John Lewis removing gendered sections in kids clothing

[moutonfou]

John Lewis has announced they are no longer having 'boys' and 'girls' clothing sections. Just kids clothing. Which to me sounds fair enough. I had to buy several football shirts from the boys section as a kid and always felt like they weren't 'for me' and that someone was going to notice and call me out on it.

On some of the news outlets' Facebook posts about this, there are the most OTT comments from people who seem to have interpreted this as an attempt to make all kids be 100% gender fluid, stop calling them boys and girls at all, make all boys wear dresses, etc etc.

AIBU to be frustrated that people can't see the value of just letting kids like what they like, and that it's not all some sinister agenda??

How do people manage to dress themselves?

Is it only because they find it in the women's section???

Some of the reasons for not liking the idea are ridiculous. It just shows up two things: sexism and a dislike of change.

If the parents can't tell the difference between items of clothing based on the way they fasten and are complaining about this as it will hinder their ability to shop why do you think primary school kids are going to know? Its bonkers logic! You are crediting the school bully as being smarter than yourselves!

By the time kids are old enough to make their own decisions about clothes why should the section something is in matter?

I agree with school jumpers. You order from school they are just sizes. Go in a shop and the jumpers are 'for its' Girls get the message that jumpers aren't for them.

That's just wrong

Yep. They haven't reorganised the shop floor (oxford street branch). Just put labels on the clothes which say "boys and girls". It's a total PR exercise. The underwear is all together although boys and girls are on different faces of the shelf units. School uniform all in the same place. Nothing changed really apart from these labels which are a bit silly imo.

I wonder if they will ever reorganise it. Perhaps as new collections arrive for things such as t-shirts, trousers, sportswear.

I still think it's useful when shopping with the children that they don't see in big letters "BOYS" or "GIRLS" and let them gravitate towards the colours and styles they prefer.

Mum of a DD and DS. The stereotypical slogans on clothes fit neither of mine personality wise. Not even close. I hate Tshirts that imply boys are manly / strong / messy / cool and girls are blah blah blah.
I love what JL have done for both my kids.

Meanwhile this week Boden is really proud of its car/truck t-shirt FOR GIRLS.

How can you tell it's for girls? Well the sleeves are too narrow and the vehicle is expressed in sequins.

What do you mean, haven't you seen all those real life lady trucks driving around, all pink and glittery?

Boden should stick to animals. They did a great dinosaur print last year. And dogs too. They tend to put them mainly on dresses though and would be nice if they could put them on long sleeved tees like they did with the dinosaur print.

I was just looking at next PJs and spotted that the mum and child matching ones are ungendered for children. DS now wants some (I am undecided yet whether it is sweet or naff )

I think it is sweet :-)

The choice is still pink or blue with crap fluff animals for the girls and stripes 'for the boys'

This isn't what people mean by unisex clothes

It's a pack of two, green. Pink cats and blue stripes.

It's still not gender nutural

It's still not gender nutural

What's your definition of gender neutral?

Other colours being used apart from just pink or blue as the main colours. Why can't green or orange or purple not be used?

I wonder if it was proved that baby girls actually preferred pink like colors and baby boys like blue colors would it be ok to have pink and blue clothes sections?

I'm curious to see whether there will still be differences in sizing. I went to Next today and there was a huge difference between the boys and girls t shirts of the same age. I'd like to see if John Lewis make all tops with the same measurements that are traditionally aimed at boys. Boys clothes are much roomier and often longer than girls clothes. I often have to get a size up when buying girls clothes for my dd.

sizeing by age is nonsense anyway. I rathe see the european height sizeing. much more reliable.

There is a current thread in chat (i think) about if you found out the sex of your baby, why.

A large amount of people have said they hate neutral baby clothes, white, beige, etc and wanted to buy gender specific clothes.

After this thread there is quite a divide on here.

Baby girls may prefer pink - but older girls 'outgrow pink' as they see it as babyish, boys don't 'outgrow' blue but have a dislike for pink (in general)

Girls can therefore like trains but boys aren't 'allowed' pink prams or dolls etc

What we need is 'clothes' any colours or patterns to suit both male and female (green blue red orang green yellow purple)
Yes pink with dinosaurs and Micky Mouse, green with snails or yellow with space theme

Stop aiming car trucks monsters space at boys and butterfly's hearts and flowers at girls

Stop the devise and allow the kids to be who they want to be

New, very relevant article here:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/11/school-shoes-girls-boys-hobbling-life-chances-flimsy-sturdy-sexism-gender

But the reality is that toys and clothes in the 21st century are more gendered now than they were for my generation growing up in the early 1980s. In the Sears catalogue advertisements from 1975, for example, less than 2% of toys were explicitly marketed to either boys or girls. Why? It all comes down to profit. Why sell one box of Lego when you can sell two just by gendering the colours and themes on the box.

Quite glad if kids clothes go back to just being clothes rather than a statement of girl (pink/shiny) or boy (blue). Growing up in the late 70s/80s clothes were simple, just something to wear rather than giving a message. The only time I wore a dress was for Christmas or a party and I can't recall at any time having a pink one!