To be angry about the lack of females on boys pyjamas?

[WeasleyWoman]

This seems rather minor but has me riled. I was in Asda today with my 3yr old giving her free rein to choose pants (in prep for potty training) she wanted paw patrol pants which could only be found in the boys section: no probs briefs are briefs when you are 3. I noticed that the pants only had the male pups on, even the ones with 5 pups still didn't have the token females (apparently they can only appear on the pink pants). This got me looking for female characters in the boys section, the only one I could find was Owlet (score 1 for pj masks) everyone else had gone, no Lilly on the Peter rabbit clothes just (Peter and Benjamin), no Penny on fireman Sam (just Sam, Elvis and the chief), no black widow or captain marvel on the avenger tops not even Peppa fucking pig on the Peppa pig clothes! It's Bacon girl's show yet all the boy's clothes have George on. I feel like there is, at last, starting to be more of a focus on making sure little girls know they can do anything, achieve anything and don't have to just aspire to be mums, wives and princesses but what is the point if we don't tell the boys too? If we don't show them that women are useful and important members of the team then aren't we just shout in the dark, or rather shouting in the pink sparkly section?

The loss of a child is incredibly sad, not my opinion.

Yes, nobody has died

But it is the thin end of a wedge in a society where men view women as worth so little the constantly mistreat them, sometimes with violent and even deadly consequences.

No one in support of the OP’s point is saying the lack of one paw patrol character makes a misogynist or an abusive man, but it is absolute the start of the drip drip drip that boys and girls receive constantly that manoeuvres men into positions of power and women into subordinate roles at home and in the workplace.

The loss of a child is incredibly sad, not my opinion.

@Myheartbelongsto do you know that, while horrendous things happen in the world, other things can be sad too on a much lesser scale? I know, shocker!!!

Not read the full thread so I don't know if Fortnite has been mentioned but I bought my teenage son a Fortnite t shirt and it had a female character on it, he loves it

@AryaStarkWolf that's great to hear!

Yes I agree dear but that wasn't my point.

Myheartbelongsto worrying about the negative drip drip to our children about women's position isn't about not having a life or having nothing bigger to worry about. Some people manage to care about more than 1 thing at a time.

*SleepingStandingUp absolutely. If we were only ever allowed to care about worst cases nothing much would ever change or improve in the world really.

Actually what infuriates me even more is that all have to have characters on them at all. I much prefer stripes, spots, stars, animals, whatever...... also I hate any writing.

I agree Silent. The 3 yo doesn't.

It is all about marketing and I blame nineteenth century chemists and twentieth century marketeers!

For a long time those who could afford it in northern Europe dressed their children in the same clothes until they were 8 or 9. Red and its subset pink were more expensive colours because of the dye and stability and favoured for boys. Blue, especially in RC countries, was favoured for girls because of the typical portrayal of the Virgin Mary. You just have to look at photos or paintings of the time. White tended to suggest you had staff but was easily cleaned with bleach/hot tub washing.

Then in came the chemists who managed to introduce new fixatives for colours. Some weren't pleasant - viridian green became popular but it tended to smell. Red and pink became easily fixed to a variety of cloth. In the 1930s pink became a go to choice for girls. And with the advent of nylon, rayon etc you ended up with the ability to produce frills etc.

I agree it's an issue if boys clothing can never have female characters. Or that somewhere like Hamley's had girls and boys toys (doesn't have now after a campaign). Or the ridiculous sloganising "Daddy's little princess" v "Mummy's little man". I suspect they're bought by people with old fashioned and unreconstructed views who really don't think things through.

However one of the worse things about it is the current trans debate where some people push their son or daughter to the opposite sex simply because the son likes pink art and reading and the daughter likes blue, science and sports. When it's all a matter of how we fall on a huge spectrum of sex and gender.
.

starting to be more of a focus on making sure little girls know they can do anything, achieve anything and don't have to just aspire to be mums, wives and princesses but what is the point if we don't tell the boys too? If we don't show them that women are useful and important members of the team then aren't we just shout in the dark, or rather shouting in the pink sparkly section?

While I wholeheartedly agree that any child should be told/shown and feel they can achieve anything they work hard enough for and gender should not be a boundary ...... I don't think this is achieved through pants

While I wholeheartedly agree that any child should be told/shown and feel they can achieve anything they work hard enough for and gender should not be a boundary ...... I don't think this is achieved through pants

Of course it's not achieved just through pants but it's certainly a whole lot of little things like this that reenforce the idea that girls aren't good enough/as good

Yes.

Drip.
Drip.
Drip.

Most of us can surely think of a time when one casual remark from someone else knocked us right back. There's a good example in this thread.

my 3 year old had his friend over and had his pink Skye slippers, the mother said straight away 'oh my god! Why has he got girls slippers on? I bet dad isn't happy him having them on!' And then laughed.

Also why do Dads get all the comments? DS in a tutu, oh what does Daddy think of that?
Actually Daddy ordered it having spent two hours finding the right one!!

My five year old son would love a glittery sequin top but they are only available in the girls section, it works both ways and it is so annoying!

I actually was able to get DS a cool khaki jumper with a blue and green sequin dinosaur on it in H&M. Still in stores now

I was out with someone the other day who mentioned a friend of their DD. Both are 4. She wondered if her friend's husband should be concerned because their DS looked playing with dolls and dressing up.

*liked, not looked

@randomsabreuse
I'm at the point where I can find very little I want to buy. Doesn't help that DD needs trousers to be very slim cut or they don't stay on - so tends to fit girls' better than boys as a result.

I don't know if the styling is still the same, but DS's hand-me-down Asda skinny jeans fit both my slim kids well, DD's just starting to develop hips now and is gutted she's no longer the right shape for boys' trousers.