Thrift Shop

Thrift Shop

Parody works serve an important purpose in our culture, they allow us to approach sometimes serious or controversial topics from a new, often comical viewpoint. Often times this forces the reader/ viewer to break their single-mindedness on the issue and re-evaluate, often without the reader/ viewer even realizing it. Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” is a parody of America’s obsession with wearing expensive name brands as a way to express their individuality and sense of style. The song is also presented as a rap song and video, which helps emphasize the stereotypes of the music genre.

The song’s main purpose is to show people how ridiculous it is to follow everyone else as a way to express yourself, and especially when it involves doing stupid things to do so. As a society we act like lemmings when it comes to our individuality, we follow what others do and some companies have responded by raising their prices because they know nobody wants to be different and not buy their clothing. Macklemore spends an entire verse explaining how dumb it is to pay that much for clothing, when in the end it’s just cloth that you can buy for 50 times cheaper at a thrift shop that accomplishes the same thing in the end. He also points out that it’s almost funny how people try to stand out with their expensive clothing, while at the same time “six other people in this club” might be wearing the same exact thing.

Macklemore uses many elements of rap videos in his music video, further promoting his point about how absurd it is to follow the mold for every situation. The video opens up with Macklemore coming in on an old scooter and drinking a slushie, but everyone is watching him as if he is rolling in in a new sports car and drinking some expensive drink, like many other rap video openings. Two girls walk next to him, similarly to how a rappers expensive car might be full of girls. This is making fun of the ego many rappers try to portray in their music and videos. Of course they drive sports cars that cost more than some peoples’ houses, and obviously women throw themselves at them, this opens the door for Macklemore to do his parody of it, pointing out how absurd it would be for people to stand in awe of him or for women to throw themselves at him throughout the video as he dresses in old clothes from the thrift shop. He also rhymes mothafucka three times in a row, showing how stupid rappers can sound when they throw in swearing simply for the sake of swearing that in no way emphasizes the message of their song.

This parody shows us how ridiculous we can be as a society by using the polar opposite of it in the same mold we are familiar with, which forces us to realize just how ridiculous the whole concept we are used to is. While we might not all start getting all our clothes at thrift shops, we might be more conscious of how much money we are willing to spend to stand out on a stamp everyone else is wearing.

Works Cited

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. Abercrombie & Fitch – Making the Homeless Douchebags. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

Lewis, Ryan. "MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS - THRIFT SHOP FEAT. WANZ (OFFICIAL VIDEO)." YouTube. YouTube, 29 Aug. 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

Williams, Bryan. Birdman Lets You Know: Not Everyone Can Own a Bugatti. Digital image. Imagine Lifestyles Luxury Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

Nutrition in America

Radley Balko, a writer and reporter for the Huffington Post, has a long history writing for many publications, and has a degree in political science and journalism wrote a commentary almost ten years ago that is more relevant now than ever.It is on the social, political, and economic impact of America’s nutrition. The commentary was published by the CATO Institute in 2004, and it explains his opinion on a matter many of us have heard about, the government intervening in what we put in our body. Balko is opposed to the method the government is approaching the issue, they are enacting laws that ban junk food from being served to kids in schools, a more in depth nutrition labeling system for many foods at restaurants, and more restrictions on companies advertising junk food to children. He believes the government should promote a sense of responsibility to the people eating the food rather than regulations on the people providing it. He goes on to point out how that method of thinking cost everyone more money because if insurance companies have to pay more for overweight people, but can’t charge them more, the difference needs to come from somewhere.

David Zinczenko, is the editor-in-chief of Men’s Health and a best-selling author of several health related books, offers an opposing argument on the issue. He wrote an article published by the New York Times about the lack of options many Americans face when trying to find healthy foods, as well as a lack of understandable information on the food we are taking in. He sympathizes with people who had little choice or understanding on the subject because he claims to have been one of them when he was younger.

While I feel sorry for those people that have harder access to healthy food, it really is hard to build a case for them based on ignorance. We are constantly bombarded with reports, studies, regulations, and articles just like these that constantly inform us of all the garbage we are constantly putting into our bodies on a regular basis. We live in an age of technology that allows us to find out anything we want at a moments notice, which makes it hard to support Zinczenko’s view. We do have are capable of making healthy choices, fruit instead of dessert, running instead of TV, or even something as radical as smaller portion sizes, it all comes down to how much responsibility we want to apply to the issue. And if we can all accept that then we wouldn’t have to worry about new regulations and, to a degree, higher healthcare costs.

Regardless of what side of the issue you stand on, we can all agree that something needs to be done about America’s degenerating health. There will always be the tempting path to accept that it’s out of your control and just accept it and someone will take care of you, or you can work hard to live a healthier more active life to help offset the costs of the first group.

Info on Zinczenko- http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/fashion/03davez.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Info on Balko- http://www.cato.org/people/radley-balko

Balko's Article- http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/what-you-eat-is-business

Zinczenko's Article- http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/23/opinion/don-t-blame-the-eater.html