Show me your muscles

All of my older kids are lacking in summer clothes, so we’ve been frequenting our favorite clothing shops (Old Navy and Target) for some cheap replenishment.  I’m flummoxed and perplexed by the huge number of muscle shirts available for boys.  Who is buying them?  These have always seemed the height of white trashiness (do they come with a fake kid-sized can of Skoal to keep in the back pocket of the matching shorts?)  Or did I just pick up some kind of strange bias against these (like I have about so many other things such as baby headbands and french manicures)?

Do you think these are tacky and gross, or is it just me?  Do you think that a few less inches of sleeve fabric can really keep a person that much cooler?

(And aren’t you glad the shirts above are available in husky?  Because a sleeveless shirt is just what a chubby boy needs.)

| Filed under Bad Things, IMO

16 thoughts on “Show me your muscles

  1. I have a boy, who shall remain anonymous, who LOVES these, and BEGS to buy them. I once bought a package of gen-u-ine “wife beaters” to wear as a top with PJ’s for summer nights. BIG mistake. Not only did my husband crucify me for “white trashing” our kids,but said child would try to sneak out with those things constantly. I very frequently would find him admiring his 6 year old physique in them in the bathroom mirror as well.
    I suppose it’s not very different than “training” “bras” for 8 year girls. The vanity of looking “muscular” or “grown up” begins young indeed.
    And honestly, I am sure a lack of sleeves, or in some cases AN ENTIRE SHIRT, is NOT that much cooler.

  2. Ha, the last line made me giggle! I don’t have kids yet but I will have to agree with you. If I saw this in public, I’d think the same thing.

  3. TACKY.

    I would NEVER.

    And the ones my mother in law sends me? Back of the drawer. I might allow him to walk down to our complex’s pool in them (since they match the equally ugly swimsuits.)

    *shiver*

    TACKY.

  4. I share your prejudice; the only sleeveless look that's endorsed in our house is the occasional little girl dress, and the armholes have to be small and the bodice fit well (but my daughter still gets called "immodest" by her friends at church, sigh, so I try to avoid even that look.)

    My sister heard a news story about a study that found a correlation in which kids who wore tank tops were exposed to/subjected to more violence than kids who wore sleeves. No kidding. Go figure, huh?

    My 11-year-old did really want a wife-beater or tank top when he was about 6 — he found a pattern in a sewing magazine of mine and of course that was the one thing he was drawn to. I finally agreed to make one with the understanding it would be for use as pajamas only, but I never got around to it and later he changed his mind.

  5. It's one of the few things I've still NEVER given in too, even after 18 years of boys!

    These and character tennis shoes!

  6. TACKY! Cold day in hell before my boys would wear them. They ask, and are told in no uncertain terms: NO! I won't even let them wear t-shirts with writing on them out in public.

  7. Yeah, I think no sleeves are less hot than T-sleeves (in both respects).

    I am totally with you on baby-girl headbands and French nails (especially with huge square tips – & sometimes TWO points- one at each corner with a dip in the middle. But I suspect it is merely another backlash against what our "mothers used to wear" (the oval-nail look in pinks and reds).

    It's rather like clunky, square- toed shoes and heels bigger at the bottom than at the top that were popular with the hippies as a backlash against the 1950s pointy toed spike heels Mommy wore. (And that the hottest new mommies are wearing yet again!) It will all go around and around. The next generation will be back in clunky shoes and vampire-sharp nails. ANYTHING! ANYTHING TO BE DIFFERENT THAN THE "OLD FOGIES!"

  8. very tacky, very gross, very “white trashy”. i think in our neck of the woods they are referred to as “wife beaters” – isn’t that lovely?!

  9. BLECH. A few years ago I bought a batch of nice used clothing on ebay for Beck. It was all name brands and in good condition. But mixed in there was a set of really cute shorts with a matching and cute shirt EXCEPT that the shirt had no sleeves. I could never bring myself to put it on him, despite the fact that otherwise it was a cute outfit. I resold it on ebay a few months later.

  10. yep, I totally agree. No muscle shirts, no baby headbands, no french manicures. But oooh, I love halter tops on little girls.

  11. There's a size called HUSKY?

    My MIL buys sleeveless tops for my boys but mostly for summer PJ's. I wouldn't but the ones you have displayed.

    I wish there was boys clothing without skulls/skating/surfing or graffiti on it…

    HUSKY??????????

  12. Ugh—thats all I'm going to say.

    And Husky annoys me—-I tried to find some shorts for my little boy and couldn't find ONE slim!!!

    AARRRRGGHHH!

Leave a Reply to Azúcar Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *