Being dedicated to one specific aesthetic in every aspect of your life requires a lot of work. And at the same time, such dedication can raise some people's eyebrows and make a devoted person lose their cool.
Basically, today's story revolves around that - a "white and beige" woman, who got extremely insulted after her sibling accidentally called her son a "sad beige baby."
More info: Reddit
Should the saying "sad beige baby" be taken as an insult? Well, probably everyone can have their own answer to this question
Image credits: Karolina Grabowska (not the actual photo)
Siblings get into a fight after one of them says their nephew looks just like a "sad beige baby" and the kid's mother takes that as an insult to her personally
Image credits: Sunvani Hoang (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Allan Mas (not the actual photo)
Image credits: u/Designer_Detail_865
In the end, the sibling of a "white and beige" mom got kicked out of her apartment and ordered to apologize to her
The OP’s sister, who is a mommy blogger of white and beige aesthetics, has a 1.5-year-old son. And that aesthetic is incorporated in every side of the sister's life - from seasonal decorations to apartments and so on. At the same time, when some months ago the post’s author found out about the “sad beige baby” trend, she shared it with her family and soon it became an inside joke partially relating to the sister.
During the most recent visit to the sister’s apartment, while the OP was playing with her nephew, the words “sad beige baby” accidentally slipped out due to him wearing a beige sweater and frowning. And that made the sister furious, as she said that she was tired of people critiquing her decorating preferences.
Their brother tried to ease the situation by explaining the joke, but that made the sister angrily spill her wine on the white tablecloth and get even angrier. So, both the OP and her brother got kicked out of the sister’s home.
Later, the author’s mother let her know that, in her opinion, she should apologize to her sister, even if the comment was unintentional. This prompted the OP to come on r/AmItheAsshole to ask who is wrong in this situation - her, her sister, or maybe no one?
Yet, just like people in the story, netizens seemed to have varying opinions as well. Some stated that there are no jerks in the story, while others said that everyone is. Or that the OP is in the wrong. At the same time, others defended her, saying that she was right to point out the beigeness of her sister’s baby since babies need colors for development. Overall, we can just say that this time, Reddit did not solve the author’s problem.
One of the commenters mentioned that babies need colors for their devolvement, and that, in fact, is true. Opposing bright colors send the strongest signals to a baby's brain. That signal stimulates the brain's growth, along with aid in visual development. So, it is no wonder why so many people online are critiquing beige moms, as they basically are stunting their children's development for the sake of aesthetics.
Image credits: Pavel Danilyuk (not the actual photo)
To talk about the internet's obsession with beige and aesthetics overall, Bored Panda reached out to digital media writer, speaker, researcher, and educator Jamie Cohen.
Jamie described internet aesthetics as “niche culture fashion or platform-specific grammar, meaning that each platform has its own 'native' grammar and linguistic traits, but also a 'look' that identifies the communities who use each platform.”
A lot of internet aesthetics tend to celebrate mainstream culture, but at the same time, some others do not have their physical counterpart, just some ideas between online and offline worlds. “If you were to participate in some niche aesthetic online (like mermaidcore or cottagecore or sad beige), people offline would have to have some knowledge of internet culture to recognize the aesthetic. It's more of an 'if you know you know' thing.”
Just as Jamie pointed out, the beige aesthetic is one of these described internet trends. According to him, this came to be likely due to the popularity of millennial gray and Pottery Barn neutral aesthetics. “In the way that late millennials and early Gen Z folks are parenting their kids, there's a push to be more gender neutral, but in many ways, has resulted in the market of the sad beige output.”
And so, because of kids being put into beige, quite often they end up looking older than they should in the marketing material. “One of the weird traits of sad beige is the neutral facial expressions on the children, which I guess makes sense, but I think it's the idea of giving some high fashion to little babies. Either way, its lack of color and visuals makes for a funny moment in children's fashion.”
What is your opinion on the "sad beige baby" trend? Share with us in the comments!
Netizens were divided - some were sure that no one was the jerk, while others were sure that everyone was. We could say that the response was quite beige, or, simply put, nothing special
