Maybe they are showing how men and women should wear the cloths. Like how it is ok for women to wear a hat indoors. Mabye Urban Outfitter t shirts are meant to be worn over the head by men but carried around completely nude by women?

Oh, that is an excellent example. That's a great find for sparking discussion about the reality of this tendency.

I just wonder how people come up with these ideas. Like-- does it not occur to them in the middle of saying "okay, ladies, strip down-- men, dress up!"

I'm at last delurking just to say... this is perfectly in tune with the Urban Outfitters ethos. Remember the 'Eat Less' t-shirts? What a bunch of junk.

Ugh. The whole Urban Outfitters brand is such a horribly depressing commoditization of alt culture...

The other thing that strikes me about this is that the men have obviously non-conformist hair, but the women all have long hair. Maybe it's that I'm a short-haired woman, but I notice the lack, especially when the men are given such a range of hair, both facial and head. There's an enforcement of a feminine stereotype, in addition to the clothing differences, which is not there for the men: there's no masculine stereotype being adhered to.

I always hate how thin both the men and women are in Urban Outfitters advertisements. The sitting woman's legs make me want to feed her.

And here I thought that the whole idea behind the "hipster" movement was to reject societal norms. *sigh* What's more, I think this is a good example of how women and men are contrasted as human- subject and ... something else. It's a pattern that becomes especially clear if you come here from cracked, which currently features a picture contest with the top 20 entries including "inventions" that are directly involved with women's bodies, but for the use of men. It's as if current mass culture have forgotten that women are conscious beings, let alone that they would have thoughts of their own.

Another interesting point is the expression on all of their faces. All three women have soft, smiling, almost flirtatious expressions, whilst all three men look decidedly machismo in their expressions.

This is quite ironic considering that hipster males tend to present themselves as shunning overt masculinity, except for their ironic beards, of course.

The most important thing to realize is that all these shirts are for men (or being sold in the men's department, I should say). I went to the site and I do not get the same picture. The above picture seems to link to a page for women's tees, and I was curious. I could recognize these tees as men's because they are boxy, whereas women's tees, at least in shops like UO, are "fitted," curved like a female. I was curious which tees they had for women, but they only sell "tops" in that category, not even fitted style graphic tees. The picture I see at UO doesn't have a link to women's tees, the subheading of graphic tees is explicitly for men and only features male models (with the tops of their heads cropped off). The women modeling this photo are completely accessories. They are not only naked but not meant to wear the shirts in the first place. It's not to say, women are better when they're naked, it's to say, if you buy our shirts, you could find yourself with a naked woman in your place, holding one of your snazzy graphic tees up over her chest when the pizza is delivered. It shows 6 shirts instead of just 3; if they showed 6 men together, it might start to look a little too gay and not sell tees to their hetero male customers. Etcetera. That's just a lot of layers, I think!

I just thought about something that I found worth bringing up...

If these thin and relatively "average" men were undressed and the females weren't, what would people say about it? Society at large does not seem to want to see men naked, unless they are muscular and idealized. And mostly those men are just shirtless (which is not really scandalous because I've been to be pool and seen as such). When unideal men are shown naked it's "funny" or "awkward", as if the male form is laughable (a common theme I've seen in movies). I've talked with a few people (of varying genders, sexes, and sexualities) about this and mostly I was told that seeing naked or sexualized men, ideal or not, makes them feel uncomfortable.

(Note: I am a lesbian, so I feel my opinion may be ill-informed about this issue of male nudity in society, simply because I don't look for it, so please excuse any asinine assumptions I've made)

Just a thought, I'm interested in seeing yours.

Also worthy of note is that at least one of these designs was stolen from an artist who posted it online: http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/?p=8877 Charming.

I found this link on the site and when you click on it, it takes you to the mens graphic t- shirts, not the womens. The only think I can think is the 'having your girl wearing nothing but your shirt' being represented here. Still sexualizing girls but if this is aimed at guys then, makes a little more sense.

wow this advertisement is really dumb.
but i have to admit that i wouldnt have realized this difference between the female and male models if I had seen it somewhere else.

The look on the blonde one's face: "this is so retarded."

Also: two of the shirts held by women feature food/eating references ("DELICIOUS Vinyl!" and "I Heart Apple Pie") -- which (since they're being held by *naked women*) could have sexual implications.

The third shirt held by a woman is referencing a football team -- this is HILARIOUS IRONY because American football excludes women on the basis of gender!
LOL YR SEXISM, i guess.

the women are smiling slightly and tilting their heads at the camera; they're clearly "posed".
the men are dead-panned, looking straight-ahead, and look quite quite bored.

yet another example of
man = neutral
woman = marked
in advertising.

Does it really matter???! Get a grip, oh and something to do!!

Is it because you are ugly that you have "issues"?!!. Personally I don't see a problem. Next you will all be bleating that it's sexist women can only have babies!.

See, this would have been a pretty cute idea had it been more universal...."graphic" material is usually sexual, nudity is considered sexual in advertising, it would be pretty funny for naked people to be hawking graphic t-shirts.....but the fact that the men are dressed and the women aren't make the divide pretty stark.

Thank you so much for posting this! I shop Urban Outfitters frequently, and as soon as I saw this on the homepage, I was pretty enraged at UO. This is completely unnecessary marketing! I would be much more persuaded to buy a shirt if I knew how it actually looked, you know, on a woman.

Well, just to be positive on this. On the advertising side, this is very effective since the women are nude with the graphic tees, really guys will have a look on this and later on discover the tees which they will find interest to buy. Or simply a bait for them to take a look this advertisement. :)

Absolutely ridiculous and demeaning to both men and women. Yuk.

Urban Outfitters is recently in the news for other unrelated sleazy behaviour: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2t9N3e/www.myaimistrue.com/2011/05/urban-outfitters-ripoff-trending-topic (a super-interesting case that demonstrates the power of social media, Twitter in particular)

With respect to the objectification of women and men in advertising: the former is much more prevalent, but the latter also exists. I talk about it in this blog post:

http://www.amazingwomenrock.com/myblog/would-you-buy-a-maxi-pad-from-a-half-naked-man.html

Wow.  That is funny it is so blatant.