To be fed up with every child product in the shops being pathetically girly or aggressively boyish?

[BroccoliSpears]

Every bloody thing you go to buy, you have to choose whether you want the 'girls' version (pink and yellow and gross) or the 'boys' version (blue and grey and gross).

My friend bought a pink potty for her dd 3 years ago, and has just gone and bought a blue potty for her ds now. WTF?

I'm not really bothered about my ds having supposedly girly things (the poor lad sleeps in pink flowery babygros often enough because we're not going to replace perfectly good dd hand-downs ), but mostly I just want to buy nice, normal coloured things. Stripey things, and spotty things.

I'm not suggesting that boys should wear dresses, or that they should all wear unisex mao suits, but why the feck do we need to have gender variation on knives and forks? On ready beds? I'm struggling to think of something where you don't have to choose whether to get the boys or girls version.

Why do we even have such strong gender variation in such young children?

And who got to decide that butterflys are for girls and buses are for boys? It's so random.

[TwoWashTutter]

ah, but, broccoli, why did you buy pink flowery babygros in the first place/

[crokky]

I totally agree! It is to make people spent IMO.

[crokky]

spend

[2cats2many]

I agree.

I had a nightmare trying to buy dd shoes recently because every bloody girl shoe was either pink and sparkly or a horrible navy-blue school shoe style.

[BroccoliSpears]

Tutter - because sometimes the girly stuff is nicer than the boys stuff. Dd spent her fair share of time in 'boys' things if I thought they were nicer than the lilac and glitter creations on offer on the girl rail.

And also because sometimes I like to buy gorgeous pretty girly things for dd . I don't object to clothes so much, it's blody potties and bouncy balls and bikes that bug me.

[girlsallaround]

i totally agree its ridiculous. i don't want any more pink lace, rhinestones or frills!

my dd has wanted shorts for the past 2 months, but every place i go to they say - sorry we dont carry shorts for girls that age.

its only skirts, dresses or hotpants!!!!!!!

[Botbot]

Early Learning Centre are buggers for this sort of thing.

[MrsBadger]

I yearn for unisex Mao suits

Mostly dd wears flowery vests with boys' dungarees or stripey boys' vests with pinafores so at least half her clothes are passable-on.

The thing that pisses me off is that the colours are so polarised - boys get red / blue / green / yellow and girls are stuck with only pink and purple (though there is nice red/brown/cream girls' stuff in Debenhams winter collection).

[Umlellala]

totally agree. Was browsing Boots online today and they have 'Girls toys' and 'Boys toys' .

[Nighbynight]

I hate it too. Twasnt like that back in the 70s!

[Umlellala]

And dd (2) seems to now always choose pink if given the choice (what about the blue spoon? or the red one?) - bloody brainwashing if you ask me.

[Takver]

girlsallaround - try ebay, there are lots of nice plain shorts dungarees (I know cos I just bought some for DD), and probably shorts too. Plenty are either brand new or hardly worn & outgrown.

[limecrush]

consumerism feeds off gender 'difference'

then you can keep selling pink Jordan type things to the little girls when they grow up.

And of course they have to have the breasts, lips, hair, etc. I really think these things are connected.

And the boys get to become obsessed with fuel burning objects: planes/cars/trucks etc. Strangely convenient that in an oil driven economy.

What I think is a really great shame for boys is that they don't get to see themselves as pretty, delicate, beautiful etc when that is what they so often are.

[JackieNo]

It's a bit easier if you're prepared to pay a bit extra - I love the stripy stuff at Kids should be kids, and Nordic Kids has lovely stuff too. If you're willing to order in Euros from abroad, Jako-o is worth a look. But I agree - it's very annoying.

[BroccoliSpears]

Even Congratulations You Had A Baby cards are pink or blue. It starts the minute they are born. Am typing this while bfing my beautiful boy - he's 12 weeks old and has no idea whether he's a boy or a girl. Why should he not wear soft colours and flowers and gentle things?

[BroccoliSpears]

X post limecrush. Your last sentence is spot on.

[swiftyknickers]

tell you where is good=jojo mamaan do lovely stripey stuff and my DS looks gorgeous in their stuff-lots of red stuff which he looks gorgeous in

[limecrush]

my 2 yo ds used to love pink and wearing my necklaces. He used to look so cute trying my stuff on.

Now it's all urghhh pink. (He still puts me lipstick on when he's alone though lol).

I look at my younger son and it seems so sad that, as you say Broccoli, all his softness and delicacy will be unacceptable so very soon.

I don't cut his hair yet (he's 15 mo, lovely spun gold hair).

Other day my nanny got asked 'is it a girl? oh, his hair... did you not cut it because you wanted a girl?'

aaaaaaarghhh

[limecrush]

btw I defy anyone to tell me Bratz dolls aren't a way to train girls to accept the inevitability of plastic surgery later in life.

Cut-down nose, inflated lips. urgh.

[SoupDragon]

I saw a horrendous example of this in Croydon the other week. A pink pushchair with a pink cosytoes which had "GIRL" written downwards on it and then words like "Adorable" etc each with a letter from "girl"

I was so tempted to go up to the mother, coo at the baby and ask whether it was a boy or a girl...

[shudder]

[HolidaysQueen]

It drives me insane. Even though I knew we were having a boy, I bought fairly gender neutral clothes when I could. But pretty much all of the clothes he was given are for 3-6 months and are baby blue. Now I'm not going to turn my nose up at perfectly good clothes we've been given, but he is permanently in pale blue at the moment and it is mega boring and twee, and I hate people thinking that I'm obsessed with 'genderising' my baby.

I can't wait until he outgrows his 3-6 months stuff so I can start buying his clothes. I've found that Next is slightly better than most shops - boys stuff at least is in lovely colours like red and green and brown and turquoise in plain colours or strips so they don't scream BOY BOY BOY and could be used easily if I ever have a DD. H&M is also pretty good. And eBay is worth a look.

Also I wouldn't mind so much but the pink is usually really bubblegummy and the blue is usually really wishy-washy... So gendered and bleeeeugh as well...

[limecrush]

lol soupdragon, you should have!?

so hilarious to assume all girls are 'adorable angels' and all boys 'little rascals'. And just sooooo damaging in the long run.

[MrsJamin]

It's so you have to buy the same item twice if you have boys and girls - simple marketing really! It's v annoying though.

[Lucifera]

thank you thank you for this thread, echoing my every thought (and rant).
It is beyond a joke, it is sickening and damaging.