How shall we dress the children?

I came across an article a couple of weeks ago that still has me scratching my head.

Granted, it was on the MSNBC site, and that's the online equivalent of USA Today for it's depth and sophistication, so I am probably giving it way more thought than it deserves. But still... they posed a strange question.

Victoria Clayton of MSNBC asks us

"It seems more and more people are hopping on Frost’s bandwagon and marketing pint-sized versions of adult tastes. It’s down with Barney and up with the black CBGB onesies. Out with the primary colors and pastels and in with cool, contemporary children’s furniture.

But is it really cool for the kids? Are celebs and others just using offspring as the latest “in” accessory, instead of a big purse or a Chihuahua?

Face it. Kids much prefer a Dora the Explorer shirt than a Wilco or CBGB shirt"

Miss Clayton must be very young. (Actually, I suspect that Miss Clayton was more interested in creating a pretext for advertising the hip online kids retailer featured in her article than in any specific question she posed, but we'll grant her the assumption of journalistic integrity.)

Since we began wearing clothes, children have mostly dressed like small adults. At the time that childhood was "invented" in the 17th century, there were no special clothes, books, games, toys, or roles for children. Once infancy was over, children were seen as smaller, less experienced people. (Not unlike those of us in portly middle age view our thirty year old peers.)

By the Victorian era, three hundred years after childhood was first perceived as a distinct period of life, we saw the romanticising of childhood. Children were dressed in special clothes that were meant to evoke innocence. A few years later, in the era in which I grew up, the mother-daughter dresses were all the rage, and children were very often dressed like their parents.

I can see value in both of these approaches -- dressing children in children's clothing, evoking the innocence of childhood, is a charming way of reminding ourselves (as individuals, and especially as a culture) that we had these children to cherish them, and that they need our protection. Face it, there are harried, stressful days when we could use the reminder.

On the other hand, dressing children the way that we prefer to dress ourselves sends them (and us) the message that we are a team, that we expect that they will grow up to value the things we value.

There are two related trends in the way we as a culture dress our children that Miss Clayton doesn't address, and I think those trends are far more important to consider.

One is the trend to dress very young girls in a way that sexualizes them. The other is to dress our children as corporate shills. Both are alarming trends and both frighten me.

Do we seriously want to tell our sons and daughters that a girl's most important role is that of sexual object? Have women fought for the last 100 years only for us let our daughters be typecast and trivialized again?

And on the other hand, do we really want to send the message to our children that the role they should aspire to is "consumer"? When we pay for the "privilege" of advertising for a mega corporation on our clothing, we elevate the importance of that product in our minds and in the minds of our children. (And, yes, I include Dora, Thomas, and every other character that every kindergartner knows the name of in this.) We send a subtle message that we can be defined by the products we buy. That's exactly the impression that large corporations would like us to have, but how sad for us, how sad for our children, if we buy into that confining view of ourselves.

Is this what we have come to as a nation? Has corporate America not gone far enough in polluting our political system and undermining our national values? Should they now also own our children's backs as billboards?

No!

Bring on the the CBGB or Chicago Symphony Orchestra onesies and the t-shirts bearing political statements (of any persuasion), dress your child jeans, or overalls, or sweats, or gingham -- in whatever way coveys the lifestyle and political views you prefer -- but spare the children the sexy outfits and please, please lets keep the merchandising off our babies backs!