Sainsbury's gender-specific fancy dress costumes

[BettyButterknife]

Sainsbury's is selling fancy dress costumes for kids. They are labelled as 'girls' or 'boys'.

For example, boys can dress up as:
Police
Doctor

Whereas girls are allowed to be:
Nurse
Princess

etc.

I complained.

[SpringHeeledJack]

oh, I am sick of this. It happens just about everywhere (see also Early Learning )

[BettyButterknife]

Total shit, isn't it? I find it really shocking though... Surely there are as many female doctors and police officers as male? Or not far off, I'd wager.

[phokoje]

actually, quick google says that women make up about 22% of the police force and still account for less than half of doctors.

[OhSheesh]

Think you'll be interested in Pink Stinks

[shinyshoes]

Just a tad off topic my BIL only lets his son play wut 'gender specific' toys.
Only cars and boy things, no dolls or dress up, he might catch 'the gay' .
I ranted at my sister about it the other day, she dosent see anything wrong with it

[blackcurrants]

slightly off-topic, because this is about adults - but it's even WORSE over here in the USA, where halloween is a big big deal and adults tend to dress up too. Men can be just about everything you can imagine - doctor, firefighter, police officer - women's versions of these costumes are "Sexy" - "Sexy doctor/nurse", "Sexy firefighter" and "Sexy Police officer" ... argh!
When I realised that there was a "Sexy postal worker" one for women, I just about collapsed in the shop. It's not enough to dress up for a party, damnit, we have to be SEXY ALL THE TIME, too!

Bah and humbug, I tell you!

[blametheparents]

I think there are a lot of blokes like that, shinyshoes.
We had a lot of at the pushchair we bought for our DS so he could push his teddies / cars whatever around.
Hardly hardcore, but you would be surprised how many negative comments we got.

[antoinettechigur]

Can't believe that is still going on!
30 odd years ago my brother went to the GP and I (preschooler) was really confused that GP could be a woman. My mother was horrified (at my preconceptions). These outfits etc are part of a damaging culture which makes kids think like that.

Shinyshoes you can tell your BIL that my brother's favourite toy as a child was a ragdoll. He still has it. I liked my dolls but also enjoyed playing with transformers and starwars figures. My brother is now married to a woman and they have a child . What a shame anyway it seems your BIL would be disappointed with a gay son.

at the sexy postal worker outfit etc. That site also has "adult sexy schoolgirl costume". Urgh.

[SpringHeeledJack]

phokoje do you reckon that the relatively low figures for women working in the police force/practising as GPs might be somehow related to this sort of conditioning of impressionable kids?

[phokoje]

absolutely springheeledjack.

i didnt grow up in the UK, but in africa and i went to a very expensive private boarding school.

at no point did anyone suggest that i could be an architecht. or engineer. or pretty much anything other than a housewife with maybe a job for 'fun'. like maybe sell houses or something.

i mean, my folks were really being super supportive by telling me i 'might even be able to be a lawyer!!!'

seriously, this stuff matters. and eeeeuuww at the sexy schoolgirl outfits.

[SuperBunny]

This really bothers me. Why is it like this? WHY?

I have found a good solution though - a local charity shop occasionally has dressing up outfits for a couple of pounds. Last weekend, DS (4) decided he needed a pink sparkly witches outfit. So, that's what he bought. He loves it. He wears it when he's not Sportacus/ Spiderman/ Fireman but he's not the least bit bothered that it is a dress and not a 'typical' boy thing. Other people have raised eyebrows

[SuperBunny]

And I paint his toenails.

[QQQ]

Makes me really , madness! Slightly OT but my ds has a buggy for his toys, played with it a lot when younger but not so bothered now (age 4) and got a few raised eyebrows. He now goes to a dance class which he absolutely loves and that gets raised eyebrows too especially his uniform, white leotard and black shorts?? Drives me mad, so far noone has said anything directly to him, I'll be gutted if he gets put off going because of something someone says as he loves it so much.

[NameWithDrawn22]

Sainsbury's are women haters!

[specialsubject]

what makes you say that, Rapeseed?

this crap is on sale because it sells. When people stop buying it, it will disappear.

apparently 30% of young women want to be models. That is what I find appalling.

[hotbot]

See this is why I love dh, he came in from work to see ds dressed up in a beautiful pink sparkly dress. He gave him an enormous smile, a big hug and said, ds don't you look fantastic, give me a twirl . And. Dh doesn't roll his eyes when I rant about sainsbos gender shit outfit either.

[WorkingtoohardMama]

My dd got a 'twister' type game for her birthday, actually looked at it last night and rather than the coloured circles it has got different shops - hairdressers, jewellers, cafe, shoe shop, clothes shop - it is very pink and the photo on the box is of 2 girls.

But, the bit that got me, is that on the spinner is a picture of 4 stylish looking ladies and the phrase "shop till you drop" - this game is from elc and aimed at 3 year olds, very tempted to take it back.

[5madthings]

Grr hate this crap. Join the 'let toys be toys' campaign on fb!

[5madthings]

m.facebook.com/pages/Let-Toys-Be-Toys-For-Girls-and-Boys/104658933034521?id=104658933034521&_rdr

[WorkingtoohardMama]

Thank you for the link, I'll be joining up!