Baby High Heels: Fabulous or F-ed Up?
17 Comments posted by Kristi on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 12:00 AM
There are several trends in baby- and toddler-wear of which I'm not really a fan. Longtime readers may remember this post in which I railed on about inappropriate messages appearing on the derriere of my then one-month-old daughter. Not.A.Fan.I'm also not very fond of message tees either, although since this post, Isabella has received a few as gifts, mainly of the "Big Sister" variety, so I've softened my stand a bit as long as the message isn't too annoying, precious, or offensive.
But I think these shoes trump the other trends. They're high heels. For babies, ages 0-6 months.
They're marketed as "completely soft, fully functional high heel crib shoes" (although I'm not sure what the "fully functional" part means, since I don't know any 0-6 month-olds who can walk). They're also not dress-up shoes either, as it says, "This is not a toy," right on the outside of each package. And besides, not many 6-month-olds I know are into dress-up. Their mothers, on the other hand, might be.
So what we have here are actual (soft) high-heeled stilettos...for infants.
I'm sure that the creators of these shoes thought the shoes were funny. And maybe they're even meant to be a joke. But something about high heels for babies just strikes me as very wrong. Seeing the photos of the shoes on the company's website (leopard print, zebra print, and hot pink are among the styles and colors) brings to mind images of JonBenet, beauty pageants, and the sexualization of little girls.
What's next: baby's first thong?
High heels are shoes for grown women. While I've never worn or owned a pair myself (although at 5'2" I certainly could use the height), if you can rock them without falling on your face, as I most certainly would do, more power to you. On adult women, they're hot and sexy and fabulous. On babies? I think they're creepy.
So, would you buy a pair of these baby high heels for your little diva or to give as a gift to a friend's baby?
I saw an article on this the other day. It's actually quite gross.
And what's worse, are the Parents (who are assumed to be *responsible*) buy it!
Creepy with a capital C.
sorry to disappoint, but baby's first thong is already on the market. I live in Italy and was shocked at how many toddler girls were wearing thong style bathing suit bottoms (without top of course) this year at the beach. Internet search it, they are big over here.
I saw these. One word: disgusting.
Ewwww!
heehe:) I was planning to blog about this a few months ago for Shoe Tube. I probably still will.
but also, I kind of like it... Sorry to say. I do not find it JonBenet at all. In fact, I think it is kind of cute and harmless and girlie.
Definitely creepy. Who are these people who would buy these?
The "god what are we doing to our little girls?!?!" side of me is hugely offended and outraged at these and the "gawd, lighten up" side of me says they're just meant in fun. But I wouldn't buy them for Tabby or anyone else.
I would never put those on my daughter. Little girls should dress like little girls. Too JonBenet for me...
Put me in the gross column. We'll stick with Robeez and little cute Mary Janes and lace-up shoes with chickies on them. No leopard print stilettos here.
NO. Nor do I like heels on very young girls. I remember being allowed to wear heels in 5th grade. It was a right of passage! Something to look forward to! And they were only about 1/2 an inch!!
I would never buy them. I am very much in the camp of letting little girls (or boys) be "little" for as long as possible. But I don't see a ton of harm in it, unless the parent is going to keep letting them wear heals once they are walking, and before the child is, well, 20. =)
Now the baby thong- that's creepy!!!
A few years ago, Saturday Night Live did one of their commercial parodies for thong diapers. Amy Pohler, Rachel Dratch and Maya Rudolph were in it and it was hilarious! I tried to find it on youtube, but was finding some kind of weird, gross things instead.
I think the heels were meant to be funny, but I think they missed the mark.
uh. no.
I'm thinking along the lines of Hollywood Hillbillies.
I'm voting "effed up" . . . sometimes I'm glad I have a boy for just this sort of reason.
Mostly I'm glad I have a boy because he's just so damn cute.
But I often think about how hard it is to raise a girl today with some of the messages they face, now more than ever. I love that DOVE campaign trying to conteract this stuff.
Now I am seldom crass but *WTF* ?
SERIOUSLY????