David Netto must be steamed. According to this article at Salon, the Ooba bassinet has gone from "Coming soon" to "Coming Sign Of The Conumerist Children Apocalypse" in less than a month. Here's my favorite exchange, with Dr James Twitchell, Ph.D., author of what sounds like THE must-have beach read in the Hamptons this summer, Lead Us Into Temptation: The Triumph of American Materialism:
Another driving force behind such extravagance, Twitchell argues, is the universal need for community. "Americans used to be defined by how we went to church, or by our schools. But now it's really about consumption communities. The question becomes: 'Can you assemble, by buying things, a coherent presentation of the self as part of a community?'" (Bugaboo parents, unite!)I bet you a dollar that quote goes straight into Cookie's media kit. And while BabyGadget gets some sweet linkin' love, and Patty's BabyChic101 gets a whole section, I'm a little hurt that dt only gets one little link, but apparently, this materialism-run-amok thing is only a problem for "rich, older moms." Still, I might stake my claim to getting the "Baby Industrial Complex" thing out there. Just sayin'."Have you seen this new magazine, Noodle?" he asks.
Cookie, perhaps?
"Yes, Cookie. I have never seen a clearer acknowledgement that children have been reduced to accessories."
[Update: after talking this over with the wife, she reminded me of our own approach to expensive baby stuff and the assumptions that seem to underlie paranoidiacal articles like this one. We decided early on to buy just "a few good pieces," spending more than average on a key item like a stroller or maybe one outfit per size/season. So we have a Stokke Kinderzeat in one place, and a $15 Ikea Antilop in the other. Meanwhile, the article evokes an image of a nanny being crushed by a lacquer-and-cashmere avalanche when she steps into the private elevator entry foyer. Would it amuse you to know that such an "object of obsessive, usually exaggerated fear or anxiety" is called a bugaboo?]
Ringing Up Baby [salon, via dt readers ph, ed, and elliot]
Previously: Sykes, Netto, Ooba, Marc Jacobs, Starck, Why Cry?, Citibabes...Cookie.
that salon article is just their "hip" way of showcasing all the expensive baby products, luring high-end advertisers to their site and making a few extra bucks. if it wasn't, they wouldn't have offered the links to where you can buy all that crap.
[those linkwhores. -ed.]
Just so people know, this person totally lied to me when they emailed me for this article. They pretended to be writing a comepletly different article. I am very upset by it and I wrote them a rather nasty letter.
[about what? "All the amazing luxury baby products out there"? Did he lie, spin, or be intentionally vague? Or did you hear what you wanted to hear? I don't think the mention of your site sounds as offensive as you seem to think; maybe it's the overall critical and shocked !! tone of the article that has you interpreting your mention in the worst possible light? Just a guess. -ed.]