Women struggle with body image issues everyday. In our age of skinny praise, women feel as if they meet a certain standard with their body. One man’s social media post proved that females are exposed to these ideals very early in life. Manager of media services at NYU, Jason Y. Evans was visiting the campus’ bookstore when he came across these baby onesies.
I had a very difficult time not raging out about this in the college store. These are onesies…for infants…guess which one is for girls and which one is for boys. THIS is the problem.
Posted by Jason Y. Evans on Thursday, April 2, 2015
The little boy’s onesie says, “I’m super” and includes a cape. On the other hand, the little girl’s says, “I hate my thighs.” The photo shows the controversial topic of how boys and girls are marketed to.
The photo reignited the conversation about harmful effects of gender marketing. Some stuck by the onsie’s creator, Wry Baby and others said it was a horrible example of fat-shaming.
The company argued that they specialize in tongue-in-cheek, funny designs, but the argument fell on deaf ears.
Michele Kort wrote in an article that she understands the message was meant as a joke, but still warns about the harmful effects of that joke. “Yes, we know — it’s meant to be funny. After all, the company that sells this onesie with the saying ‘I Hate My Thighs’ is named Wry Baby. And we feminists do have a sense of humor. But really, there’s something icky about projecting fat awareness on babies.”
In response to all of the negative attention stirred up by Kort’s article, Wry Baby pulled the onesie from being offered. However, as seen in the photo, some stores still had it in stock. Fortunately, after Evans’ photo went viral, the NYU bookstore pulled it from their shelves.
Wry Baby has since tried to recover from the controversy by heavily marketing their, “Love me for my leg rolls” onesie.
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