I had to go to the Post Office yesterday (I could insert a long rant at myself here, where I go on and on about how you’d think I’d learn my lesson about agreeing to ship my eBay auctions internationally, but I won’t). When I was going in, there was a young woman coming out with two kids. One was a little boy, maybe 4, nothing notable about him. But there was a little girl, surely no more than 2, right behind. She was wearing a diaper, sandals, and a T-shirt that said “Does This Diaper Make My Butt Look Big?”
I laughed. At first I laughed. But then I thought, with all the press about pedophiles and pervs, do you really wanna put something on your little girl designed to draw attention to her butt? But then I thought, most people are not pedophiles or pervs, but still think baby butts are one of the cutest things on earth. Also, it was a (possibly) good way to jab fun at all the women who go around asking their SOs or best friends “Do these jeans make my ass look big?”
So, what do you think? Was the T-shirt harmless amusement and fun, or slightly creepy? I still don’t know how I feel about it.
Well I would hope it is cutesy and funny to most. And I’d hope there are not as many pedophiles out there that would make wearing that t-shirt dangerous to the little person. To me, it’s cute. I’d hope to others the same reaction.
I say creepy, not so much because of the peophila thing but because well…first of all why attach your child to thoughts and words they can’t understand? And make no sense in their two year old context. Give them a shirt with a cute puppy on it or something. Secondly, do you really have to impress standard ideas about feminie beauty on you daughter before she even know she’s female? And lastly, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH BIG BUTTS?
Then again, I wish I had the guts to put most of Baby Hell’s t-shirts on my kid.
However, I am dismayed at the sheer number of cherries on girls clothing. If there is one thing I don’t want someone thinking about is a cherry on a small girl. But that is my particular hangup and I have particular reasons for it (Thanks Dad!) that evidently, the vast majority of the population doesn’t.
I don’t care for the toddler shirt–it’s not cute-toddlery, it’s grown-up humor. It’s not awful or anything, but I wouldn’t buy it.
I like cherries! Not on thong underwear or in an obviously sexual manner (which, horribly, you do see on pre-teen clothing :eek: ), but on a little dress or t-shirt they’re just cute, like strawberries. Not everything has to be sexual all the time, and if we quit using everything that could maybe possibly have a sexual connotation in some circumstances, we won’t have much left to put on our t-shirts.
My gramps complains that his diapers make his butt look big. He’s 92.
Years ago I used to write for a text-based internet game. I had to make an addition for an area; there was a stream there, so I “built” a lake upstream. With beavers. Nobody had any problem for weeks… then one day I get there and all my beavers have turned into
otters.
Now can someone please explain to me when did otters start building dams and round “houses” in the middle of ponds? Or when did they become the official mascot for civil engineers and/or architects in several countries?
The same woman who ran a pure substitution to turn my offending beavers into otters later decided that it was not right to have players conjure “magic mushrooms” and eat them. The programmer who was charged with disneyfying our 'shrooms went and made…
I am not a big fan of adult jokes on children’s clothes but not for the pedophilia factor. (The pedophilia fright has gotten way out of hand!) But I think kids should have things they find funny! betenoir pretty much says how I feel. I gave my niece a shirt that has a penguin on it saying BRR! - she loves it to death and giggles all the time. That’s kiddie humor.
I tend to do that sometimes. By which I mean “almost constantly”. I like being seriously flawed; it makes everyone else feel so much better by comparison!
I wouldn’t read it so much as impressing that standard, as poking fun at it.
The fact that I was the victim of a predator from age 7-13 no doubt colors my perception of these things, and I tend to see danger and evil where none exists.
That’s why I come in here for a reality check sometimes!
I thought the t-shirt was funny, myself. It’s not like the kid can read it anyway. I also love the one that says “Are these people really my relatives?”
My daughter has that very article of clothing. Well, technically, it’s a onesie; she’s only 4 months old, so getting a joke on her clothes that she would find funny is pretty much out of the question. She’ll laugh at the word “boo.”
But it’s just a joke. Don’t read any more into it than that. She also has clothes that say, “Will Smile For Food”, “Instructions Not Included”, and “Party In My Crib, 2 AM”. They’re not to be taken literally.
It’s kind of sad. I know old women, Holocaust survivors, who still fret about getting fat and will likely do so 'til the day they die. And with all the stories of nine-year-olds on diets… why even think about that sort of crap already? (I know, I know. It’s a joke. But honestly, I hate it when full-grown women say it)
I thought you were going to say it was creepy because it was impressing on her an unreasonable standard of beauty/thinness from an early age…oh noes, anorexia, that sort of thing.
The pedophile thing would never have crossed my mind. I’m sure a pedophile would be looking no matter what the slogan, as people have said. The problem is the guy who finds children attractive, not what the child is wearing.
I don’t really think it’s very bad- just a funny little screen tee that are all the rage right now.
Just yesterday I was talking about something similar to this with a friend- we were talking about how some of our parent friends have pictures of their kids on their (private) MySpace pages. She said she would never make pictures of her children public in any capacity because there are pedophiles “everywhere, looking to find victims. And do you want some pedophile jerking it to your kid’s picture? Or putting your kid on a porn site?”
That position just seems. . . sensationalist to me. I have no doubt that the above has certainly happened, but I can’t imagine living my life in utter fear. I suppose as I see it, it’s one of those, “If you stop doing XYZ, the terrorists win” sort of things.
Don’t get me wrong, I look around some of the children’s clothing stores and am truly shocked by some of the stuff I see- teeny mini skirts, tube tops, high heels, etc. But I’m not put off because I think someone would be inviting some creep to diddle their child, it’s just that I like it when little kids look cute, rather than skanky. They’ve got many years to do the skanky look heh.
But yeah, that shirt isn’t skanky, offensive, or an invite for pedophiles to cop a stare of sweet toddler bum. It’s just a cute little joke.
