Message to Infants

Hello everyone!  I am done with my semester and back in action!

I was working at ON last week and a customer had a two piece set for an infant boy (I think the size tag said 3-6 months on it.)  On the front of the shirt it said "Professional Athlete."  Okay, that's kind of cute, I'm sure they don't make a girls one like that but I am sadly used to the separate sections of pink and blue throughout the store.  But when I flipped the outfit over to fold it, the back said "I only date models."

What's wrong with this picture?

First, we have the boy being an athlete.  As if it is the only thing that boys are good for.  What is the stereotype that we hear when a man finds out he's going to have a son?  Oh good, now I'll have someone to play ball with.  His girl children certainly can't do that, nor his wife or coworkers or anything.  The entire biological reason for having  a boy is to have someone to throw a ball around with.

Then, we have the "I only date models."  Do I really have to say how offensive that sentence is, even as a joke on an infants t-shirt?

Third, we have the conflation of the two.  What is the message here?  I am an athlete, so I am a fit man.  Because I am a fit man, I deserve a fit woman, who is a model.  Remember: Thin women are healthy and muscular men are healthy.  So they are each other's equals.  The really sad truth is that saying he is an athlete really tells us nothing about what he looks like.  There are plenty of fat athletes, and plenty of unattractive ones, but saying that he only dates models, we know exactly what she would look like.  It is the same old story, a man has to have a good job, and a woman has to look good.   I think that if the shirt just said "I only date models" I wouldn't have even minded so much, but the conflation of the two is what makes me so mad.

I understand that the infant doesn't understand what he's wearing, but do parents really want to make that message to others about their child?  "My kid is going to keep everything the same as it is now."  Shouldn't you want your children to change the status quo?  Shouldn't you as a mother or a father want something better for your child than what you had?  Or am I just overreacting to a cute shirt that parents buy their kids?

~Mrs. Sprat