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Original poster

John Lewis removing gendered sections in kids clothing

572 replies

moutonfou · 02/09/2017 12:46

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??

OP posts:
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MaximaDeWit · 02/09/2017 13:54

This is excellent news - it's how I like to shop as I'll often buy DS some "girls" leggings or cardigans if they only have jeans and tweed trousers and hoodies in the "boys" section. Hope other retailers follow suit

StarUtopia · 02/09/2017 13:54

Oh no wait. Just been on JL website. So it's all a load of noise. Just the label is changing. Who really cares! Still can go to 'Girls' 2+' and "Boys 2+' to pick what I'm looking for.

jaseyraex · 02/09/2017 13:55

I generally browse all kids sections for my boys anyway so this seems better for me. DS2 loves Disney princesses and well theres not much "boys" clothes with princesses on! They wear what they want. Annoys me when I see a girls item and I ask a shop assistant for my boys size and get "but that's a girls top!" it's just a blinking top! Same goes for toys. DS1 had a pink kinder egg and the cashier asked if it was for his sister 🙄

StarUtopia · 02/09/2017 13:56

Decaff My daughter loves pink frilly things and so do most of her friends. Are you saying that girls aren't allowed to like those things any more and ALL girls should be forced to wear dinosaurs and diggers on their tops. Honestly. It's ridiculous. I have a boy and a girl. I don't want genderless clothes and neither do they. My boy loves looking like a boy and my girl couldn't be more girly if she tried.

Decaffstilltastesweird · 02/09/2017 13:59

Decaff My daughter loves pink frilly things and so do most of her friends. Are you saying that girls aren't allowed to like those things any more and ALL girls should be forced to wear dinosaurs and diggers on their tops

Em... no! When did I say that? Ridiculous indeed (if I had said what you think I did). I said "ALL pink, frilly stuff on one side". Some children like pink, frilly things. Others don't. If they have whole sections of ALL / ONLY pink, frilly stuff "for girls", then that defeats the object of removing the "girl / boy" labels don't you think?

BlockB · 02/09/2017 13:59

Love this idea, I wore as a child and still do as an adult "boys/mens" jeans, tshirt and underwear. a tshirt is a tshirt, especially for children where the cut is the exact same, doesn't need to be classified as one or the other.

Montsti · 02/09/2017 13:59

It's not difficult but more time-consuming...personally I find shopping a bit of a drag and trawling through clothes looking for something specific is a pain which is why I rarely shop in the sales...having all the kids clothes together will take more time..

But so far my kids are happy to dress as gender stereotypes as my girls generally like tutus and Frozen etc...and my boy more traditionally-perceived boys clothing...so girls/boys sections as well as age-specific sections help me...Obviously this might change so let's see...

StarUtopia · 02/09/2017 14:03

You said you wanted less gendered clothes. Lets be honest, just simply from a display point of view, they're hardly going to mix all the pink frilly stuff up amongst the monsters are they!

From pure aesthetics, girls clothes will generally be together anyway or else the entire t-shirt dept (for e.g.) would look an absolute dogs dinner.

LespritDescalier · 02/09/2017 14:05

Buy what you want to buy. Why do you need a shop to put a 'gender' label on it to tell you it's ok to buy a dinosaur t-shirt for your girl?

You have totally missed the point. They are removing the label that says the tshirt is for a boy.
That's a good thing.

You can still buy all the frilly pink you want for girls, and all the beige with diggers for boys, you just don't have the labels that say "this is GIRLS clothes " and "this is BOY's clothes". Now they are all just "kids clothes"

Can people stop reading more into it?

StarUtopia · 02/09/2017 14:07

But why do they have to???

Why are we not allowed to have clothes that have been designed with BOYS in mind?

Give it 20 years we'll not be allowed to even say we're a man, or a woman. It will be offensive. Honesty. It's all just getting a bit ridiculous.

Exactly who was offended by a clothing label that said 'Boy' on it anyway?

Decaffstilltastesweird · 02/09/2017 14:08

I would love to see less gendered clothes, yes. It can be quite irritating if you don't want to dress your DD in pink, frilly stuff or if she doesn't love pink, frilly stuff, (like your DD does). I see it less these days, but I've struggled to find something more neutral for DD in some shops. It's easy to say you don't need / want to see gender neutral clothes if you and your DD are happy enough with the status quo. Not every child or parent is though as I'm sure you can understand.

LespritDescalier · 02/09/2017 14:08

Why are we not allowed to have clothes that have been designed with BOYS in mind?

You have them in every shop, what are you complaining about? Why does it have to say "for boys" on it, what do you think that says to girls?

Decaffstilltastesweird · 02/09/2017 14:09

Oh sorry that was @starutopia

Decaffstilltastesweird · 02/09/2017 14:11

@starutopia

I'm not btw saying you shouldn't dress your DD in pink, frilly stuff every day if the week, if that's what you both like. Knock yourselves out!

maddiemookins16mum · 02/09/2017 14:11

I do wonder if all these people going gender neutral with their kids' clothes wear gender neutral themselves - like never wearing feminine underwear or a pretty summery dress.
If I'd have purchased pyjamas for DD at 6 with cars on (instead of fairies for instance) she would have been most upset.

Cantseethewoods · 02/09/2017 14:12

I'm in favour. Polar O Pyret already do this- no girls and boys, just clothes. Go Swedes!!

LespritDescalier · 02/09/2017 14:14

I do wonder if all these people going gender neutral with their kids' clothes wear gender neutral themselves - like never wearing feminine underwear or a pretty summery dress

It's the LABELS that are gender neutral, not the clothes.

Hint: its usually a good idea to read the story before forming an opinion. And making sure you understand.

BlockB · 02/09/2017 14:16

I do wonder if all these people going gender neutral with their kids' clothes wear gender neutral themselves - like never wearing feminine underwear or a pretty summery dress.
It's not about never wearing a dress or men's jeans if you choose gender neutral clothing, it's saying clothes are clothes wear a dress on Monday and car pyjamas at night, it doesn't matter which ones you wear. Wear both, wear neither, just wear pink whatever, but it's just clothes they don't define a boy or girl.

ferrier · 02/09/2017 14:17

At the moment there is mostly a very clear divide between boys' clothes and girls' clothes. Hopefully, moves like this will blur the lines somewhat.

Cantseethewoods · 02/09/2017 14:17

Case in point- Po'P sells dresses and skirts and leggings but it just doesn't label them as girls' clothes.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 02/09/2017 14:17

Fine, but I think I'd be even more pleased if there was a lot less of that really shouty garish pink in little girls' things. I don't object to pink as such, but so much of it is hideously tacky IMO.

Having said that, my dd was very tomboyish and loathed wearing dresses or anything girly for years. Her own dd of 2 always wants to wear a 'pitty dress' - it certainly doesn't come from her mother or the way she's been 'steered'!

LuLuuuuuuu · 02/09/2017 14:21

I agree with you StartUtopia .

Seems its a sin to dress a little girl how she wants to be , if that is to look like a little girl

Oh so right on so many on AIBU Or so they think .

reallyorange · 02/09/2017 14:21

Good. I've had to hunt through 'girls' clothes in shops to find non-digger things for my son. Got a perfectly neutral top with sailing boats on in the 'girls' section. It just doubles the time finding what you want.

Clothes are still ridiculously gendered though, in Next last time I looked you couldn't buy a pain of plain jeans in the girls' section, they all had some kind of frill or bow or pink or polka dots on. I understand the capitalist reason for this but it never used to be like this in the 80s.
(Also in Next, the boys' clothes are really cute with animals and things, until the age of about 2/3 when they suddenly have to have beige/blue/khaki things with checks or stripes rather than anything fun!)

notangelinajolie · 02/09/2017 14:21

The only reason JL are doing this is for business purposes/profit. If they think they they will generate more income then they will do it.

I bloody hope they don't mix women's and men's clothes up too - finding anything in JL is a nightmare as it is and I would not be going anywhere near if they added men to the mix.

reallyorange · 02/09/2017 14:24

luluuuu
Seems its a sin to dress a little girl how she wants to be , if that is to look like a little girl
I'm genuinely interested as to what you've read on here that directly leads to this conclusion. Would you be happy if you daughter wanted to wear pink frills but they had traditionally been labelled as boys'? (As pink used to be?) Or would you be happy that people finally realise anyone can like pink - my son included?

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