Ok, so anyone who knows me knows about my multiple parenting issues: pink everything for girls, plastic everything for children, kids' food, routine circumcision . . . now add boys clothing to the list. Not having had a son before, I've paid very little attention to boys clothes and the conditioning that lies therein. But now I have, I am stunned. I have always been a little flamboyant (!) as a dresser- favouring costumes as often as possible for everyday wear (something you can get away with better in SF than rural England). My tastes may be a little quirky, but I don't punish my kids and make them wear what I choose (well I suppose I do with Atticus, but that's what he gets for being 9 weeks old!). Imogen wears things she can play in- climbing trees, digging in the garden, paddling in the stream. It's just that she might choose a charity-shop bridesmaid's dress instead of overalls. Now that I look at boys' clothes, I am stunned. Blues, browns, muted greens and occasional rusty orange. The only animals I see as images are either big (hippo, dinosaur, etc) or violent (t-rex, shark, monster etc); there are vehicles on everything (JCB even has a Hight St kids clothes line!); and pirate, fireman or construction worker seem to be the boys' equivalent of girls' princess or fairy quandry.
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It also seems that I am expected to want my son to wear mini combat trousers (what would he put in all those pockets?) and harder textured fabrics (he obviously needs toughening up). I knew a 5th grade lad in Sebastopol who used to come to school in a Chinese brocade jacket and feather boa. Why should this be so unusual, and why should boys' clothes be so dull? Even their fancy dress clothes options are restricted to fireman/monster. I don't want the world to think my boy's a freak, but I want him to have fun with clothes and feel as free to wear stuff that feels good, just as I don't want my daughter to feel prissy and inhibited by pretty clothes.
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Now, I know I'm being extremist about this, and that there are exceptions (Zutano stripes, Babystyle softest cotton), but it's making me cross that I will have to go out of my way for this, or make his clothes myself.
1 comment:
Isn't it just so obvious that the cute little battle fatigues are simply a way of getting the tykes accustomed to the idea that wearing camo is "normal". This will make it easier for them to "get into" fighting in the war on terror in a decade or so.
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