Comments on: Sugar and Spice…

By: » Sign of the Apocalypse The Pursuit of Harpyness

» Sign of the Apocalypse The Pursuit of Harpyness — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:35:03 +0000

[...] As I’ve said before, I am not keen on the ridid gendering of childhood. This product, and the language on the website, is especially revolting. On the homepage, underneath the before (androgynous and unlovable) and after (properly femme) pictures, it reads, “I’M NOT A BOY!” Why is an infant’s sex important? Is everyone who encounters her buying her diapers? [...]

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:03:04 +0000

“I’m going to start asking the gender of the child even when the child is dressed in gender-specific clothing, just to fuck with people.”

Ahaha @Khrushchev. Awesome.

By: vegkitty

vegkitty — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:44:26 +0000

Truth be told, my parents (who are recovering hippies) dressed both my sister and me in either gender-neutral or boys’ clothes as children. My mom loves to tell the story of the bright yellow corduroy overalls she got me when I was about 3. It took her about 2 weeks to realize that the overalls had a zipper fly and were therefore for boys. I wore them anyway.

By: cate3710

cate3710 — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 03:24:47 +0000

@Mama Penguino: It’s all part of getting girls used to the idea of impractical lingerie and nightwear. You’ve got to start young!

By: Kivrin

Kivrin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 01:34:23 +0000

@SarahMC: I just tell every baby how cute he/she is and how I want to nom on their noggins. That kind of nonsense talk is totally gender neutral. Others should follow my lead.

By: SarahMC

SarahMC — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:02:46 +0000

Britni, therein lies the very root of my frustration. Why is a baby’s sex important? Why does it matter?
I’m pretty sure it’s because even when we’re dealing with newborns, people want to know how they should treat the little tyke: as a boy (tell him how strong he is, “man up,” encourage him to play rough) or as a girl (tell her how pretty she is, treat her as more fragile, call her a princess). People are sexist; that’s the crux of it.

By: Britni (Vagina Wig)

Britni (Vagina Wig) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:52:09 +0000

I was thinking about this today. If much of the point of gendered clothing is to avoid having to clarify whether your child is a boy or a girl… well, I still don’t see the point. Who cares if someone doesn’t know the sex of your baby? Aren’t they all basically the same until the age of 5 anyway?

By: Mama Penguino

Mama Penguino — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:53:55 +0000

I deal with this constantly with Little Penguino. Her favorite color is Communist Red, which I find hilarious because she’s Chinese. I’m happy to dress her in red from head to toe. My issue is with pajamas. I end up buying her boys pajamas because they’re thicker, better made, and warm. The girl pajamas are made out of thin material or worse, rayon, and are not made for actual sleeping!

By: Kivrin

Kivrin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:22:35 +0000

I don’t have human kids, but I dress my fur child in a pale blue collar in support of my college basketball team. Therefore people always assume that my cockapoo is a boy, and I want to scream at them, “She’s a GIRL! A pretty, pretty GIRL who just happens to love Tar Heel basketball! Can’t you see that?!”

A college friend took her baby daughter to a football game, donned in the customary pale blue onesie. She put a tiny bow in the child’s wispy hair to prevent comments like “Oh, he’s cute!” And people STILL looked at that bow-bedecked baby and assumed it was a boy, just because of the pale blue color — even in a sea of pale blue!

I hate to say it, but I don’t see this pink/blue/green problem going away anytime soon. Perhaps we’d have a chance if a few big retailers like Wal-Mart and Target started bucking the trend…

By: braak

braak — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:15:33 +0000

SarahMC: Yes, I agree that it’s a silly thing to do. So, I figure there are a handful of issues here: in the first place, what are the reasons that this is perpetuated? And, in the second place, what are the best ways to stop it?

There are two reasons that this gets perpetuated: 1) because people think it’s correct. 2) because people can’t find anything else.

Obviously, most people think it’s correct because it’s what they’re used to–I think that that’s why most people think most things. The solution, then, is to disrupt what people are used to, by creating a plurality of options early on. Babies, in this regard, are the best avenue of attack.

You need…hm. What do you need? A network of people that includes buyers at target, I guess. People that have specialty baby shops (that sell rolling stones onesies for boys & girls), too, so that you can demonstrate sustainability.

Is there some kind of “feminist product network” or something? Like, a website, or a newsletter (I’m thinking of “Daily Candy” or something), that lets people know where to go to get good gender-stereotype-inverting stuff?