[twitter]Sexist superhero gear at Target has been getting a bad rap lately.

First a mom tweeted a shot of a couple of jammies (above), and the next thing you know, local news was covering the scandal.

Then bloggers weighed in pro superhero jammies like this

Now I’m not going to go too far down the “it’s just a joke, have a sense of humor” path because that’s not the point. I want to point out instead that when I go to the local Walmart or Target all I ever see are t-shirts and other girls clothes that are all about empowerment, emblazoned with “Girl Power!” and “Girls Do It Better!” and similar messages, a litany that ends up highlighting the rather dull messaging on the boys clothing. But girls besting boys? That’s okay with the quick-to-react online community. Indeed, that’s the challenge of our modern times: If a company has 90% — or 99% — positive messages and decides to have a bit of fun with a slightly more wry, snarky or sexist message, they’re destined to have some small subset of their customers get upset and share their upset with the online world. But in a democracy — and certainly in a capitalist society — we vote with our behaviors, with our purses and wallets, much more than we do at the ballot.

[Dave Taylor, Go Fatherhood]

and con superhero jammies like this:

It’s ironic that these examples popped up in my feed just a few days after social media went atwitter at Emma Watson’s amazing speech last week on feminism and equality.

It’s also amazing that these discussions about just one shirt, or just one bad message, continue day after day and year after year. For instance, I wrote about the shitty messages of sexist T-shirts years ago. I offer this only to say it’s nothing new. It’s continuous and plague like.

But it’s just a shirt, they still tell you.

Lighten up, they say.

It’s just a constant, subtle messaging system that is so pervasive, degrading, and normalized that we can’t even tell it’s bullshit anymore.

[Mike Adamick]

While the messaging may be off on some, it’s good to finally see superhero logos in the girls’ section of the stores. Tom Burns told a story last year about not being able to find character based underwear for his daughter that hadn’t been overly ‘feminized.’ Girls like Transformers, superheros, and Phinneas and Ferb too – right?

When we went shopping at Target this weekend, I happened through the kids section and saw this collection of gear for infants.

I’ve got nothing against any of these outfits. They’re right up the middle and empower all.

Then I went to the other side of the rack and saw this “I just spent 9 months in the batcave” Batman onesie, which is, simply, the best superhero onesie ever.

But I’m a dad.

I don’t have a ‘batcave’ so perhaps my perspective is skewed.

What do you think, moms? Best superhero onesie ever or just another ample of sexism run wild in the kids’ aisle?

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