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]

All colours are acceptable to me. I love to see blue, pink, red, green, yellow, grey, teal, turquoise, purple, orange. Do the current selection not seem to be from a rather limited colour palette, to you?

Personally I would like to see a selection of bright colours as well as dull ones. I would like dresses as well as shirts as an option (not specifically for girls, as I do like the 'for kids' ethos, but for any children who prefer a dress).

I would not like to see any lazy stereotyping or gender association with particular colours. I would like the ones in bright colours to have serious messages and scientific accuracy in their illustrations just as much as the ones in dull colours. I would like the ones in dull colours to have the option of decorative touches such as flowers, as much as the ones in bright colours.

This, to me, would be more truly gender neutral. The current selection appears to me to be the 'male by default' type of gender neutral.

@Kolo, the option of a pink shirt is for boys too. Why are we limiting them like this?

Why is being gender neutral about convincing little girls that they should wear red, green or blue? Why is being gender neutral never about convincing little boys that they can wear purple, turquoise or pink?

Why is one colour palette superior?

Screenshot of a section of the NHM kid’s clothes.

How is this defaulting to “male stereotype colours”?

@MotherOfDragonite so basically OP is cross because there's no pink? All the other colours are masculine?

@MotherOfDragonite have you looked at the website? There is purple and turquoise.

@Kolo I'm absolutely pro the idea of a 'for kids' section, and gender neutral options. But our choice of what 'gender neutral' is matters.

If you go and look at the girls clothing section in a supermarket, or even on Boden, would you say that those colour palettes are represented here?

If you go and look at the boys clothing section in a supermarket, or on the Boden website, would you say that those colour palettes are represented here?

Because the erasure of females starts young. Really young.

Does enforcing the pink stereotype not contribute to that? The pink stereotype reinforces gender which inherently is damaging to sex, mostly the female sex.

Dragonite

The sample I posted ^

Is that “gender neutral” in your opinion.

@Kolo I have looked at every product in the category fairly carefully. There is one purple and one turquoise t-shirt.

Interestingly, the purple t-shirt is the only one with butterflies on it. And the turquoise one is the only one with flowers on it.

Isn't it strange that those two are more... decorative? Nice, but slightly less serious?

My DS 14 is Dino mad, one of his fave tees is a pink triceratops one
But as it obviously didn't come from NHM the comment isn't really relevant.
Boden did some pink boys t shirts , more an elasoplasty pink than a sugar pink.
The scientific world is seriously trying to encourage girls into stems - NHM could do a bit better imv.

But this isn't a clothes shop. It's a gift shop of a charity that sells some clothes. You can't seriously expect it to cover every colourway!

Presumably they know what is likely to sell, and so cater to that...

@SmileEachDay, yes, they're nice colours. That screenshot isn't representative of the full selection but is certainly more balanced! See also my last comment to Kolo.

Ok Mother

These two?

I didn’t ask if you thought they were “nice”. I asked if you thought they were gender neutral. I don’t think I understand what you mean by that.

It seems to be much more reasonable in society for girls to wear boys clothes than the reverse. So your DD could wear a black Dino t shirt and nobody would think to comment but my DS could put on a pink sparkly unicorn t-shirt and, like it or not, I know that people would look twice, which is a shame (not that I would care if that's what he wanted to wear).

Personally I think girls have far more clothing choices in general than boys so YABU.

I like them especially the red velociraptor and blue triceratops.

They are unisex, I'd have certainly liked wearing one of them as a child or teenager. I honestly don't know what your problem is, op. You could of course ask your daughter if she likes and wants one.

@SmileEachDay No, although the collection includes one purple and one turquoise t-shirt, I don't think that makes it gender neutral. There are 56 products and those are the only two (plus the yellow perhaps, although the dinosaurs on it are all in red, blue and green again) that are more from a very slightly more stereotypically feminine colour palette.

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

Yeah you see mother I think we have different ideas about stereotypical colours.

I don’t think green, black, cream, yellow, purple, white or brown are stereotypical male colours. I don’t really think blue is either. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Pink is stereotypically “girl” as are very pastel shades so maybe you mean the collection is missing those?

So what would make it gender neutral?

This is a weird thread. What is 'gender heavy' for a start?

Op you don't have to buy your daughter a t-shirt from the Natural History Museum, plenty of other places sell them, just google.

direct.asda.com/george/kids/tops-t-shirts/pink-dinosaur-print-t-shirt/GEM704577,default,pd.html

& here's a 'boy's' pink dinosaur t-shirt which I think is lovely:

tuclothing.sainsburys.co.uk/p/Boys-Pink-Dinosaur-T-shirt-%283-12-years%29/129397002

However I do think there's something odd about this thread.....am I the only one?

Why is being gender neutral never about convincing little boys that they can wear purple, turquoise or pink?

I'm confused, because you wrote this, @MotherOfDragonite. When there are purple and turquoise T-shirt's on the website. I'm still wondering if it's simply the absence of pink that's winding OP up?

I do see colours like green, yellow, navy, turqouise, red, grey as feminine colours. I see those colours all the time in 'girl's sections'. My whole wardrobe is black, green, grey, yellow, red and navy.

I can't see what's wrong with the NHM's offerings.

I don’t think green, black, cream, yellow, purple, white or brown are stereotypical male colours. I don’t really think blue is either. 🤷🏻‍♀️

But like mother said, go look at the clothing selections of any supermarket or mass clothing provider and you will see the colour palette showing by NHM is massively represented in the boys section and not so much the girls.

You can personally say that the colours are gender neutral to you but that doesn't change the fact that wider society views this sort of colour palette is stereotypically male.

To reiterate one of mothers questions:
Ask yourself: Why is gender neutral always about the removal of stereotypically feminine options?

Why do gender neutral collections never include light pastel colours, pink, flowers, hearts?

OP, I really think you need to reconsider your definition of 'sexist'.

@SmileEachDay @Kolo I write this wearing entirely black! I absolutely agree that women and girls can and should wear whatever colours they like. However, I based my understanding of a 'stereotypical' colour palette for boys and girls on supermarket clothing displays. Just go into the girls/boys sections at Sainsburys, Asda, Tesco, etc and see what the NMH section resembles more!

What message does that send our children? 2 or 3 out of 56 products being purple and turquoise does not a gender neutral selection make, IMHO.