Another Calm, Reasoned Discussion of Gendered Baby Clothes

So M is into 12 month clothes now.  She'll still fit into the 9 month onesies, but they're a mite tight, and I assume that she, like most people, prefers slightly loose clothing in the summer.  Or at any rate, clothing that doesn't leave elastic lines on the legs.

So I went yesterday to purchase some new onesies, and discovered that in the zoo animal collection, they had inserted a gender-specific message.

You'll notice I got it anyway.  There were 4 non-gendered onesies, and the girl-intended patterns either had a onesie that said "Daddy's Girl" or a leopard print onesie.  And my daughter will not wear leopard print.

Anyway, here are my objections:

1) Zoo animals ARE NOT IN ANY WAY BOYISH.  There is nothing essentially masculine about a monkey or an elephant.

2) What if the baby's father is not particularly handsome?  Then "handsome like daddy" is, in fact, an insult.

Also, handsome used to be applicable to both men and women.  Jane Austen refers to handsome women.  (Of course, as Leo points out, it's not as complimentary as all that.  I mean, in a Jane Austen novel one would prefer handsomeness to ugliness, but pretty or beautiful is certainly the way to go.  Should you find yourself in a Jane Austen novel without an adjective, bear this in mind.  If you are female.  If you're not female, you probably want to be handsome.  Or rich.  Or - in the best case scenario - both).

At any rate, she doesn't really seem to object to being called handsome like her daddy, but she probably thinks that her daddy is handsome*, and so perceives no insult, and is also almost certainly not aware of the nuances of language usage that make handsome, as applied to someone of the female persuasion, a sort of a back-handed compliment.

Let's not tell her for a while.  She seems happy.

*An opinion, just to be clear, which I share.  There just are people out there whose fathers are not handsome AT ALL.