![]() My editor Slacked me, “LOL you should wear a bear onesie for a week.” And I was like, “OK, twist my arm.” Buying a bear onesie I guess I talked about it enough to turn my dream into reality. It does not take a therapist to look at this bear onesie and think, “fabric cuddle.” That’s why hugs can mean so much to us, and why we missed even incidental touch when it suddenly disappeared from our lives. In a TEDx Talk, neuroscientist Helena Wasling said that humans have a class of nerve - C tactile afferents - that respond specifically to touch, movement, and the temperature of the human body. Touch doesn’t serve only emotional needs deprived of it, our bodies can experience negative effects that dampen our mental health and immune system. Because of those lonely, early-pandemic lockdown days, many of us are now familiar with the concept of skin hunger, or the human body’s desire for touch. While the cuteness and comfort factors were obvious, I knew that the bear onesie had a kind of emotional pull too. There’s a reason we all furiously bought the idea of hygge in the mid-2010s: It was representation for people who wished they were literally bears. You can wear what you want, and what you want is to be comfortable and warm. ![]() Nobody is going out, so nobody is looking at you. It also felt right for the hibernatory impulse that generally arrives when the temperature dips so low. I fantasize about having an opportunity to regress to babyhood, for the mortifying reason that I would simply love to forgo being responsible for anything. Wrapped in endless layers of thermal fleece and wool blanket, I sat on my couch, typing in endless variations on “baby bear romper” until an hour later I somehow reached the point of “daytime sleeping bag for stroller but for ADULTS” and figured I should probably log off.īut I was not able to let go of the idea that a children’s garment was rapidly becoming my platonic ideal of winter wear. Then I started googling them myself, which I admit is dramatically illogical, as I am a childless hag. ![]() But one by one, the babies in bear onesies kept coming: in an Instagram story, on Twitter, via Slack, in TikToks by people I didn’t even know. If it had just been this one baby, maybe I would have forgotten about it. ![]() Even more ridiculously, it had ears on top, making my 1-year-old friend look like an ad for some kind of interactive experience called “What If Winnie the Pooh…But Real?” Looking at that photo was like looking at a photograph of utopia, knowing the reality of being inside it would be so much better than you could even imagine. Fawn-colored and fuzzy, it was the concept of warmth transformed into a piece of clothing. Right when the winter freeze started getting cruel, a friend sent a photo of her adorable child all rugged up in a teeny-tiny, cozy onesie. ![]()
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