Behold this second tiny tank top that I spotted at the local drugstore. This time (assuming heterosexual norms) it is for an infant boy. Again - someone, somewhere, realized that there is a sufficient market for such an item to justify producing these shirts and offering them for sale. Why?
Sigh, once more.
Even before they can read, little boys are clothed in a message of aggression towards the opposite sex: "Lock up your daughters." Girls are clearly in danger from such a tough tyke, and must be protected by sequestering them away. Really?
Is it any wonder that the statistics for sexual offenses indicate that the vast majority of the perpetrators are male? Certainly, biology and physiology play roles; but so do character, mindset, what one has been taught about relationships between men and women. What does this shirt reveal about the people who are dressing their infant sons? Are they displaying an attitude of "boys will be boys" to excuse poor behavior towards girls by their male children? Or even more ugly: are they encouraging an inclination to blame the victim (and the victim's parents) for not protecting her(self) from uncontrollable male urges? Or, once more, is it intended as irony - because of course, a male child of such tender age could not possibly be a danger to any one?
I can't even begin to try to resolve my thoughts on this matter. If it is humor, it is again lost upon me. I would like to say, once more, it's "just a shirt." Nevertheless, it is the germ of something appalling. This particular garment brings me tremendous despair.
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