Saturday, June 24, 2006

Gender and Clothes - Amazing Post

I have been trying to post for many days now... I even have two posts half-written and a third started, but I just haven't been able to finish any of them... (Sigh)

I was going to bed half an hour ago when I stopped to just "check some blogs," you know, and I found an AMAZING post by Jody, over at Raising WEG. Just to give you a taste...

Have you ever wondered why girl clothes are generally flimsy and made of thin, lacy fabrics? Jody writes:
No little girl can grow to adulthood in American without learning the cardinal rules of shopping. Of course everything about girls' clothing signals the importance of buying new clothes as often as possible. The US economy might crash to a standstill, if ever girls started expecting to buy the thick cotton t-shirts over in the boys' and mens' departments. Imagine what might happen, if my daughters' Target t-shirts had held up to more than a season's worth of washings. Their drawers might be filled with two-year old t-shirts, as their brother's are -- and we certainly can't have that.
Why can't there be sensible, rugged sandals for little pre-school girls to run and play with and only flip-flops are available instead?

As I commented on her blog: "I've been having vague feelings and thoughts about these issues as I've walked through stores lately, but since I only have boys (4 and 2), I would have never really noticed about the absence of sensible sandals and the flimsiness and shortness of the [girl] clothes. You have clearly and brilliantly articulated all the key points surrounding this issue."

and

"As I walk through stores (without buying much because I really can't afford it), I can feel the 'siren call' of those flimsy and cute clothes, and I'm glad I resist most of the time." I also feel sure that if we had a girl, I would only afford to dress her because all her aunts and uncles and the grandparents would cover her with cute clothes (as some of you may recall, my in-laws have FOUR sons and the fourth grandson is about to be born any day now).

Anyway, some of the things Jody links to are also excellent.

All right, I'm off to bed now, though I do feel like blogging more.

P.S. I posted twice in a day this week, so I don't know if anyone saw my post about the table and chairs :)

Oh, I only saw your comment now, Alice, sorry I didn't respond (for some reason I didn't fully read the email when you posted it). I was afraid because my dining area (it's not a separate room) is very small, but I guess you're right, things are much smaller in Europe - and Brazil too - than the U.S.). The natural color crocheted table "cloth" is called a table runner in English, if I'm not mistaken. I got it in Brazil years ago and I've been literally waiting for years to use it with a decent table!

3 comments:

Alice said...

hm. I actually think our shoe & clothes shops here are very sensible in this regard! Yes, flimsy princess stuff and flip flops and frills do exist, but also very sensible shoe-work for running, hiking and kicking balls. So I do have a choice here: I can buy the flimsy stuff or the sensible stuff... While Isabella has her occasional "Princess-pair" of sandals, of course, (in which she'd prefer to sleep if I'd let her, lol) - I usually make sure I buy her sturdy shoes (in non-pink, non-frill, non-flower pattern) which Dominik can inherit some day. Awful how fast we go through shoes!

Juliet said...

I never knew that either. But you kniw I only have a son, too. It brings to mind all sorts of feminist issues for me, but I'm too tired to rant.heh

Clo said...

Very interesting, I had never noticed the difference in quality, but I can tell you that here in FRance in any baby clothing shops girls stuff cover 60 to 70% of the merchindise while the choice for boys is so limited. And simply forget about decent frill stuff, when you need it: my brother got married back in APril and I looked desperately for a suit for Milo for months, they were simply not available in size 2-3 years. Luckily he's tall and finally found soemthing in size 4 years by pure chance in a chain department store of all places, while I had visited and called several times all the various Cacharel, Cyrillus, Baby Dior boutiques and kept on hearing "We have a lot of lovely girl dresses!". But then again, that does not surprise me either, if you look at the way French men dress shabbily !!! (and this is my Italian dna reacting!!!).