To be fed up of shops favouring girls clothes?

[Galwayg]

I had a little boy last year and noticed almost as soon as he was born that there seems to be a huge imbalance between the range of clothes available for boys compared to that for girls. I even noticed in some shops the girls clothes were displayed at the front, while boys clothes were hidden in a corner at the back.

I’ve brushed this off as a bit annoying until now, when I’ve gone to try and get him holiday clothes. It first caught my attention on Next’s website that they had WAY more baby girls swimwear than boys. The boys’ options in every shop is also the same bright blue swimwear with either multi coloured sharks or dinosaurs emblazoned across it. I’ve had a bit of a search tonight and compared the boys vs girls swimwear in some of the shops I’d look on:

Jojo Maman Bebe - boys (51), girls (80)
Next - boys (145), girls (277)
Marks & Spencer - boys (11), girls (16)
John Lewis - boys (145), girls (181)
Matalan - boys (9), girls (27)

AIBU to think this is majorly unfair?! 🤔

When my boys were little I bought Scandi brands like Duns and Maxomorra. Lots of choice, not just sharks or dinosaurs - I got stuff with snails, hedgehogs and all sorts. Lots of colours too - bright yellows, dark greens, not just blue and grey. The high street shops have a lot of catching up to do!

For boys swimwear its generally just trunks or wetsuit style, whereas for girls there are one piece swimsuits, wet suit style, bikinis and tankinis, so it makes sense for the girls range to be bigger. The same for girls clothes in general, they have generally the same items as boys but with the addition of skirts, dresses, tights etc, so the range will be bigger again.

Have you looked in Boots? The amount of baby and children’s clothes there for boys and girls is pretty equal - and the boys clothes not just dinosaurs/cars etc

As other posters have said Boden is really good

This is the sort of stuff I used to get for my boys. Why can’t high street shops do patterns and colours like these? Not a shark or dino in sight.

I’ve 2 boys and mine don’t wear dinosaur / shark print.
Try next, m&s
for daytime clothes mine wear Zara, next mainly but sometimes river island (there plain shorts fit my boys lovely)
there are some lovely boys clothes out there. Mine wear mainly cream, navy, grey, beige, green and plain.

@Florrey I the supermarkets are full of stuff like those.

Have you seen the clothes though.

By the time you remove anything with itchy scratchy frills, the sexis slogans about being happy/kind/spreading joy , stuff that's generally impractical for purpose, seems girls don't need warm tummies or the ability to not trip over multiple layers of a dress and you aren't actually left with that much.

Of course the alternative does appear to be sludgy t shirts and joggers .

Its pathetic. I blame face book. Everyone wants to show pictures of baby girls wearing the most hideous impractical outfits while everyone posts " aw she's so cute"🙄

@RockAndRollerskate plain coloured bucket hats from Amazon! Mine have white, black, navy & cream.

Which supermarkets? Our tesco, asda, Morrisons and saisburys are full of dinosaurs, sharks the odd tractor or character such as mickey or paw patrol and gaming themed stuff for every boy over 5.

They may have an odd outlier which is similar to what Florrey posted but they are definitely not full of stuff like that.

It gets much harder as they get older. Once secondary age boys clothes are just a couple of racks! I also found the clothes get so boring as they get older!

I have to say I didn't really have a problem when my DS was a baby/toddler (now 15). I got lots of his clothes in H&M. They had lots of unisex clothes and good organic cotton basics. Maybe try there?

@Beees I took my gran to Asda yesterday. They had tractor tops inand ones with animals which is what PP posted. I don’t look through the clothes as don’t buy from there but these were on the ends of aisles.
Next always do tractor and animal tops.

Yanbu. I have a teen ds and finding clothes for him that don't look like jumble sale rejects is hard.
The teen female clothing is awful unless your daughter likes tight painted on jeans or mini short clothing, my DD doesn't.
The shorts are too short, tops are all cropped, colour mainly pastel.

As said most of the girls wear isn't practical and some only a minority would buy. As for swim wear, we are still expecting women and girls to wear knicker shaped swimwear, even in the sun safe range. Whereas boys get swim shorts that they can play, be out in the sun etc wearing. Even trying to buy nice women's/girls shirts/tops with any type of a sleeve seems to ask too much.

I agree with this comment re: teen boys clothes (I have a 13 yo DS). With girls clothes though, if you don’t want frills/sparkles/leggings/tiny shorts, there is very little, certainly for preteen girls. DD is nearly 12 - beginning to be the wrong shape for boys clothes, but would really like some shorts that cover her bum.

I also love the scandi stuff but its probably not appropriate for OP as she has said she wants nice greys, subtle patterns and neutral colours.

Check out "Let Clothes be Clothes" for more on the gender divide in kids clothes. The size difference between boy and girl clothes is crazy and the slogans (particularly for girls) are disgusting.

YABU because basically you are complaining about a visible symptom of a living in a sexist society that prioritises appearance in women.

The issue is not that there are too few clothes for boys, it is that there are too many for gorls, because girls are being trained to care about their appearance from an early age.

It's equally bad for men too. Often mensware is a much smaller part of the shop if at all compared to women's wear. It is very annoying. The Debenhams near me used to be womenswear only. Likewise Sainsbury's clothes collection at my local store is women only. It simply wouldn't be tolerated as pc if it was the other way around.

They might of had a few but they are definitely the exception rather than the rule. The majority is unfortunately covered in dinosaurs and sharks.

Although I'm sure the parents of over 5s would probably love a shark t shirt once they get to the xbox or Minecraft emblazoned crap that's waiting for them after the dinosaurs stage.

And yes, many of the goods ‘for girls’ are inappropriate and/or impractical.

Incidentally, I needed to get my DD a new swimming costume for swimming at school this term. She is 10. Primark only had 2 piece costumes for her age - they are only allowed 1 piece for school! Very frustrating!

I buy from here, it plugs the gap in the market and is all British made.

www.pickbu.com/shop

Asda have got a unisex section on their website and they’ve got some lovely stuff. I have a 5 year old and I absolutely detest anything with dinosaurs, Minecraft, x-box etc… it’s so hard to find stuff without ‘dude’ written across the front too!

I found the size issue the worst in girl's knickers! They are tiny!

Wait until your LO is 10/11/12! The choice suddenly shrinks to black/ dark blue or green hoddy with tracksuit bottoms. Or the by then unpopular prints for 6yo!

Great for playtime not so for a smartish day out!!

Supply and demand, people buy more clothes for girls than for boys overall.

Although there is a lot more gender neutral clothes in shops now.