(ThyBlackMan.com) In the month of May, a news story broke about a social experiment that was being performed on a young child named Storm. The parents of said child decided to leave the gender up to him/her to prove that it is something to be learned as opposed to thrust upon a child – boiling boys and girls down to the age old question of “nurture versus nature.”
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Smothered NatureIf what we nurture’s
unnatural, then who smothered
Mother Nature?!!
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While I’m not a proponent of this particular form of “natural selection” – I do agree with social experimentation on our children. Rather, I am in favor 
of breaking social norms that we force upon our babies that become acceptable as status quo for adults.
Case in point:
My wife is set to deliver our next child – a baby girl – in two days. My daughter will have the pleasure and distinction of being reared under the tutelage of a three-year old big brother. After the birth of our firstborn son, my wife and I kept his baby clothes as he outgrew them since we knew we wanted to have at least one other baby. Not having the option of preselecting the gender of our second-born child, we figured we’d save some money by recycling such things as onesies, bibs blankets, etc. for our next child.
With the next baby upon us, I pulled out these articles of clothing and began to sort through the tops full of blues, greens, reds, teddy bears, trucks and soccer balls of the past – all of it cute… most of it reusable.
However, when I presented my findings to my wife, she politely turned her nose up to a few items which she basically considered to be “too boyish.” As progressive and non-trend-driven as my wife is, she’d been ensnared in a gender specific trap. Her concern wasn’t for the functionality of the clothes as much as it was for the expressed concern of “How are people going to know she’s a girl?”
Never mind the social experimentation – my concern with this question was that my household had just played into a ploy for money. In much the same way that card stores such as Hallmark have guilted us in to over purchasing cards for every mother and father we’ve ever known (heaven forbid we omit someone!) during their respective holidays, the clothing stores have conditioned us to associate certain colors to the gender of our children.
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The Business of Gender Specifics
a.k.a.
Baby ModelsEngendering
specific baby color’s a
good business model!
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Restated simply – stores like Babies R’ Us are counting (dollar signs) on us to buy into gender specific colors for boys and girls. It’s planned obsolescence all over again except within the textile industry.
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Affording Model TeesBaby tees modeled
After Ford’s Model T keep
Businesses booming!
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Sure – these clothing companies could make gender neutral colors like yellows and greens so that parents of multiple children can recycle the clothes; but how does that keep said parents coming back to buy more clothes (outside of the fact that they already have us locked in for at least eighteen solid years since babies tend to grow nonstop until their late teenage years)? Enter the shrewdness.
Someone had to build a color-based timer into the shelf life of the children’s clothes we purchase. Someone had to invent a color for boys and a color for girls. Someone had to say that my son’s blue blanket with sports balls on it isn’t suitable to keep my daughter warm for the simple fact that it’s not pink and doesn’t have a baby doll or pony on it. Who might that someone be? I don’t have proof, but I’m pretty sure it’s the same someone responsible for placing expiration dates on car seats – playing on the tandem inexperience and nurtured nature of overprotective parents.
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Blue Balls and Baby DollsI’m disgusted with
Folks discussin’ blue balls and
The sex of infants.
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So parents pony up! Lest the absurdity of consumerism brand your newborn child as a social pariah amongst both a group of their and your peers. Grow up America.
Staff Writer; Reggie Legend
Can find more about this writer over at; http://www.steelwaterspoetry.com
Also available as a Keynote Speaker – Book him Today; Speakerwiki – Reggie Legend