Last fall, a few weeks after The Civee and I found out we were having a baby, we were walking through the baby section of Target and saw this onesie (and yes, that’s a technical term) that had a dinosaur playing a guitar, exclaiming ‘You Rock.’ We thought that it was cute and decided that boy or girl, our child would look good in it.
Well, Hope has outgrown all her newborn clothes and is now onto the three-month size (even though she’s a little more than six weeks old) so The Civee and I figured now would be a good time to have her wear the very first thing we ever bought for her. As you can see in the picture, she was quite happy to be wearing it (she smiles all the time and it’s pretty cool). Some people have commented that the outfit is nice, but because it’s blue and gray, it’s not really girly.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around what that means. Hope has a lot of pink, red and purple clothes and looks really good in them. But there’s nothing wrong with her diversifying her color palette. Besides, as she is one of the world’s youngest Yankees fans, I’d much rather have her wear the traditional Yankee colors than one of pink outfits with a pink interlocking NY (even though she has one of those too).
So people think that the blue and grey isn’t girly enough. But the guitar-playing dinosaur is really cool. And that’s another thing with most of the girls clothes out there. Go to any baby clothing aisle and (besides the color) you’ll notice a tremendous difference between the boy’s clothes and the girl’s clothes. The girl’s shirts often have messages like “I’m So Cute” or “Mommy’s Little Sweetie” or “Future Princess” written on the front. On the other hand, the boy’s shirts have things like “You Rock” or “Little Fire Chief” or “Future Rocket Scientist.” Notice anything different here? While there’s nothing wrong with exclaiming a baby’s cuteness, why should my daughter feel unladylike if her parents wish to proclaim the possibility that one day, she could be a rocket scientist, fire chief or rock star?
And as I mentioned, the dinosaur playing the guitar is really cool.
Logan had clothes he never wore! The Wife would open a box of extra clothes and we would realize he is beyond that size. He”s not even a year and is in 18 month clothes. Look for consignment sales. New is over rated with babies. Get some new stuff or have grandparents buy new.
Also I should email you this instead of posting in it here, but I’m lazy today. If you want there may be a giant consignment sale going on down here in the next month or so. We can get you guys some clothing or anything you need dirt cheap. Let me know, The Wife has an eye for the quality items at these things.
The genderizing of EVERYTHING these days drives me up the wall. I about flipped out when I saw that LEGO sets now come in pink and blue sets for girls and boys. I mean, c’mon? LEGOs? They are the most gender-neutral thing on the planet and they had to go mess that up.
But I blame the stores. They organize everything by gender, which makes everyone think in terms of gender. Of course, organization when shopping is good, but when you keep the ponies, ovens, and dolls separate from the cars, action figures, and sports seeing things as clearly “boy” and “girl” is easy.
Some things are clearly genderized and need to stay that way (like dresses) because that’s just society…and that’s fine. But everyone needs to stop turning things that aren’t gendered into things that are.
Some things just don’t need to be genderized.
I’m glad you and your wife don’t feel the need to keep her in pink 24/7. Hope looks very happy and cute in her blue and grey outfit.
J-dog: Thanks for the offer, but since Christina is at the end of the family line, Hope has a lot of hand-me-downs.
MT: You’re absolutely right. Hope will play with normal LEGOs.
Jen: Thanks. I think I’m going to get her the future rocket scientist shirt next time I see it.
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