Illness or Fashion Statement?

            Mental illness and eating disorders are both very serious topics, which is why there was such a big uproar when Urban Outfitter released this shirt that has the word “depression” written all over it. This shirt was compared to another shirt they released a few years earlier with the words “eat less” on it.

According to an article in the New York Daily News, many online shoppers, who saw the “depression” shirt on their website, immediately went to twitter to start the criticism of the shirt. Shoppers like Courtney Crider and Emmy Blackery even vowed to never step foot in the store again.

            Personally, I think that these shirts show how stores in America contribute to problems such as depression and eating disorders, especially in young girls. Urban Outfitters is a popular store among this demographic and by glorifying depression and eating disorders, they are in no way helping young girls who are struggling with these issues. In fact, they are doing quite the opposite. By writing “eat less” on a girl’s shirt, they are telling girls that they aren’t beautiful unless they are skinny, like the models in the picture. Instead they should be encouraging a positive self- image and not glorifying an illness like depression. 

Money Makes You Mean

            My American Studies class has recently been reading The Crucible. In the Crucible, some reoccurring themes are greed, power, and lying. Since this book is set during the 1600s, this caused me to wonder about just how much these themes are still prominent and how they connect to one another in today’s society.            

            In my search, I stumbled across a Ted Talk by Paul Piff called Does Money Make YouMean? Turns out, the answer is yes. This is not to be interpreted as all wealthy people are mean, but some recent studies have shown that when a person is given wealth, their attitudes can change.  Piff starts by sharing the results of a study they conducted in which they had two strangers play Monopoly. In this game, they gave one player twice as much money, more dice to role, and a higher salary. Clearly, this player was set up to win the game, but that wasn’t the question.

            Instead of the outcome, they were watching the privileged player’s behavior. As the game went on, this player began to gloat and felt the right to eat the pretzels left on the table for the two players. So once this player established that they were the one with the power, they started to get greedy and rude.

            Later they brought in adults and gave them ten dollars. They then told them that they could give a portion of their ten dollars to a complete stranger. People who earned less than 25-50 thousand dollars gave 44 percent more to the stranger than people who made over 100-200 thousand dollars a year. Ten dollars isn’t very significant to someone who makes over 200 thousand dollars a year, so why were they more greedy when offered to give it away? Is it because they don’t want to give up their power?

            Finally, they had adults come and play a game that involved rolling dice. They rigged the computer so it was impossible to roll any number over twelve. But sure enough, the wealthier the person was, the more likely they would record a score over twelve. So why did the wealthy people feel more inclined to lie? Again, I think that like in The Crucible, everything comes back to power. In today’s society, wealth is often associated with power, so is that why wealthier people feel more entitled and less hesitant to lie?