Target Thinks Gross Gender Stereotypes Belong On Infant Pajamas

A Target store in Canada is getting the wrath of the internet this week for selling some ridiculously sexist pajamas for infants. Parents of boys, you get the “Future Man Of Steel.” Parents of girls get to speculate about the kind of men they’ll be dating twenty years from now.

You might be saying Oh, God! This is not a big deal! Just, stop feminists! You would be totally entitled to feel that way. But the rest of us who feel that these repeated messages jammed down the throats of our daughters starting in infancy are damaging, can take to the internet with rage. Life is fair that way.

Christine Logel, an associate social development professor at the University of Waterloo snapped a photo of the pajamas while shopping last week and sent it to her friend, Aimee Morrison, an associate professor of English at the university. Morrison shared the image on Twitter, which spawned tons of comments and retweets. Morrison talked about the pajamas, (which are for three-month-olds, by the way) to CTV News:

“Even for tiny babies, we seem to think of girls as gaining power and worth from whom they’re romantically linked to and boys get to become agents of action in their own right.”

Morrison began receiving messages from parents in many different companies who had encountered similar types of sexism in their local Target stores:

One person sent her a photograph of a similar set, with one shirt saying, “Training to be Batman,” and the other saying, “Training to be Batman’s Wife.” Another said she found the same Target outfits in New Brunswick.
Responses came from as far as Spain.

The girl shirt in Spanish said, “Beautiful like Mommy,” while the boy one said, “Smart like Daddy.”

Those of you who think this is an overreaction, move along. Pay it no mind. Buy your daughters, from infancy, clothing that reminds them their most important future quality is who they have the ability to attract as a mate. The rest of us, who realize that message is bullshit, will Tweet, write stories, and demand large chain stores like Target listen when we say, STOP.

Hey Target, we’re #notbuyingit. Get it together. Stop projecting these ridiculous stereotypes for on to children.

(photo: Twitter)