To think the NH museum shop letting girls down?

[Ambam]

So my daughter loves dinosaurs. I wanted to get her a dinosaur t-shirt for her birthday and went to the Natural History Museum online shop. But to me the vast majority of their kids clothes look stereotypically boyish (in terms of the colour palette and graphics). www.nhmshop.co.uk/toys-and-games/kids-clothes-and-accessories.html#4

She’s pretty gender heavy and I don’t reckon she’d like them.

This was a while ago but I’m now in the same position and just checked their shop again. It’s exactly the same. I get that you can say girls can wear any of the clothes they sell but, like I said, to me most of the colours and graphics align exactly with the “boys” section of most kids clothing shops. Kids aren’t stupid. They notice how things are pitched.

AIBU unreasonable or do you think their collection is a bit sexist?

[Edited by MNHQ to remove identifying info]

would it kill them to have some pastle tops with 'cute' dinos on it?

They are a world leading science museum and research centre, not a fashion retailer. There are cute dinosaur t shirts available in other places, whose main remit is to sell kids clothes, rather than promote science.

So we are saying it's wrong to like the colour pink?

Surely gender neutral isn't expecting girl's to reject a colour (pink) based on a gender stereotype and instead only offer colours that are stereotypically historically aimed at boys. What does that say?

I think the OP has a point- to be truly gender neutral then no colours should be off limits to anyone- why can't they offer colours like pink, lilac, peach, pale green, purple, etc. to all children- If we want colour to be a gender neutral thing then we have to expect boys to change too and it be acceptable to like any colour whether you are a boy or a girl.

We’re not saying is euro good to like pink. We’re saying it’s wrong to expect girls to wear only pink, to the detriment of other colours.

@BikeRunSki but what if it is their favourite colour? both girls and boys can like pink or is pink a bad or inferior colour

@bikerunski, do you force boys to wear pink because blue is a boy colour?

No? Why not?

I love the butterfly t shirt. Misses point of thread

Just because a motif isn't available in a colour that a particular person likes doesn't mean that the retailer is "letting girls down", they don't provide every single colour of t-shirt they provide some colours, pink isn't one of them. This isn't letting "girls" down, it's maybe letting "people who exclusively like to wear pink clothing" down.

This.

OP you are unbelievably entitled and trying to intellectualise something in order to complain about products not meeting your shopping habits.

In an ideal world, all products come in limitless colours. Here in the real world they can’t because of cost, the environment and forecasts of likelihood of sales.
NHM have picked a range of basic primary and neutral colours. 🤷‍♀️

I want my scrubs at work to come with three pockets. The standard company who make them in the colour I am required to wear don’t make them with three pockets, so I go to a small business and they make to my requirements.

My daughters all went through phases (usually when they first started school) where they seemed ridged about pink (and lilac) but they also loved cars, dinosaurs and planes. I was actually quite glad that it was difficult to find these on pink clothes because it gave us an opportunity to discuss that girls don’t have to wear pink and how colour doesn’t have a gender. My DD went to a local museum with school and said lots of the girls didn’t buy anything in the gift shop because nothing was pink or “for girls”. She came back with a red note book with the Pankhursts on it.

I expect the NHM minimum order requirements for the gift shop items it sells, and stocks only colours/sizes/items it knows will sell well. This will undoubtedly mean a fairly narrow range of colours. In as much as they don’t sell anything pink, they don’t sell anything orange either (DS’s favourite colour). The colour range they stock is perfectly “ok”.

The NHM may be catering to an international audience and girls clothes aren't all pink with sequins in other countries.

I don't understand why you'd complain about what a shop stocks. If most people agreed with you then they'd take their money elsewhere- simples.

I've seen Dino t-shorts in the girls sections of Asda, Joules and Morrison's. Not sure why you wouldn't style a "boys" T-shirt with a skirt instead but hey ho.

"Mummy i want a dinosaur tshirt but there are only boys ones."

"What do you mean? These are for boys or girls. Would you like one?"

"I dont like those colours"

"Then we shall look out for different coloured dino shirts in other shops"

Teach your dd the stereotypical girls colours are not for anyone and any colour is for a girl. If she prefers lilac fine, but teach her not to assume she cant have the others.

what if they don't like navy, light blue, red, green, yellow, grey?

This made me laugh. If they don't like any of those colours then maybe look somewhere else? And maybe try to get them to be a bit less fussy... That's a lot of colours!

@ShetlandWife there is nothing wrong with having a preferred colour pallet

None of those clothes are aimed at boys though. All colours are unisex and they've got quite a range: red, blue, purple, green, grey.
Ok it might be nice to have a pink or a yellow one in there for boys and girls who'd like a brighter colour but they're not excluding anyone with what's on offer.

Dinos

Yes, I see the problem here.

Although of course girls and women can wear any colour that they like, these are almost all sludge-brown, grey, black and red.

If the colour selection is not gendered, then why is it from such a selective colour palette?

If the t-shirts were all pink and purple, would there be a problem?

Why are they all red and blue rather than pink and purple, I wonder to myself? Interestingly I see that the butterfly t-shirt is purple.

Why would a butterfly shirt come in purple but not a tyrannosaurus rex shirt or hoodie, I wonder?

Why is the turquoise dinosaur t-shirt the only one in which flowers are depicted? Why would there be a flower on the more colourful dinosaur t-shirts, but not on the red or black or grey ones?

But no, the problem is definitely with the mothers who are insisting on dressing their daughters in stereotypically glittery pink uniforms rather than in the uniform of science, which is red and black and grey. Nothing is wrong here at all. This is gender neutral, right?

So this just boils down to them not having a colour your DD wanted? That's life, really 🤷‍♀️

@redappleandaquamarinebow1987 I completely agree. Everyone has a right to prefer some colours over others.

Shops also have the right to stock whatever colour palettes they wish! I have frequently has to turn around and walk out of warehouse because they have decided their theme for spring is "colours that will make Alittleodd look like a sallow zombie" that isn't their fault and I do not email corporate to complain because my preferences are not catered to.

I mean claiming that half the population is being let down because a particular colour palette is not represented in a museum gift shop is ridiculous.

And I mean, I hate to end my attempt at a reasonable post with this sentiment but ... Perhaps if "girls clothes" were not to often limited to pink and purple and pastels there might not be quite so many little girls in the world who only want to wear pink etc (because that's what they see and that's what girls must always wear and that's what they must be like because reasons) and maybe then the lack of a pink dinosaur t-shirt would be less of an issue?

Half of my DD's wardrobe is dinosaur themed, and we have stuff in navy blue, orange, purple, pink, red, green... You can't expect everywhere to offer every single colour to please every consumer. They will offer a range that they know will sell.

If anything, I think girls get the better end of the clothing spectrum as it's fine for them to wear 'boy' clothes, so there's a huge choice, but people seem a lot less willing to dress boys in unicorns and pony stuff.

Also, there are t-shirts and hoodies but no dresses.

Why not some nice gender-neutral dresses?

Boys can wear those too! Why is gender neutral always about the removal of stereotypically feminine options?

Why does gender neutral always mean picking the stereotypically masculine societal choice as a default? Why does it never default to the stereotypically feminine societal options?

Is there something perceived as... inferior... about the feminine?

Oh, the joy of being able to sew (and knit)! I am planning and stitching the beginnings of a wardrobe for my as-yet-unborn, gender-unknown first grandchild. There are some amazing printed cotton jerseys, including dinosaur ones, on ochre and mint backgrounds and the colour range of pure linens (for rompers) and double muslins (for little trousers, swaddle cloths and dribble cloths) is amazing.

Whatever he/she is, there will be no frills and no cutesy pinks. It goes without saying I am being led in all these choices by my DiL. Her favourite colour is teal and my first task was a 7m jersey scarf for carrying baby. It's teal!

there is nothing wrong with having a preferred colour pallet

I didn't say there was. But if they rule out that many colours then they clearly have a very limited preferred colour palette and maybe they should, as I said, shop somewhere that caters to their taste.

I don't like coffee. Maybe I should complain to my local coffee shop that I don't like most of the drinks they offer... Or maybe I should go to the smoothie bar instead...

Whatever he/she is, there will be no frills and no cutesy pinks

Fair enough. But will there also be no grey and navy - traditional boys colours?

Ask yourself again: Why is gender neutral always about the removal of stereotypically feminine options?

Ask yourself again: Why is gender neutral always about the removal of stereotypically feminine options?

Because the erasure of females starts young. Really young.

My stereotypical options are jeans or black trousers and t-shirts, checked shirts that include yellow, blue, red, trainers or boots. I look female.

I don't see many women going around dressed head to toe in pink and sequins and ruffles.

Those colours are what my friends and I wear. Pink makes an appearance, but my son has pink in his wardrobe too.