There’s nothing like a clever slogan to make people even more self-righteous than they already are. Feminists, so proud of their Women’s March signs that are now being collected by the Smithsonian, have now returned to everyone’s favorite vehicle for ideological sloganeering: the T-shirt.
“Strong like Mom,” reads a new boys’ T-shirt out from Target this week, and feminist moms everywhere are gushing about the garment. At The Huffington Post, Emily McCombs notes, “The T-shirt is a breath of fresh air for parents amidst the gender normative ‘trucks for boys, ponies for girls’ aesthetics we usually see in children’s clothing.”
Rachel Garlinghouse at the website Babble is so excited about the new “Strong like Mom” shirt because, “In the past, if I saw a tee complimenting my kid in any way, chances are it was complimenting their looks . . . And typically, any comparisons to Mom or Dad were paired by gender (girls were ‘pretty’ like Mommy, and boys were ‘handsome’ like Daddy).”
She is right. There are a lot of T-shirts that engage in gender stereotyping. But the alternative to making your kid wear a shirt that supports the patriarchy isn’t making them wear shirts that push feminism. It’s making your kids wear shirts that don’t have slogans.
Because here’s the thing: People are not billboards.
We regularly tell our children not to judge a book by its cover, but with these covers how could you not?
American consumers appear to have the opposite view. The “Strong like Mom” tees have been selling like hotcakes, and almost every children’s clothing store appears to sell something that will turn a kid into a feminist signpost. Abercrombie & Fitch has “Girls Won’t Quit,” “Lead the Pack,” and “Hear My Roar.” Children’s Place has a large selection of girl-power shirts, including “Never Underestimate the Power of a Girl” and “Girls Will Change the World.”
Message T-shirts have been a thing for decades, but ever since Hillary Clinton ran for president and moms took their daughters to the polls, every other girl in the greater New York area seems to own a female empowerment top.
In addition to the “I’m with Her” T-shirts, there is now the official Elizabeth Warren “Nevertheless She Persisted” in youth sizes.
Liberal parents use their children as a form of “virtue signaling” — saying “Look, we’re from a ‘good’ family that voted for the nice lady.” Meanwhile, Trump voters outside the NYC bubble are buying baby onesies blaring the legend: “Proud Deplorable,” a pacifier bearing Trump’s face and bibs that urge us all to “Make America Great Again.”
This message clothing trend is another symptom of how every aspect of our society is now seen through a political lens. A baby doesn’t even know what a feminist or a deplorable is, but Mother has declared it one.
And yet, slogan clothes are part of the larger problem, which is the general need to project a superficial image with a tee. Tween clothing store Justice is selling shirts that say, “My room was clean but then I had to decide what to wear.” In recent weeks, I’ve seen adolescents wearing a shirt that says “Sarcastic Comment Loading” and another that says, “OMG. No one cares.”
We regularly tell our children not to judge a book by its cover, but with these covers how could you not?
Maybe their friends will find them witty and clever as a result of seeing them in these shirts. But just as many peers will probably find them annoying. While some adults will cheer on kids with these slogans — assuming that their parents are the “right” sort of people — many will wonder why these children need to advertise their political positions and bad attitudes on 100% cotton.
We want our kids to get to know others, to ask questions and have conversations with those they may not know well. We also want people to assess our children based on the things they say and the way they act, not how they dress.
Maybe it is just safer or easier for kids to demonstrate their views and attitudes on their shirts rather than articulating them to others. In which case we are also making matters worse — in a world where kids can’t look up from their screens, we are helping them avoid real conversations.
Imagine the future generations who want to see the archives of American history. They will find the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Declaration of Sentiments, Letters from Birmingham Jail . . . and a bunch of ratty girl power T-shirts and MAGA hats.
If the medium is the message, folks, our modern messages are sorely lacking.