To get “girls” stuff when I search for “boys”

I think some websites are just shit. I was on M&S and searched for “women’s socks”, got results for men, boys, girls and literally no women’s. Also sometimes if you click on Womens outerwear on Next, you get results for little jackets for dogs🤔

Only girls are allowed to play with dollies and toy kitchens, and then we wonder why so many men are terrible at doing their fair share in the home despite ingraining it into their heads from birth that those things are ‘for girls’ 🙄

But they don't help lots of people. I'd be looking for tie dye for both DCs, paint splatters, cats and Mario for DS, and unicorns and Alvin and the Chipmunks for DD.
DS likes black, yellow, red and orange and DD likes dark blue, purple, red and rainbows (proper rainbows).

Stereotypical categories don't work for the majority of people. Girls are definitely not supposed to like blue and boys REALLY aren't allowed to like cats.

I don't think anything is going to happen, never said I did. But most people don't dress boys in pink leggings. If you want to, or your kids want to wear them, go for it. But most don't, so the filters are helpful for the majority.

What's going to happen if you dress your toddler boy in pink leggings? Will his willy drop off? Will your MIL explode? Will he turn gay?

Once they start to object, that's the time to differentiate, until then, buy what you like.

I don't particularly like frills and found dresses impractical but both my DCs wore pink when they were of an age not to get a choice. Both went off pink, DD has just about decided she likes purple but DS is still anti-purple despite loving it as a preschooler.

They will call you old fashioned. I belong in the 1950s because my boys don't want to wear butterflies 🙄

The options you've given in your OP are either
a) available in multiple colours or
b) plain leggings, essentially or
c) available in tiny toddler/baby sizes when babies don't generally choose their own colours.

If you care that much about the colours you are shown then select the colours you DO want.

I didn’t realise people thought leggings were a ‘girls’ item? My son has pink, lilac, and peach leggings. They happened to be the ones in the sale.

I have absolutely no idea what ‘gender-based’ toys are, what are girls supposed to play with that boys can’t?

Call me old fashioned, but occasionally it's helpful! If I'm looking for a section of e.g. girls backpacks on smiggle, I can't sort by the "stereotypically girlie" designs and it's just annoying having to filter through all of the UFOs, footballs etc... when actually all I want to do is pick from the designs that are cupcakes, unicorns, etc! Which I think is what OP was trying to get at... Sometimes you can just want a category that shows you what you want to see, and if 'boy/girl' is the closest label for that category then so be it.

Would you not just ask their parents?

I have a daughter and what she likes is cars, Thomas the Tank Engine, Bluey, dragons, witches, cats, dogs, the beach, gardening and so on. Would that come up in a "girls" section?

You could just ask them?

I totally agree. I have a DS and a DD. However when I'm looking for a gift for e.g. my niece and I don't know what sorts of things she likes, having website filters that aid in the process can be very helpful!

Like if I'm looking for a birthday gift for a 9 year old girl e.g. my niece or God daughter, and I have no idea what 9 year old girls like, having a section on their website could well be helpful!

Whoa! No wait, I've just tried and it didn't work! It definitely used to!

So go in the search bar and type in t-shirt (for example) then go onto the categories and select sizes from both the girls and boys and it'll filter for both.
I do this as I'm a size 3 shoe so always looks at kids trainers and I think boys feet must grow faster as there are often almost brand new 'boys' trainers.

Me too, like when men say they’re women because growing up they wanted to do dance and wear pink.
If only it had been more acceptable for them to like dance, wear pink and still be biologically male huh…

@Happyinarcon in what way? In that you don't believe some of us shop in both sections of the clothes stores?

I’m tired of having to play make believe on mums net.

What really annoys me is Vinted when you can only search boys or girls clothes- well if I want some tops for my daughter I'm happy with pink/purple/red/blue/dinosaurs/fairies etc! The only 'all' option includes toys etc too

Just to support the OP slightly, not weighing in on the gender part here but this actually happens to me all the time. H&M if you go to baby boys section it has all the baby stuff, including a sweater that says ‘best sister’. If you go to baby girls section it has ‘best brother’ clothing.
it doesn’t particularly bother me but I definitely find sites have a filtered section that isn’t actually filtered at all.

Mmmm @SnapdragonToadflax I kind of agree - my DC still lets me choose and wears a lit of primary colours as well as pink and lilac/purple (as I think they look nice and whilst he still lets me choose I will).

However I use some independent retailers (who sell multiple brands) and don’t offer gendered search and just show you everything its such a pain to then have to go to the product search and individually select everything bar, skirts, dresses, kickers, bikinis etc. It would be much better from a functionality point of view to have everything (as in the individual categories pre selected) so that you can de-select 3/4 categories rather than having to select go through the whole category list selecting 10-20 odd.

And yes like others have said most large retailers websites are appalling for functionality full stop.

Yeah I’ve had this, I also on social media am constantly served the carousel adverts for Gap Kids, Boden, M&S and Zara with all (clearly girls - dresses, skirts bikinis etc.) I have never in 7 years been served a carousel with boys clothes - never.

But that's only your son. Some boys might want them. How do the shops know that when you click boys you don't want the leggings but when Joanne Bloggs clicks it she does?

You know your son wants green, blue, brown, jeans, trainers. Great, search for that.

I do online shopping for my children and never experienced this. This seems like a post to just stir up an argument on gender.