Killing Yourself For Cash

submitted by rex

Oct 19 2005 — 2:00am

Why do the founders of so many seemingly progressive (or at least edgy) companies turn out to be some combination of creepy, misogynous, or neo-con? (American Apparel, Vice, Ikea, and Urban Outfitters all come to mind.) City Pages this week peers into Suicide Girls, whose founder seems to be all three wrapped into one.

Leave a reply

7 Reader Comments

rex Oct 18 2005
7:02 pm

I realize I’m mixing together five disparate founders here — American Apparel’s founder is sexually provocative, Vice’s is morally ambiguous, Ikea’s has sworn off his Nazi past, and Urban Outfitters’ just supports Rick Santorum. At the same time, these are five companies who create much of today’s consumable counter-culture.

(And the topic isn’t local, but I’m using CP as an excuse.)

Kevin from Minneapolis Oct 18 2005
7:24 pm

It takes a certain kind of person to do certain things.

srhcb Oct 19 2005
8:59 am

Maybe counter-culture ain’t what it used to be?

geoff Oct 19 2005
12:31 pm

i dunno abt “turns out” rex. all of the mentioned products were queasy (vice) if not horrifying (UO) from the outset. “porn site guy turns out to be like porn site guy”

rex Oct 19 2005
1:08 pm

To you, maybe. To me, sometimes. But to today’s youth culture, almost not at all.

Like it or not, Urban Outfitters and Vice have a huge influence on “alt-culture” (or whatevva you wanna call it).