Boys’ Clothing Part 2—The Brat

Continuing with my discussion of boys’ clothing, I turn now to the brat stereotype, which appears as a theme in boys’ clothing just as often as the warrior I talked about in my previous post.

To find examples of brat imagery, I ventured out, notebook in hand, to my local Zellers department store. I found t-shirts for school-aged boys with expressions like:

• “Video games all night, sleep in class all day.”
• “I’m busy this week so I can’t do my homework,” accompanied by the image of a calendar with items like “play video games,” “annoy my sister,” “watch TV,” and “rock out to music” listed as alternatives to school work.
• “It’s all fun and games until: my homework ate my dog; it’s time to do my homework; aliens destroy my video games; the power goes out when I’m winning in video games.”

For boys aged three to six, Zellers offers such sentiments as: “Mom’s little monster” accompanied by a picture of a T-Rex, and “Danger—Next Tantrum in 00:05 seconds.”

Other retailers also promote the idea that boys are prone to bad behaviour. (Links are available on the images below, where possible, but they may not work if the retailer is no longer selling the shirt via its website.)

For boys as young as six months old, we have this gem from The Children’s Place. (So nice to outfit your sweet baby boy with an image of the devil in hell.)

The devil makes another appearance in a boys’ shirt from the same retailer.

Zellers also uses the devil-with-a-fork motif in a shirt that says: “I tried to be good but I got bored.”

Baby boys can also be identified as “Super Serious Big Time Trouble” with this shirt, available in infant and toddler sizes, also at The Children’s Place.

The idea of boys as hellions is also seen at Old Navy, in this shirt for babies and toddlers.

Boys can also express their disdain for school in this shirt from Old Navy, featuring Snoopy.

For school-aged boys, there is the implication, from The Children’s Place, that boys are hard to control.

For the record, I looked for shirts with similar messaging in the girls’ departments of various retailers, but there were none to be found.

What Are We Telling Boys When We Buy These Shirts?

Stereotyped images are not the only options available to boys at clothing stores. Some shirts are completely unadorned and others include imagery of sports, but negative stereotypes are becoming more common in boys’ clothing. (I have certainly noticed an increase in this kind of clothing in the eight years since my older son was born.)

In an earlier post I talked about associative memory. Given the kinds of images on these shirts (and the warrior shirts highlighted in my previous post) and the fact that they appear only on boys’ clothing, I have to ask, what kinds of associative memories are boys forming from clothes like these?

Fashions like these dovetail perfectly with the messages delivered by film, television, books, and toy advertising, telling boys on the one hand that aggression and toughness are cool and, on the other, that rowdiness and bad behaviour are funny and even expected from boys.

Surely we can do better for our boys.

As adults, we need to evaluate the messaging in the clothing we buy, just as we do for the books we give our sons and the television programs we allow them to watch. Before purchasing a shirt with harsh, stereotyped imagery, think carefully about the message it sends. Does a 5-year-old boy need a shirt that tells him he is a brat? Does he need one with a frightening image that tells the world how tough he is?

Boys face just as many stereotypes as girls in the clothing department, and male stereotypes are just as damaging as their female equivalents. Through the fashions parents purchase for girls–whether they are highly sexualized or overwhelmed by rainbows and butterflies–parents convey messages about what they think of their daughters and what their daughters should think of themselves. Similarly, parents’ clothing choices for boys speak volumes. Do you want the world to see your son as a video-game-addicted brat or as an aggressive tough guy with attitude to match? And if your young son sees himself that way, what kind of person will he be when he hits his teen years or adulthood?

I’m not saying that one t-shirt will transform a boy into Bart Simpson or Harold or George from Captain Underpants, but clothing is part of the continuum of male stereotypes that dominate children’s popular culture and one that we should pay attention to. You would not allow your daughter to wear a t-shirt that says she is a shallow ditz (and I’m sure such a shirt is available somewhere), so why allow your son to tell the world he is big trouble, too lazy to do his homework, or a devilish mischief maker? Would you outfit your daughter in scary skulls (not the cutesy pirate motif, but the “Dawn of the Dead” stuff)? If not, then why place your son in such clothes?

Something to think about before you hit the stores to buy spring and summer clothes.