Rather sexist dressing-up costumes

Nurses haven't worn aprons for decades, and hats went out in the 1990s.

Sorry to be completely flippant, but pirates haven't dressed like that since the 1730s either

You can nip down the shops by foot. Presumably.

I think it is because you cannot just take a big airplane and fly away from your husband. I mean, you can, but you have to land at an airport, from where your husband can have you dragged back to him in chains because you are legally his property.

With a car, that's much more doable.

I suspect it's because they can't just nip down the shops in a 747.

It's even more bonkers when you put it like that, isn't it?

Well, I am sure there's a reason behind it.

Such as: There being some female pilots does not threaten patriarchy as much as all women having access to, and being able to drive cars.

I've noticed what someone said upthread about nurse costumes. Nurses haven't worn aprons for decades, and hats went out in the 1990s. Yet this is our visual reference for "nurse". It isn't just children's costumes, ones for adults are worse. Nurses in sitcoms also tend to wear strangely old-fashioned uniforms.

You get it sometimes with police uniforms as well, and if you go to any "vintage" gathering, there will be women there in RAF uniforms including pencil skirts, court shoes and saucily tilted forage caps. The WAAF uniform was a loose-fitting calf-length skirt, lace-up shoes, belted tunic and a peaked cap. I have pictures of my grandmother wearing it.

And the kids got their photo taken on a flight home

If there wasn't children in the picture i would show you female emirate pilots. Dh has relatives that live in UAE

They do, Emirates has female pilots.
I guess they still need their drivers to get home from airport though - one can handle an A380 but not a car..

But I guess if you are Emirates then your sex determines your career ambition.

Isn't Emirates that Saudi Arabian airline? They don't let women drive, of course they wouldn't let women fly planes.

I agree with other posters it has got worse my dd is nearly 25 and we didn't have as much of that nonsense back then why has it got worse ? And yy the nurses uniform is decades out of date most nurses wear trousers and tunics no hats

Recently, I wrote to Emirates to complain you can buy only captain fancy dress for boys and cabin crew outfits for girls.

Both are jobs. For both sexes. But I guess if you are Emirates then your sex determines your career ambition.

I haven't received a response.

The girl costumes were labeled "fantasy", apparently to distract from the sexism, but the nurse doesn't fit the pattern.
Well, unless you are talking about the sex fantasies of adult men.

I was just thinking the same thing, that the girl costumes are all designated 'fantasy' including 'Carry on Matron' fantasy nurse whilst the boys are 'action'.

This stuff matters to how children view themselves and their sex, what they are encouraged to role play and aspire to in later life.

I once went out with DD in a frilly white princess dress, blue dinosaur wellies and her pirate sword. On another occasion, she was wearing a yellow and red tracksuit with a crown and jewels draped round her person.
I don't mind mix and match, it's the narrow uniformity that sends a shudder through me. Pre-programmed conformity, with suspicion and othering for those that don't conform. Which gets even worse as teenagers.

Very true regarding poses. It reminds me of this: www.takepart.com/feature/2014/07/09/what-if-fashion-objectified-males-same-scary-way-it-does-females

The gendering of these outfits is so regressive. FurryGiraffe's experience shows how pervasive it all is.

What bothers me as much as the costumes is the differences in the way they are posed.

Someone linked to a ring bearer and child's bridesmaid dress the other day. Boy in a power pose thumb in the vest and the girl basically curtsying.

Great news though!

No coincidence John Lewis has a woman boss, I imagine.

Dany Cotton
Cressida Dick

No I don't have it any more vestal, but if I bought or made one now she would say it's for a boy. We have a dress up box with all sorts of stuff in it, power ranger costume, wizard outfit etc but she just isn't interested in anything that's not 'girly'. She is not particularly 'princessy' but if looking through toy cataloges for example she will skip through the 'boys' pages. Media and marketing are very, very powerful. Toy shops have separate aisles for girls and boys, it just wasn't like that years ago, I think it's sad.

Although from many of the comments, right wing people think its got something to do with transgenderism

Perhaps it does. I mean, feminism isn't very fashionable at the moment. Transgenderism is.

It would be interesting to know their motivations. If they wanted to appease transgenderists, they'll not succeed, because children, apparently, need to be medically transed, and their identifying as agender or something without taking medication isn't desired. So getting rid of the labels makes it harder to railroard kids to transition.

I wouldn't be surprised, though, if some bonkers "non binaries" felt personally offended at the women's and men's clothes sections.

@deadringer: To clarify, do you still have the outfit you made for your eldest and the 8 year old refuses to wear it, claiming it is for boys? That's ... bizarre.

My eldest dd is 27 too eyes, agree that there was very little pink sparkly shit when she was little. Her favourite Halloween costume was a firefighter outfit that I made for her. My 8 year old dd wouldn't wear that now, despite my best efforts she would see it as a boys outfit.

DJBaggySmalls exactly, the comments are baffling.

It's about trying to fight this insidious assumption underpinning most kids clothes/toys/etc that girls should be pretty and nurturing and boys should be practical and active.