Search results for baby tee shirts

From an article in the UK TimesOnline via an article on a bed for little girls called “Lolita.”

Yes, all these t-shirts come in children’s and baby sizes…

aa bb sent us two more images of t-shirts on sale at Target that get at the idea of little girls as spoiled future divas.

“Born to be spoiled.”

“Someday I’ll demand a pony.”

NEW! Natalie K. sent in some more examples of kids’ t-shirts with sexual messages, these from the clothing company Cotton on Kids (she believes it’s an Australian company).

(Found at the Herald Sun.)

(From news.com.au)

Course Guide for
SOCIOLOGY OF GENDER
(last updated 09/2011)

Developed by Mary Nell Trautner, PhD
University at Buffalo, SUNY

Social Construction of Sex & Gender

• Changing age at first menstruation
• The social construction of sperm
• Overlap between male and female bodies: Infants’ gazes
• Overlap between male and female bodies: Breast reductions for men
• Gender ambiguity
• Third gender in Oaxaca

Intersexuality

• Sexual differentiation
• The Phall-o-Meter
• Caster Semenya

Patriarchy / Oppression

• Negative portrayals of men perpetuate patriarchy
• Oppression as a double bind: Women in politics

Patriarchy as Male Dominated

• Women in the Fortune 500
• Women in government
• Managing images of powerful women

Patriarchy as Male Identified

• Men as default category
• Men are “people,” women are “women”
• Example of “heroism” equated with men
• “Power” associated with masculinity

Patriarchy as Male Centered

• Looking for women’s presence in movies: The Smurfette Principle
• Looking for women’s presence in movies: The Bechdel Test
• Database of Bechdel Test movies

“Doing Gender,” Gender as Performance

• Using sex differences to infer gender differences
• Sex, gender, and toilet signs
• Learning how to stand like a girl
• When men stand like women
• Child pageants and the performance of gender
• Babies perform gender, too
• Where gender stereotypes come from

Intersectionality

• Social construction of race (“A Girl Like Me” video)
• Race, gender, and “good hair” (“Good Hair” trailer)
• Race, class, and gender
• Preference for light skinned women

White privilege

• White privilege
• White privilege as flip side of racial profiling
• Whites as default category (skin colors)
• Whites as default category (hair colors)

Childhood Gender Socialization

• Gendered language in TV toy commercials
• Kids’ rooms
• Barbie and math scores
• Barbie’s proportions
• Job segregation seen in gendered toys 1
• Job segregation seen in gendered toys 2
• Domestic toys for girls
• Breastfeeding dolls
• Save up for breast enhancement surgery
• Dora the Explorer makeover
• Learning to be a bride
• Gender roles hurt boys too

Gender & Language

• Changes in use of male/female pronouns
• Stereotypes of men’s and women’s language
• Smurfette and sexist language
• Ad—“If only men and women spoke the same language”

Gender & Mass Media

• Gendered body postures
• Sexism in hip hop
• Photoshopping 1
• Photoshopping 2
• Photoshopping 3
• Women of color in advertising
• Women of color associated with animals
• “You can never be too thin” ad
• Breast products
• Sexualization of violence: Dreamworlds 3 and Lady Gaga
• Dead-looking women in fashion
• Ads showing women dominating men
• Increasing sexualization of online video game ads
• Sexualizing and gendering food
• Comparing covers of Maxim and Cosmo

Gender & Work

• Data behind the Wal-Mart lawsuit
• Women in the Fortune 500
• Underrepresentation of women in Hollywood
• Gender gap in science and tech jobs
• Toys and career interests: Science and tech jobs

The Wage Gap

• Lifetime earnings by sex and race/ethnicity
• Earnings and hours worked, 1975-2009
• Earnings by education and age
• Occupational wage gap, 2010
• Job segregation and wages
• Wage gap by age, 1979 and 2008
• Comparing the wage gap across countries

Gender & Sports

• Participation in sports – high school
• Gendered organization of sport: Ski jumping for men only
• Images of women in sports: College teams
• Images of women in sports: Hope Solo
• Images of women in sports: Serena Williams
• Images of women in sports: Candace Parker
• Women bodybuilders
• Women collegiate athletes support the men’s teams
• Gender in figure skating
• Costume requirements in figure skating

Sexuality: Homophobia

• CJ Pascoe discusses homophobia as gender policing
• Example of gender policing: A boy’s pink toenails in the J. Crew catalog
• Example of gender policing: Yankee fans verbally assault Red Sox fans
• Attitudes towards gays and lesbians
• How terminology affects acceptance: “homosexual” versus “gay”

Sexuality: Sexual Behavior

• Orgasm for women
• Social desirability in online dating profiles
• Hook-up culture
• How porn is shaping our sex lives

Gender & the Body

• The Breast Portrait Project
• Asian eyelid cosmetic surgery
• Gendered reactions to male and female nudity
• Making bodies conform: Gymnast Shawn Johnson

Physical appearance and beauty work

• Physical attractiveness bias: Susan Boyle example
• Beauty work: Lifetime spending of men and women
• Beauty work: Routines and spending
• Trends in cosmetic procedures, 2000-2009
• The Beauty Myth – Naomi Wolf

Obesity and overweight

• Invisibility of “plus-sized” women
• Lane Bryant’s lingerie ad
• Can you be fit and fat? Health at Every Size
• Fighting the obesity “epidemic”
• Fatness as a shield from unwanted attention
• Can a feminist diet?

Gender and Family

• Gender and interracial marriage
• Gender gap in leisure time
• Housework
• Housework, international comparisons
• Gender non-conformity in kids
• Shared parenting as class privilege
• Nanny chain
• Gendered parenting in ads

Hegemonic Masculinity

• Changing images of masculinity
• Masculinity and violence
• Violent masculinity in energy drinks
• Masculinity and food marketing
• Men talk about their masculinity
• Comedic take on masculinity
• Satirizing men’s hygiene products

Intimate Partner Violence

• When do we intervene?
• Victim blaming: Headlines
• Percent of women who think DV is okay, by country

Sexual Harassment

• Who’s responsible for sexual harassment?
• The Toronto Slutwalk
• Women’s taxis as a response to harassment

Forced Sex & Sexual Assault

• Rape culture: Rape simulator game
• Rape culture: Celebrating incapacitated women
• Rape culture: T-shirts
• “No” doesn’t really mean “no”
• Yale fraternity: “No means yes, yes means anal”
• What counts as “real” rape: Polanski

Anti-Rape Campaigns

• UK campaign telling men not to rape
• Scottish campaign: Effective or sensationalist?
• Women don’t “ask for it”

Visions for the Future

• Degendering dance
• Positive portrayal of transgendered people
• Resistance to objectifying advertising
• Signs that show women as people
• Media showing range of women’s bodies
• Belly activism

If you would like to write a Course Guide for Sociological Images, please email us at socimages@thesocietypages.org.

Allison K. sent in another example of the sexualization of young girls.  Abercrombie Kids is selling bikinis with “push-up” tops.  According to Wikipedia, the company markets its products at kids age 7-14. The average age of puberty is 12.   So, at what age should girls start trying to enhance their cleavage?  How old is too young?

UPDATE: In the last week this post was shared and tweeted by many of you.  News outlets took up the issue and, in response to the public pressure, Abercrombie first changed the language (taking out the phrase “push up” and just leaving “triangle”), then took the product off the site altogether.  On their Facebook page, they wrote that “We agree with those who say it is best ‘suited’ for girls age 12 and older.”

For more on the sexualization of young girls, see our posts on sexually suggestive teen brands, adultifying children of color, “trucker girl” baby booties, “future trophy wife” kids’ tee, House of Dereón’s girls’ collection, 6-year-olds in French Vogue, “is modesty making a comeback?“, more sexualized clothes and toys, sexist kids’ tees, a trifecta of sexualizing girls, a zebra-striped string bikini for infants, a nipple tassle t-shirt for girls, even more icky kids’ t-shirts, “are you tighter than a 5th grader?” t-shirt, the totally gross “I’m tight like spandex” girls’ t-shirt, a Halloween costume post, Toddlers and Tiaras, and girls in the World of Dance tour.

Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Eight readers — Christine B., Hermes, Yvette, Hope H., Tyler D., Pris S., John G., and Dmitrity T.M. — alerted us to a photo spread in the December issue of French Vogue. The series of photographs is another piece of evidence of the adultification of young girls, an adultification that looks suspiciously like child porn, given the sexualization of adult women.  New York Magazine reports that the girls are 6 years old.  Don’t miss the lipstick, high heels, and disinterested pouts.

The thing is: the adultification/sexualization of young girls is paralleled by a infantilization of adult women.  This adds up to a conflation of women and children which serves to uphold prejudice against adult women and the exploitation of girls.

More at Gawker.

For more on the infantilization of adult women, see our posts on lady spanking, Glee, this collection of examples, a vintage example, and the Halloween edition.

For more on the adultification/sexualization of young girls, see our posts on sexually suggestive teen brands, adultifying children of color, “trucker girl” baby booties, “future trophy wife” kids’ tee, House of Dereón’s girls’ collection, “is modesty making a comeback?“, more sexualized clothes and toys, sexist kids’ tees, a trifecta of sexualizing girls, a zebra-striped string bikini for infants, a nipple tassle t-shirt, even more icky kids’ t-shirts, “are you tighter than a 5th grader?” t-shirt, the totally gross “I’m tight like spandex” girls’ t-shirt, a Halloween costume post, and girls in the World of Dance tour.

And, yes, it happens to boys too.  For examples of the sexualization of young boys, see our posts on Lil’ Wayne’s virginity loss, the depiction of a 13-year-old boy having a relationship with his teacher, the sexy marketing of both Jaden Smith and Justin Bieber, with a follow up here.

Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Many of you have probably by now seen this video of a group of young girls dancing to Beyonce’s Single Ladies on the World of Dance tour.  Huong L., Jeff S., and Dmitriy T.M. sent it in and asked us to comment on it.  First, the video… which is stunning:

I think I’ve watched this a half dozen times and I’m mesmerized.

But to the analysis…

After the Single Ladies video came out there was a rash of parents uploading videos of their kids dancing along to the video.  We featured a particularly impressive example of a preschool-aged girl dancing to the video and offered it as an example of how kids are active agents in their own socialization.  You might also apply this idea to this video, sent in by Heather B. (which I am not going to comment on because I can’t figure out the context).

Certainly children do make choices about what to mimick.  In a culture that highly sexualizes young girls, we shouldn’t be that surprised when they make choices that we find incongruent with (our beliefs about) childhood.  The World of Dance routine, however, is not simply an example of children being active in their own socialization and responding to the powerful messages of self-objectification aimed at girls of all ages.  In this case, many, many adults were instrumental in producing the product: their dance teacher(s), the choreographer, their parents, and the producers of the tour, to name the obvious.  These girls are performing a highly sexualized routine because many adults chose to sexualize them.

For more examples of the sexualization of young girls, see our posts on sexually suggestive teen brands, adultifying children of color, “trucker girl” baby booties, “future trophy wife” kids’ tee, House of Dereón’s girls’ collection, “is modesty making a comeback?“, more sexualized clothes and toys, sexist kids’ tees, a trifecta of sexualizing girls, a zebra-striped string bikini for infants, a nipple tassle t-shirt, even more icky kids’ t-shirts, “are you tighter than a 5th grader?” t-shirt, the totally gross “I’m tight like spandex” girls’ t-shirt, and a Halloween costume post.

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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Andrea G. alerted us to a Fisher-Price toy, called My Pretty Learning Purse, for children aged 6 to 36 months. Behold:

The purse comes with a dollar bill, a bracelet, a mirror, and a set of keys.  It also sings songs about purple and pink.

Andrea writes:

With these props, a one year old can properly play “woman.”  I felt this is an example of how we do gender and teach it to children, as young as a year old.

At least they’re admitting that femininity must be “learn[ed]?”

UPDATE: Jane, in the comments, linked to a Fisher Price product for boys that is very similar:

Get it!  It’s a tool box and it includes keys, a screwdriver, a hammer, and a saw.

The play involved in each product is essentially identical (e.g., music, putting things in and taking them out), but the theme of the play is gendered.  Do you think this is to please the parents or the kids?

NEW (Dec. ’09)! Monica C. sent along this page from a Target catalog featuring a girl playing with a kitchen and a boy playing with a tool set:

Also in teaching young children femininity and masculinity, see our posts here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.