Sexist baby bibs

[celticdragonfly]

I was in Babies R Us today (which was having a case of Waffle Ho syndrome today, as chronicled by Carla Ulbrich - it looked like it was Rabis R Us, the hip new Jewish store - Miles pointed out one less letter out would have been Rabies R Us - but I digress), with fordprfct and my kids, looking for the booster seat Jamie needs to start preschool next week, or whenever we find enough of the legal papers that he can start.

The booster seats were bad enough - they were trying to sell me one with SUEDE upholstery. And fancy padding. And padded suede adjustable armrests. *I* should ever have such a nice chair! Suede, for kids? I said as much to the saleslady, and said "why don't we just gold-plate their diapers while we're at it?"

Then - then we saw these bibs:



Ooookayyy. Insecure much? This is horrible.

There was a mention on the Bujold list lately about how MUCH the gender stuff is pushed on kids super early. I shall have to show them this.

I was saying, where's the one in green that says "None of your damn business"? Miles suggested one that says "I'm cute, isn't that enough?"

Comments

[aeddie.livejournal.com]

Personally I think that the "I'm not a boy" should be on the blue and the "I'm not a girl" should be on the pink in order to do some stereotype busting.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Seeble! I was thinking the precise same thing!

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

That would be just fine with me!

However, these were being sold at Stereotypes R Us.

[archangelbeth]

So was I! I was thinking it so hard, in fact, that I had to re-read it several times to convince myself that it wasn't that way. *sniffle*

Yeah, where's the yellow? Where's the green? Where's the "cross-dressing girl" on blue?

[tepintzin.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of a story NOW (Toronto's free weekly) editor Susan Cole told about her sister being in the hospital after having her son. The sister asked Susan for a blanket for the baby. Susan went to the nurses' station to ask for one. "Is it a boy or a girl?" the nurse asked. "It's a cold baby," Susan answered.

[salix-03.livejournal.com]

My son has loooong blonde hair so everyone assumes he's a girl. It doesn't bother me, and it certainly doesn't bother him :) He's got a few dolls, but he loves his trucks and diggers to death. Apparently 4 years of being called a girl has done nothing to shift him from 'male' toys to 'female' ones. He could use the 'I'm cute...' bib, it might help stop some of that drool from when he gets too distracted to swallow ;)

/had trucks as a kid and hated dolls.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* My little girl is in her pink phase right now. And it's exasperating, because here I am trying to tell her she can wear any colour she wants, and SHE wants pink!

[archangelbeth]

Well, if she wants it... at least she's choosing it herself? Better than stuffing her into green against her wishes?

(I know what you mean. It's not my minx's favorite color, but she's got a lot of it in her wardrobe. Oh, well. She's got green and jeans as well.)

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

I oughta point that out to Franny Mullen and her Magic Embroidery Machine. To be done on some kind of space-alien fabric.

OTOH; back when Sharon was infant/toddler size, she had so little hair that LOTS of people thought she was a boy, unless I had her wearing so much pink that her normally blue eyes turned violet from the reflections. I can see where parents of little boys with lots of curly hair would get the flip side of that reaction.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

And it IS the parents (and grandparents) who buy these things...

[joyeuse13.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to get one of those for Aaron...

[abovenyquist.livejournal.com]

Which one? ;)

[joyeuse13.livejournal.com]

Both; we can change them out and really confuse people.

[castiron.livejournal.com]

I do have to admit that if I were to have another child and it turned out intersexed, I wouldn't be able to resist buying both.

Though I'd also like to see the yellow one with "Why? Are you arranging my marriage?"

[abovenyquist.livejournal.com]

I sat in on our College of Computing's video game design class last semester. Amy Bruckman, who taught the first version of the class, did a guest lecture on gender and video games; she talked at length about how succeptable children are to having gender stereotypes programmed into them, and how they develop a sense of "this is for me and not for them" or "this is for them and not for me," and more to the point how companies exploit that. I heard in a podcast on the same topic that many toy companies, at their highest level, are split into "boys" and "girls" divisions. There will be a "vice president of finance for toys for boys" and a "vice president of finance for toys for girls." I want to ask them: what about toys for people?

[joyeuse13.livejournal.com]

The companies make and market what sells, in the way that it sells. Who's to say where cause and effect lie?

[abovenyquist.livejournal.com]

I dunno. There's lots of folks wrestling with that very question; there was a lot of discussion on it during the class. Like most things, it's probably a little of each.