Baby PC

Kerry and I are looking at baby-carriers like the Baby Bjorn ® Active carrier for little Kaiser when he's born. We had originally planned to go with the Active model but Kerry saw a review for the ERGObaby® carrier (which comes in a Hawaiian print pattern). So she sent me the link and I took a look (since the plan is for me to wear the contraption, anyways.

I went to the ERGO site and checked out the customer reviews/testimonials and most were the type of positive "greatest carrier ever" blather that one would expect from a manufacturer's testimonial link. However, I also came across one obnoxious missive wherein the writer whines that there aren't enough instances of ethnic diversity displayed on the site. The company responded by weakly acknowledging that the images don't reflect the company's commitment to diversity but that the models are "local acquaintances". Bah. WHO CARES?!?!

It just ridiculous how now even the models on a baby-carrier site are now subject to quota profiling. I doubt if this whiny P.C. nazi hadn't pointed it out, that anyone would have given a whit about who is modeling the carriers. Now the site has a dark skinned woman of ambiguous ethnic orgins carrying a tow headed, alabaster skinned kid making it look more or less like a possible kidnapping scene. Just silly.

Baby Bjorn®, on the other hand, makes no bones about its Scandanavian origins. The children and parents on their site - even the Chinese language version - all look like they were plucked directly out Stockholm (or Minnesota). We're not going to base our ultimate decision on which carrier to choose on the manufacturer's response to wing-nut criticism of the appearance of a lack of diversity but it just annoyed me for some reason. Yes, I know the old adage that "perception is reality" but the reality is that some squeaky wheels just need to be ignored.