Feminist baby clothes?

[pippinleaf]

My little girl arrives in January and I'm excited to raise a strong and feminist baby. (I would have done this with a boy too.) I'd love to get her a few clothes with a feminist message on but can't find any. Any ideas?

[YonicScrewdriver]

Women are just people, pippin - some good qualities, some not so good!

[pippinleaf]

I'm not saying that logos are going to create feminists. Or that it's an important feminist issue. Sigh...

[penguinthermometer]

Penguins LOVE those vests. Sadly DD is a bit old for them, but she does have the RSC "though she be but little she is fierce" T-shirt. I do kind of wish it didn't come in pink though - I just don't like pink that much.

It isn't too hard to find non-pink or non-"girly" clothes for girls - I like Baby Gap (better in the baby section than the Toddler Girl section though), and lots of places do plain or unisex babygros. There seems to be much more of a prohibition though in dressing a boy baby in anything pink or vaguely feminine - now bunnies, cats, purple, yellow, for example, are all now considered suspiciously feminine. My BIL refused to have DNephew sleep in his older sister's pink flowered grobags, presumably in case he "caught the gay" whilst sleeping, despite no-one ever seeing him in his gro-bag. And disappointingly a very feminist good friend of mine sent back a blue babygro I'd lent her for her little boy, on the grounds that it had some pink rabbits on it and therefore was far too gender-bending. That to my mind says a lot about how our culture views pink - if it was that lovely and positive as an association then more boy babies would be wearing it. But like anything too-associated with the feminine it is always negatively weighted when push comes to shove no matter how much people claim you can be a strong successful woman and wear pink...

[PhaedraIsMyName]

I didn't say I wasn't a feminist. I think threads like this with the inevitable "I'd never wear pink" comments trivialise what is really important.

[pippinleaf]

I never said anything about pink. I agree that this has nothing to do with feminism.

[DillyDallyDaydreamer]

I have daughters I go for what would probably be called neutral colours I think pink can be unimaginative for girls

[OliviaBlue]

Go for neutral - like white. Then when she goes to school and all her friends have pink, she'll probably want it too.

Zazzle used to let u design your own clothes. If that's what you're getting at.

[Isabeller]

Congratulations on your expected little girl pippin

I wonder what a feminist message on clothes is. I have a grown up DD and a baby DS. I feel that one feminist thing about clothes for babies is not restricting movement.

I hope in amongst the spirited debate you found some good ideas and links to clothes you might like for your baby DD.

[KarmaViolet]

My baby is due next week and I am totally taken with the twisted twee ones.

I would imagine that whatever flavour baby I have, at some stage s/he will be into glitter and at some stage s/he will be into camo, and as soon as s/he's old enough to express a preference that's fine with me. Until that stage, I don't see a massive difference between dressing a baby up in a Rudolph babygro with a Christmas pudding hat (and I was soooo tempted in tesco the other day) and dressing them up in feminist slogans, the baby is blissfully ignorant until they see the photos and it's done for the benefit of the adults.

[FuckOffGerbil]

OP there has a been a rather busy thread about "why do people not post in FWR"

the result is a lot of posters who don't like this section now posting on it in a rather obnoxious and rude way. Unfortunately, we now have new posters saying they won't continue to post here due to the aggressiveness. [sigh]

Basically all the "regulars" have given you helpful advice and the ones who have have been rude can be found on other threads telling us how aggressive we are. It's actually quite here at the moment. Feel free to lie low for a week until they get bored.

[FuckOffGerbil]

My take on the academics is that they have little interest in anything which doesn't fit their theories. I've had one of them talking down to me in a way which was very patronising and condescending.

Phaedra your "refusal to post on FWR" despite spending quite a lot of time here is because people talk down to you. You've belittled and mocked the OP to the point she's said might not post on this forum. What do you think about that?

[PhaedraIsMyName]

I think the OP trivialised serious issues. I think paying more attention to the provenance of where and how clothes are made is a more feminist act than sticking slogans on a baby.

And as for the "regulars" did I miss the bit where no dissenting opinion is allowed?

[YonicScrewdriver]

Phaedra, I get that sourcing ethical clothing is important and that's fine.

But why did the OP trivialise serious issues? If she'd asked in Telly Addicts where to get a "Clara, My Clara" baby gro, would you have reacted the same? Or, as another poster said, a "my mummies love me" babygro in LGB parenting?

[UsedtobeFeckless]

Eeeep. I hope that wasn't aimed at me! I was honestly trying to be helpful, I'm just so knackered it probably came out all twisted ...

Sorry

[SoMuchForSubtlety]

Phaedra you're allowed to have a dissenting opinion. Who said you weren't?

[FuckOffGerbil]

It really wasn't aimed at you feckless

[FuckOffGerbil]

*assuming you are talking about my post of course

[UsedtobeFeckless]

Good! I'm one of the newbies from AIBU and I'm finding lots to think about over here, although I do find myself tending to agree with both sides of an argument and it's making my brain hurt ...

[YonicScrewdriver]

Welcome, Feckless!

[UsedtobeFeckless]

Cheers!

[FuckOffGerbil]

although I do find myself tending to agree with both sides of an argument and it's making my brain hurt ... grin


I know, I know same here. Some of the other posters can be bloody good at arguing their point as well. not me I just get more ranty and incoherent as I go on!

[PhaedraIsMyName]

Yes Gerbil it was aimed at you.

[adiposegirl]

how does one raise a FEMINIST baby? Just raise your child according to your beliefs and hope that when they become of age, choose to live their life according to how they were raised.