Comments on: Gendering Infants

By: Vicky

Vicky — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:20:45 +0000

As kids my sister and I played with little animal figurines, dolls, trolls, My Little Ponies, a garage, a dolls’ house, toy Barbie horse and stable, a toy farm, marbles, wooden building blocks, Duplo, Bagatail, Barbies and Junior Monopoly. We made dens and mud pies, played pirates, played nurseries, walked for miles, climbed gates and trees and read A LOT.

I would wish this kind of childhood for any child. I WOULD NOT buy a child guns: I think this is horrible.

By: Roving Thundercloud

Roving Thundercloud — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:38:03 +0000

Chingona–I retract any implied sarcasm in my comment above. As for the delightful smell of a baby’s head, don’t worry, they will probably follow up with a fake baby’s-head-smell scent full of parabens etc. to spray on the wig. ;-)

Lauredhel, a practical camo would be tones of spitup, peas, and leaky diapers, with a few swirls of Magic Marker and jam.

We use a lot of red and teal, and I have a pink-avoiding in-law who used lots of shades of purple for her little girl, for a feminine (if you have to have that) but not feminized look. Non-lime greens (grass, kelly, etc.) are good too but of course forest green is “masculine”.

By: lauredhel

lauredhel — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 05:41:40 +0000

Why are gender-neutral colors always yucky orange etc? I find that every baby looks great in crisp white.

For about thirty seconds, maybe. On a good day. I can’t stand camo either, but I can see the practical appeal.

We dressed our kid in brights a lot of the time – red, orange, purple, turquoise, lime green, canary yellow, and combinations thereof.

By: Holly

Holly — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:54:48 +0000

This wins Disturbing Gender Enforcement Product of the Year 2008.

Can someone please buy one of these for their baby boy, take pictures, and send them into the site with a glowing customer review of how cute it makes him look? Pleeeeeeease?

By: Linkage comentado « Marjorie Rodrigues

Linkage comentado « Marjorie Rodrigues — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:47:18 +0000

[...] – Ok, esta é oficialmente a coisa mais bizarra que eu já vi: perucas para bebês. Para bebês do sexo feminino, diga-se. Porque os pais de meninas carequinhas [...]

By: The Opoponax

The Opoponax — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:33:24 +0000

doesn’t that imply that the color pink is somehow innately feminine?

I suppose it depends how exactly you interpret “dressing your baby in a gender neutral manner”. The boys’ section of most baby clothes shops are just as obnoxiously over-gendered as the girls’ side. So, sure, if you’re avoiding pink and going exclusively with navy onesies with cammo appliques of trucks, you’re not really acheiving “gender neutral” but more like “anything feminine is bad”.

On the other hand, I feel like dressing your baby in the full spectrum of colors is probably closer to the desired effect, because it’s not just about Avoiding Feminine, it’s about a wide variety of options which either have no particular gender association or which might belong in either column.

By: AJS

AJS — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:10:26 +0000

The second photo is just sad. I do not see it as cuter. And way back to the first commenter Opoponax got it right. No way that wig stays on.

Our daughter was fairly bald for the first 3 months. At 11 months she looks like a girl to us but w/o an overt sign of pink some people can no tell. Mostly because her ears are not peirced. We live in Spain and were we are most girls ears are pierced before they even leave the hospital. That is the “tell” here.

By: chingona

chingona — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:54:00 +0000

Um, Roving Thundercloud, I don’t accost strangers with babies. Generally, I will hold a baby if doing so will help out the mother, but I am not someone who must have her hands on a baby.

But if I have the opportunity to hold a baby, I will smell its head. Repeatedly. And if there was a wig on that head, it would be very disappointing.

By: Roving Thundercloud

Roving Thundercloud — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:54:15 +0000

Um, Kwachie and Chingona, if you get that close to a lot of ppl’s babies, they will be weirded out about germs etc. Most of us lately have been lectured with the “don’t let strangers or even non-close family members touch ‘em till they are six months.”

Why are gender-neutral colors always yucky orange etc? I find that every baby looks great in crisp white.

Lastly, why is camo ever considered appropriate for children? I find it really repulsive. Can’t we wait for the violent-video-game stage to indoctrinate them?

By: Ariel

Ariel — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 05:54:05 +0000

So, here’s my question:

Doesn’t claiming to dress a baby in “gender neutral” color palettes do the same damage as mistaking gender based on wardrobe? I mean, if you dress a baby in yellow so that people don’t automatically assume she is a she, then doesn’t that imply that the color pink is somehow innately feminine?

I mean, I think the biggest issue with dressing your infant in a frilly cupcake dress with sequins and ribbons is not whether said costume fits accordingly with the gender profile of your offspring, but that you are dressing your newborn like a bratz doll.