When I went to the Walmart with my mother to pick out
clothes and things for my cousins’ baby showers (who had all chosen to keep
their babies gender a surprise by the way) I was shocked at how little gender-neutral
clothes and even blankets to choose from. I was shocked at the lack of yellows,
orange, lime green, turquoise and light gray that there was. It seemed to be a
sea of pink and white and blue! When the text says, “from birth, children are
exposed to gendered messages,” there is no better way to show the divide than
to separate the isle by color right? Girls with pinks and frills bows and all
the dainty “feminine” things and boys with all the bold color and text and
trucks and monsters that will make boys into “masculine” protectors. The chart
on page 43 of our text has numerous examples of things that can connect to how
we gender even the clothes that we put our babies into, not to mention the
clothes that they make for toddlers. I mean really, how logical is it to put a 2-year-old
who just wants to run around in a skirt? And why should only little boys be
allowed to wear cargo pants, I know plenty of little girls who would love all
the pockets to hide their treasures in! And whose to say that there’s not some
little boy out there who wants to wear a shirt with a kitty and bows on it, and
why should we stop them!
Even the words that they print onto the shirts, like ‘daddy’s
little princess’ or ‘tough guy’ shows how we gender things for girls to be possessed
by something and little boys to be able to stand on their own even from a young
age. Which I think is teaching little boys that they need to handle things themselves
which leads to them getting into fights from the fact that they have to do it themselves
and can’t ask for adult help, even in the case that they are being bullied. If
our culture is teaching us to have to stand on our own two feet, then suddenly
we have to work together I think it proves rather confusing for kids, as is the
contrast that our culture constructs around gender. The text brings up that, “our
culture constructs masculine and feminine … in opposition to one another,” why
is there no happy medium between the two? (58). So, if people want to do things
in radical difference to how people would normally treat their baby, then let
them, heck even support them because they could help start a movement that will
help our kids have a better future 😊.
(By the way, 3 of the 5 new babies were girls and at least 2 have gender neutral nursery themes.)
I can definitely relate to trying to shop for baby showers without knowing the gender. It is practically impossible! My only solution to this was finding plain colored pacifiers, little duck toys, teething rings, bottles, diapers and wipes. It was easiest to look for items that could not be geared towards either boys or girls such as the diapers and wipes. I also like how you pointed out that it was not logical to have girls running around in skirts. When I was camping with my boyfriends family, his sister packed her daughter a bunch of dresses and then kept getting mad because she was getting dirt in her diaper and everywhere else. Not the best idea! Lastly, I would agree that there is an obvious difference between the messages seen on boys clothing versus girls.
ReplyDeleteCargo pants for all! I will never understand why we have to define something as either masculine or feminine.
ReplyDeleteI, too, love the cargo pants reference. There has been some discussion about how women's pants have less functional pockets than men's pants--you know those tiny pockets you can't fit anything in, or details that make it look like pockets when there aren't really pockets? I also appreciate the discussion of nursery themes--that's another great example of where we start gendering kids.
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