To think this is taking gender stereotyping way too far?

[Socy]

What on earth is a 'girls curtain' or a 'boys curtain'
www.childrens-curtains.co.uk

YANBU. This kind of thing makes me despair. Why don't girls get travel? And why don't boys get florals or 'cats & dogs'?

YANBU I can't believe the categories either.

YANBU, the curtains all look pretty naff too

You think that's bad, I found THESE while doing my online shop. I'm not sure if you have to eat them with your vagina?

Yabu.
My girls like girly stuff. When shops separate stuff it makes it far easier for me to shop.

Thanks for the link Eliza. My girls will love those.

Eliza

God all this stuff is naff. Can't believe companies still do this shit.

arethereanyleftatall Yes, but will they follow Eliza's suggestion?

Andrew, behave yourself.

That curtain site is one of the daftest I've seen, given some of the 'girls dogs' colours are quite neutral and some of the 'boys seaside' colours are very heavy on the pink. Why on earth don't they categorise by theme?!

But I really really like their obscenely expensive pirate treasure map paper!

My youngest isn't getting on with spoons very well, so it's worth a go I guess Andrew.

Some curtains appear in both girl and boy sections.

It's just a way of sorting the website for browsing.

Yabu

For eg: a pink floral design. Are you really going to argue that most (let's say 90% of) 6 year old boys would be interested in this?

I think you're being professionally offended on the grounds that some curtains appear in both sections and the sections are there to maximise sales. Not to please "discrimination" spotters.

In answer to your op

A girls curtain is one that would appeal to most girls

A boys curtain is one that would appeal to most boys

Curtains appealing to both girls and boys (mostly) appear in both sections.

Why do they need to be categorised thus, though, Helpmeout? Why not categorise them, as a pp suggested, by design (seaside, flowers, animals, transport) and parents will choose the one their child will like best? I assume most parents will choose based on what their child will like, not on what most children of their child's gender will choose.

Unless something actually requires a penis, or a vagina, to facilitate its use, it doesn't need to be categorised as for boys or for girls, IMO.

Why not just have "floral" "seaside" "space" "animals"? There is absolutely no need to ascribe a potential gender to curtains, ffs. It seems like a lot more work to list things as either "girls" or "boys" (and makes me think of this image)

My girls always chose predictably girly curtains and quilt covers, we let them choose and on the whole was ok with their choices....except when our youngest at 7 choose a shocking pink Barbie duvet, it was so bright it hurt but as she was the one sleeping in it we didn't object.
I don't get the whole hand ringing about things like this, my two are grown up now and very independent ....one is travelling around USA having the time of her life and the other has just started uni......despite routinely choosing butterfly/sparkly bedding and toys.

Agreed, em. And I LOVE that flow chart.

If you think this is taking it too far, I'm guessing you never saw the ELC pink globe for girls...

I don't see it's anything other than a way of sorting them, unless they're requiring a signed declaration that they will only be going to a person of the correct sex.

For most people it is just a quick way of only liking through ones that their dc would be interested in. Obviously for most of mn this would mean liking through the pink selection for their boy, and the blue selection for their girl, so it
Even makes it easy for you.

At present I'm watching the clock because I have to pick dd2 from her first contact rugby tournament while I sort the elastics in ds' dancing shoes despite dd2 having beautiful pin butterflies on her curtains an ds having blue pirate (both chosen themselves), do I don't think they have felt restricted by their curtain selection.

Liking=looking, ignore other autoerror issues

I guess the point about 'sorting' by gender is that gender then becomes important in a way that most people here don't seem to think it should be. If the division in the tabs was between curtains for single men or divorced women for example we would all see how meaningless these categorisations are. em is right and I love that flow chart too

As I see it, categorising things like this by gender is part of a pattern that expands to include pink kitchens for girls and blue cars for boys, pink, dumbed down Lego for girls, and proper space or train Lego for boys - and at the further end of things, you get girls being expected to be 'nice' and girly, whilst boys are encouraged to be active, rough and tumble. Then you end up with girls avoiding the STEM subjects, and difficulty recruiting women engineers. You get girls funnelled towards certain careers and away from others - and boys too.

I am not saying that 'girls' and 'boys' curtains directly cause this, but they are part of creating artificial distinctions between boys and girls - distinctions that can be serious, and have effects that are bad for girls and bad for society as a whole.

Lol @ Eliza!

I agree with Socy and SDTG completely. It's all part of a picture and it makes meaningless divisions seem meaningful.