As we head into our final week of September most of us have survived the first few weeks of school (well at least I have), and are beginning to embrace the cooler weather and start to plan for the various yet numerous events and holidays that are approaching quickly.
My children have been bugging me to get their Halloween costumes for a few weeks now, so I finally relented and headed out to Party City a few days ago. Having 8 children in such a store was no easy task and in between listening to my 9 yr old daughter whine non-stop, the babies crying in stereo, and chasing Ryley around, somehow I managed to stand still for a few seconds and that is when I saw this:
At first glance it seems cute,but after reading it a second time I know longer thought it was. With all the publicity of late with Miss Representation and empowering our daughters to feel good about themselves I was saddened and couldn’t help but think only one thing. This tee-shirt is wrong, wrong wrong.
In my opinion if we are informing our babies and toddlers that their butt looks big in a diaper than we are already informing them that certain articles of clothing may make their butt look bigger. Is saying that a diaper makes their butt look bigger, any different than telling them a pair of jeans or shorts does as well?
Yes babies and toddlers are young but they can still understand an awful lot and when you think about it, if they are wearing such a shirt than other people, including siblings, are going to notice and make a comment either directly at the toddler or to the parent. For example I could just see how this would go down in my household:
Baby wearing shirt playing with toys. Older sibling comes up and reads the shirt. Older sibling then teasingly says “oh yeah your butt does look big! (fat!)” Then starts to laugh and gives baby a gentle tap on the butt.
What do you think? Am I seeing too much into this or do you agree that this shirt sends a wrong message?
Until next time,
Chantel,momof8crazymonkeys
Totally agree Alice it is implied that is wrong and so not necessary
Kath I totally agree those wristbands and shirts are worn by younger boys (most of them) for the wrong reasons.
Yikes. It’s one of those “funny yet disturbing” kinds of things. In my opinion, it definitely crosses the line. I wouldn’t buy it.
Kinda like the “I love boobies” t-shirts and wristbands they sell to teenaged boys at skateboard stores. Ostensibly to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research, yet anyone who has experience with boys of this age knows it’s all about the snickers, giggles, sidelong glances at the girls in school…it doesn’t end up being supportive of the real issue, just causes distracting static.
I skip most message shirts as it is – do I really want my child feeling the need to label herself? Here, it’s a different thing – sure, little kids in diapers, ha ha, but why point out what their butt looks like at all? And as far as labeling it fat – it’s the implied thing that it would be a bad thing if it did look fat. I wouldn’t buy this.
I’m not a huge fan of shirts-that-say-things anyway, but wow… these dumb “misnomers” have a way of becoming pervasive in a culture, and most of us agree that deplorable body image issues are not helped in any way with items like these. They’re not cute at all.
i thought the same thing initially, “hmmm…getting a little hysterical over a t-shirt, non?…but really, it’s starting to normalize bad body image early…waaaaay early. i would have been one of those people saying “just relax, it’s only a shirt” but now that i have 2 girls i’m hyper aware of stuff like this.
it’s like everyone whipping out their cell phones when something bad happens instead of helping. it’s just normal now to post it without thinking of what may happen down the road.