Clothing retailer Shimamura Co. has pulled a series of baby items from its Birthday brand on July 30 following a firestorm of online criticism.
The line was a collaboration with artist Ken Kagami.
It includes darling little socks emblazoned with the not-so-cute declaration, “Dad doesn’t take care of me at all.”
“Dad always comes home late” is also splashed across a matching headband.
On X, formerly Twitter, users slammed Birthday’s now-deleted post advertising the items.
“Those products are insulting to fathers who are working hard,” read one reply. Another echoed it, saying, “These products severely criticize fathers.”
The company responded, “We never intended to promote sexual discrimination.”
by TimelyPrint8
9 comments
The point of the article was that
1. Kids can’t choose their own clothes, so this is bad for families (who probably didn’t discuss the clothes and their meaning)
And
2. Younger generations don’t have this problem because chores/responsibilities are split more evenly.
Not sure if I agree with either of these points… Because I think this is petty and hilarious. The brand made an active choice because men are spending 4+ fewer hours everyday working around the house/parenting their kids than moms (as per article).
Who is mad about this? Fathers? Who is sparking this outrage? Because, I get mom is being petty and that’s not great for the relationship (but how ‘good’ is the relationship if moms think they need these types of clothes?) and… Younger people aren’t having kids, so I feel the second point is pretty tone deaf and unrelated to the outrage.
… My spouse (j-husband) and I think this is hilarious because it’s true. We’ve been laughing about the irony since I showed him the clothes.
At worst it’s discriminatory.
At best it’s one of those cringey outdated jokes that weird boomers would share on the wrong Facebook page or accidentally triple comment into a group chat.
Not sure who thought this would be a good idea.
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I don’t find this particularly ‘funny’ but also who would be offended by this… If you are not a dad who comes home late every day and doesn’t spend time with their kids why would you think this is about you? It’s giving ‘feminism has gone too far!!!!!!’ people vibes.
I have a Shimamura just next to my apartment. It’s hilarious, I will buy one for my daughter (even if I’m the one always home as I’m a high school teacher with a lot of holidays).
All you ever hear from housewives here is how their husband doesn’t help cos they’re at work all the time. I dunno why they’d find it funny.
It’s particularly difficult for Japan bc men are trying harder to overcome their absentee image.
I talk to loads of Japanese dads who have have a lot of pride is spending time with their newborns and kids though, much more than 10-20 years ago.
This is really cringe and also kind of sad, when you think of working conditions. As if these poor dad’s aren’t working hard enough because of work culture, they have to get slammed when ANYONE would rather be at home with their family. Kind of gross, honestly.
Now, on a PURELY selfish and petty level at my part, I would love to send these to my ex, who’s only seen his son once since he was born, and that was to sign over his rights😂😬
Also, as a father who earns the money our family needs to live, f— those movies where the moral is “Daddy works too hard.” (Click, Elf, Liar, Liar, etc)