordable way of finding fashions that were (kinda sorta?) like the ones I really wanted at Anthropologie.

Of course, then I had no idea what was going on in the world around me and had no idea that this chain that — ridiculously enough has always geared themselves toward young, urban hipsters — are a bunch of a dirty racists.

Pill bottle shot glasses! Yes, Urban Outfitters, that’s a great idea to market to teens! Cheers! (drugfree.org)

But that’s not the end of it. They are selling novelty items to teens that are essentially say abusing prescription drugs is cool, and just in case those kids don’t die from a drug overdose, they are encouraging them to go out to get drunk, too.

They have t-shirts that shout out the F-bomb (nice), and occasionally like to show tribute to Nazi symbolism. And they are dumb – they used a white model to model a line influenced by The Cosby Show! (Though I guess that goes back to that whole racism thing.)

And maybe I was so attracted to them in my younger days because they ROUTINELY STEAL THE WORK OF OTHER DESIGNERS.

I’m just a little confused. Why position yourself as a brand that markets to the young and hip and progressive when you are simply a bunch of slimy conservatives? Probably because Urban Outfitters (which actually also owns Anthropologie and Free People, which explains the similarities in their stock ) is owned by a far-right conservative, Richard Hayne. He’s making money off selling an ideology he completely disagrees with. It’s like as if I started the anti-pink movement! Still, using the facade of ONE ideology to fund the belief in another is just a week bit icky, no? (Hayne is not all bad, by the way – he’s actually funding an entire college think tank right with the goal of making the world a better place! We assume, though for people who think like he does.)

Then again, sometimes you just need to get dressed in the morning — whether it pisses off the left, or is all right. And a girl does love a bit of ironic hipster frill from time ot time. What do you think of all this Urban Outfitter craziness?