Fashion and Culture- Infant Experiment

630 Words3 Pages
This article was about infant clothing and how we as humans label the sex of infants. This article discusses sex labeling of infants and it also discusses a study that was constructed by students from Stony Brook University. Children can be labeled sexually either nonverbally or verbally. Many parents in today’s society dress their infants according to sex-typing and based upon the traditional sex roles. Some may not understand why they do it while others do it habitually because it is what they’ve seen as far as the traditional roles and how they are supposed to dress. Once strangers know the sex of an infant, studies have shown that their attitudes, expectations, and interactions differ upon the sex. Sex stereotyping is not just upon adults, but it is also seen in children from preschool to kindergarten. Another factor that influences sex stereotypes is the media. The media portrays stereotypical advertising through commercials. For instance, little boys are supposed to play with trucks while little girls are supposed to plat with dolls. The question is, how often are we labeling infants just by our stereotypical nature? Also, how accurate is our stereotypic aspects in labeling such infants? A study was conducted to see if undergraduates from Stony Brook University can distinguish the sex of an infant by analyzing multiple categories within the study. The categories of the study are as followed: Color- which includes the color of the garments, Patterns; Trims- which includes stripe, check, plaid, prints, or dots and trims which includes collars, sleeves, socks, etc. Styles of tops- dress, bib, shirt, etc. Styles of bottoms-long pants, shorts, skirts, etc. Decals- decoration such as animals, cars, boats, flowers, etc. Hats, Footwear, Underclothes-primarily diapers, Outerwear- jackets, sweaters, raincoats, etc., and lastly accessories such as the pacifier and the
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