children's clothes with skulls on...WHY?

[sausagepastie]

I can't understand it - it's horrible, isn't it? Or is it just me being old fashioned?

The last thing I want is an image of a skull on my son's clothes.

Whoops, how would I be wearing two pairs of boots! I meant skirt! (as if you're all interested, lol!)

Skull & Crossbones = Grrr
Boys like to go Grrr
Don't think beyond this, really.

We've had a fair bit of death in our family recently but the symbolism of skulls doesn't conflict with our mourning.

Now here are some truly horrible things on kids' clothing imo.

I think it's weird on adult clothes let alone baby clothes - sometimes our world is too cool for its own good - whatever happened to a childhood theme on clothes for infants and toddles!!! Ridiculous x

OP - yes I agree with you, people need to think beyond "cool" to what the symbol actually means!!

IMO its not appropriate for a young child to be allowed cover him / her self in death symbols!

LOL OP, you would get on with my DH who thinks pirates are an inappropriate theme for kids.

It's a bit different to little girls with the Playboy bunny logo, isn't it?

I am glad that the majority on this thread seem to have a sense of perspective

All the geek / gamer t-shirts from Jinx have the Jinx skull logo on them. It's just a logo.

I don't have a problem with it. In fact, they can have a t-shirt with a picture of the Grim Reaper if they want to. But I'd better not see anything with the word 'princess' on it in my house...

I can't seem to do a link to the product page, but this company sells a babygrow called 'Racked' showing a gagged teddy bear being stretched on an S&M style torture rack .

I buy things from this company for myself and would love to be able to get cool gothic & metal style clothing for DS, but I'd prefer the graphics to be fantasy animals - dragons, unicorns etc., music themed or funky Japanese style characters. Unfortunately their kids ranges seem to be more about death, blood, guts and gore, and now torture it seems.

I hate them, my son hates them so I don't buy them.

If I see stylelised skull and cross bones symbols I don't think pirate like many people on here seem to think. I think of the toxic hazard warning sign. I don't want that on my kids clothes.
Possibly excusable on a nappy, but not emblazoned on their chest.

i cant believe the bitching that is going on on this page!!! people shouldnt read into skull images on baby stuff they are not evil images more cute on baby lines in debenhams, no one says anything about tops that say im a little monkey or little dribbler on it, oh how original because they are boys they have to like football or tractors? i would prefer im a little pirate to im a little monkey, monkey oh yes my son scratches his arse and acts like an animal im so proud of him so hes my monkey! we as a country are only now seing funerals as celebrations of life when other countries have done this for years, in mexico they have the day of the dead where they paint skulls in bright colours on nov 1st and celebrate the lives of their family and friends that have passed! not morbid at all! rather than moan dont buy the stuff and dress your children in frills like liz hurley!!

My dd loves sculls on her clothes! So do I on mine. Small and tasteful tho...like that famous LV scarf that all the celebs wore a year or two back.

dd1 (10) has a few bits from the skelanimals range, not just skulls, but sort of cutey animals/ see through with bones lol. i don't have a problem with it - she thinks it's cool, but i (in my head) think it 'sees through' - the cutey stuff. all three (dd(10) ds (8) and dd(6)) have pirate skull and crossbones stripey t-shirts which they wear to rampage around the garden waving swords...

dd2(6) wants skelanimals stuff desperately, but she doesn't need any new stuff at the mo, so she'll have to wait.

i loathe pink and frilly, but hey, we've got a fair amount of that too. and some disney princess dressing-up stuff, and (gulp) we used to have a couple of hideous dora tops.

the only thing that won't get in the door is the truly awful provocative precocious stuff that is mass marketed for tweens. and don't get me started on playboy.

incidentally, am i the only one feeling the irony that apparently our connotations are only supposed to come from specific international direction? it's a bit prescriptive for me...

that said, i've often queried 'piracy' as a fun motif, but it just runs alongside the usual fairy story genre - not much funny about murderous stepmothers or child abduction either, but most kids survive with a bit of role play walking the plank or following crumbs/ stones a la hansel and gretel.

although talking about context... (and mito's posts) this thread has made me wonder if i should get my needle and thread out and patch all of the skulls on clothing in this house in honour of dh's brain surgery . two out of the five of us have long standing issues with skulls lol - they are a fact of our lives - dh has a lovely triangular hole in his, 3 screws, and lots of visible scarring, and dd2 has brain damage.

i love the idea of periodic table t-shirts.

I wonder if people in Mexico dress their children in skull clothes.

Just to say (as the pink subject has been mentioned by many posters below) that dislike of skulls does not necessarily imply a liking for pink princess stuff instead.

I dislike both, for different reasons.

Oh and add anything with 'hilarious' slogans to my hate list

Several people have mentioned caricatures of skulls to try and make them sound less serious, but in fact, the ones that I have seen are pretty realistic. Soupdragon, you seem determined to misunderstand everything I say. Is it really so hard to understand that repeating patterns of skulls reminds one of photos of neatly stacked skulls?

I guess as an artist, I take more notice of visual images than most people.

petisa, I believe you when you say that you are not trying to be cool, but thats how it comes across. when I see someone wearing or tattooed with a skull, I automatically think that they probably havent grown up yet.

Several people think this thread is too heavy, but imo that is just a sign of the strong pro and anti reactions that this silly fad provokes.

How it comes across to you. That is what you think. Fair enough, as long as no-one volunteers their opinions to me without me asking them, I don't mind what they think.

it's an interesting point nighby, i wouldn't be seen dead (lol) in skulls myself as the caricature/ pirate ones are too little kiddy, and the others are too teen goth angsty for my taste. so i do tend to associate the sort you are talking about as a specific fashion statement (one that i am too old/ conservative with a small c for...)

Plus, "I believe you.." ? That's ok then, what a relief!

"Soupdragon, you seem determined to misunderstand everything I say."

Er... no I'm not. You seem determined to imply I am somehow deficient because I do not make the connections you do (apparently because I have no interest in current affairs )

"Is it really so hard to understand that repeating patterns of skulls reminds one of photos of neatly stacked skulls?"

Gosh, how patronising! Conversely, is it really hard to understand that they don't? They may trigger that image to you but no, "one" doesn't think of neatly stacked skulls, you do. Can't you see the difference?

I don't see death, I see a pattern, a piece of artwork. A photograph of a stack of skulls would be different.

y nighbynight Mon 22-Mar-10 18:37:36

Soupdragon, you seem determined to misunderstand everything I say. Is it really so hard to understand that repeating patterns of skulls reminds one of photos of neatly stacked skulls?

LOL.....its someone elses turn to misunderstand everything you say now is it

nighbynight Mon 22-Mar-10 18:37:36
guess as an artist, I take more notice of visual images than most people.

*Now that really surprises me, as an artist I would of expected you to have a far less biased & non judgmental view of the world, & be able to appreciate image in the context it is meant,.... whether or not you like it .....rather than attach (IMO) ridiculously overly sensationalised meanings to it......Gawd, if I looked at cutsey kiddie Skull designs & saw Pol Pot masacres....I'd be thinking it was time to lay off the drugs

Now...... shall those of us in the Skulls are okay camp, starting screaming blue murder at the barbie pink puketastic numbers that also adorn the rails........ as remminisant of a hookers boudoir......encouraging our DDs to become Paris Hiltons, Jordans or perhaps our Sons to become drag queens

its all personal taste, neither one is right or wrong, but I do worry you are making mount everest out of a mole hill

I loathe hello Kitty stuff, & the cutesy kittens in crowns & Princess logos...DD loves that too....her choice, I won't stop her wearing it..

for the record, there are very strict rules in place with the design of kids clothes......hence why you will never see a gun or a dagger on stuff aimed at under 16s.....if Skulls pass the strict rules, its because like them or not, they are deemed by a lot of highly experienced people, to be "safe"

I can appreciate we are going to differ on this one.......... I can understand the OPs point of veiw, but I am gobsmacked at how over the top some of the comments are........... oops....my soups getting cold......must learn that eating it out of my tibetan ritual skull isn't a good idea, the insulation is rubbish

Soupdragon, it is not just me who finds these things off putting, for several different reasons. I laboured the Pol Pot comparison, because some people seem totally unable to get it. Just another opinion? yes, but the skulls are offensive to many, so I would say that it is not just a neutral option to wear them. Yes, blah blah, it is your right to offend other people, far be it from me to stop you. But dont try to pretend that a dear little "caricature" skull is not offensive, because YOU think that it isn't.