I don't like it when kids clothes have words.

I'm not in a very good mood this morning. In fact, no one in my family is in a very good mood this morning.  If only we wouldn't have had to interact. It might have been better for all of us.  But alas, we are all doing our separately.

In light of my lousy mood I thought I might share one of my complaints. When illiterate people wear clothing with words on it. Usually this means kids wearing clothing with words and phrases but it isn't limited to just kids.



Exhibit A: Emotional Expression
There are lots of categories of annoying kids shirts with words.  One such annoying category is sharing emotions which the child may or may not have. Putting an emotion on a t-shirt doesn't let the kid have their own experience. 




 Really, cuz what if the kid wearing this shirt is having one of those really contented days?


Exhibit B: Sexualizing children

The other thread of annoying shirts adults have children wear is the shirt with sexualized phrases.  Babies wearing shirts that say "boob man." or imposing sexuality on them that is not yet part of their consciousness.  It makes me wholly uncomfortable when we impose sexualized ideas on our kids. 





 


 Both of these shirt are sexual but also have an undertone of sexual violence. Yikes.

Exhibit C: Politicizing Children

Bibs are especially bad in the annoying writing front. Usually in regard to food. But, politics rear their ugly head by slathering opinions on a fairly unpolitical (albeit quite divisive) crowd.  My discomfort really in this is the idea that the children "in training" don't have choice and aren't being formed to develop their own opinions.    Both of these could just say, "being brainwashed by parents."







  Exhibit D: Status in life- princess, champ, queen, winner

And then, the most common of all shirts that illiterate people wear are the ones with labels about who they are.  It's sort of like, "please don't let me do the work of my own identity formation, i'll just tell you who I am."



 I guess, the root of all of my discomfort is that I think it shapes our imagination around kids if their shirts have words all over them.  If I see a kid wearing a shirt that says princess vs. bull rider I'm going to treat that kid differently.  Or even their parents, because it's as reflection of their parents beliefs about something.

And all in all, I don't think that is fair to parents or kids.



And here are the websites for the t-shirts. All from etsy.

Grandma:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/69564741/thats-it-im-going-to-grandmas-kids-shirt?ref=sr_gallery_19&ga_search_query=kids+shirts+&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade

Handcuffs:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/60858785/lock-up-your-daughters-kids-shirts-and?ref=sr_gallery_10&ga_search_query=kids+shirts+&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_page=3&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade

Backrub
http://www.etsy.com/listing/61238519/all-mommy-wanted-was-a-back-rub-boys-and?ref=sr_gallery_11&ga_search_query=kids+shirts+&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_page=2&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade

Repub bib:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/61238519/all-mommy-wanted-was-a-back-rub-boys-and?ref=sr_gallery_11&ga_search_query=kids+shirts+&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_page=2&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade

Democ. ONsie:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/74049163/future-democrat-onesiet-shirt?ref=sr_gallery_7&ga_search_query=democrat+baby&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade
Princess:
http://www.etsy.com/search/handmade?q=boys+shirt&view_type=gallery&ship_to=US&page=3

Bull:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/79235754/future-bull-rider-rodeo-applique?ref=sr_gallery_11&ga_search_query=boys+shirt&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_page=3&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade