Yari's Baby Clothes: Social Context

Sociologist, Daniel Thomas Cook, notes that throughout the 20th century, various models existed that identified the relationship of children to the consumer market. The trend of these models increasingly recognized children as autonomous beings, capable of making or, at least, influencing purchase decisions within a household.* However, this autonomy does not begin until a child has the language to articulate his or her thoughts. Infancy is a unique period for viewing a child's relationship to objects. Nurture vastly outweighs nature in the perception of an infant's identity. For a brief time in a person's life, he or she is primarily only capable of projecting an image constructed by someone else. Clothing is an important part of that image. There are two main elements of Yari's clothes that can be considered as culturally constructed: the color and iconic image.

The garment is pink and clearly meant to indicate the gender of the baby. Pink is a color wrought with meaning with regard to gender and sexuality. A simple Google search of "pink color" shows that its meaning is a controversial subject among women, particularly when it is related to children. Some women feel disgusted at its representation of restricted gender roles for women and others claim it as a positive expression of femininity. Debates rage about whether pressing gender-defined objects into a child's life can confuse the child about his or her own gender. Yari's selection of a pink garment might have been a simple decision based on the baby's sex or her own aesthetic preference, but the cultural baggage surrounding the color almost makes the decision worthy of its own op-ed piece in the Times.

The clothing sports an image of Winnie-the-Pooh, a popular bear best known for eating large amounts of honey and being unfailingly good-natured. Winnie-the-Pooh was originally created by A.A. Milne in 1926 and was licensed by Disney in 1961. The stories of Winnie-the-Pooh are innocuous and appealing to children and adults alike. They have been adapted to suit history, philosophy and music and Pooh has become the ultimate symbol of childhood innocence and naive wisdom. It has also become one of many icons of the largest entertainment and media corporation of the world. The image of Pooh is also consistent with massive profits, global marketing, and fiercely protected copyrights and trademarks. While an individual might associate Pooh with nostalgic memories and fond life lessons, most fail to recognize that the accessibility and popularity of Pooh is due to a carefully constructed business plan. One needs only to look at the new Winnie-the-Pooh website to see that the bear and his woodland friends have adapted to appeal to a new generation, as have their merchandise-- Pooh now has his own PlayStation 2 game.

The cultural constructions of pink and Pooh beg the question, to what extent did Yari's free choice enter into her decision to select this particular item of clothing for her newborn daughter? With a society that maintains a constant discourse on gender and a multi-billion dollar corporation striving to make Pooh a member of every family, how much of an infant's image is selected by his or her parents and how much is predetermined by cultural constructions?

*Daniel Thomas Cook, "The Other 'Child Study': Figuring Children as Consumers in Market Research 1910s-1990s," The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 3 (Summer, 2000), pp. 487-507.