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?! 🤔

*Welcome to the unending world of clothing stereotyping! Once through your dinosaur phase, you will graduate to everything being football and gaming, through to an array of grey and camo for teens.... But then the girls get all the impractical, "be kind" slogan crap..... If you have the budget, Boden is great for up to about age 13 though.

...and it's not just clothes....
I took my DS (12) to get new glasses. Almost all the "boys" ones had football team logos (he's not into football) or characters like spiderman etc. He literally had the choice of about 5 pairs.

Yanbu. Boys' clothes are awful. Such a missed opportunity for bright colours with stripes etc (think Joules baby range a few years back with was unisex with loads of primary colours. Bright and beautiful, not a navy/brown/grey or black colour to be seen!). Why don't we get more collections like these on the high street?

Although a quick look online at Joules boy section now and it's still quite shark/dinosaur dominated but not as bad as some places.

I was in Next the other day and there were so many beautiful dresses for the girls. Spoilt for choice, we bought two when I wasn't even planning to get one. Just couldn't resist.
I glanced over at the boys stuff and it was all dark, grey. Brown. Black. Boring boring boring.

Thankfully my DS8 loves Minecraft otherwise he would be naked! Or wearing clothes he doesn’t like.
my major gripe is once they pass 6/7 the clothes offered tend to be the same as the early teen clothes I don’t what my 8 year old in an outfit that is suitable for a 15 year old. And all the colour goes, black grey sludge gaahhhhh

Boden and joules are lovely for boys and girls

They are indeed unfortunately not everyone has the budget for £15-£20 per tshirt. Especially with everything else rising in price and when they are at the age when they grow out of them so quickly.

I agree that there's more girls stuff, but IMO the styles and designs aren't great, whereas the boys are great! I can go in and straight away see what I like in the boys section for my DS, but have to spend AAGGGEEESSS going through the girls stuff to try and find a few alright pieces for my daughter.

Each to their own I guess 🤷‍♀️

The boys range is smaller but generally doesn’t contain quite so many polarising items getting shorts for my very tall 5yo has been challenging. I’ve ended up getting some boy ones so she actually has something that covers her bum cheeks.

Common sense would suggest that girls have more swimwear items for sale due to the different number of styles ie bikini and swimsuit....boys just have one style je swim trunks

Come on ladies not exactly a gender/sex conspiracy

Love next but most of their stores stock small size clothes and shoes in store so I end up ordering online same with H&M too.

Bring back Adams

Whilst it's true there are more options it doesn't explain why Morrisons stock no boys swimming options at all in store though.

Yes I think this is why there are more options for girls overall. Where boys have tops, trousers, shorts; girls have tops, trousers, shorts, leggings, skirts, dresses.

However there IS a gender imbalance in clothing with regards to colours, slogans, patterns offered and sizing. Boys lose out in having a limited choice of patterns and colours - it is mainly blue, grey, sharks, dinosaurs, maybe tractors. Girls lose out by being shoehorned into passive "cute" animals, flowers and frills, slogans about being cute or kind.

Totally agree. When mine were small we had a really cold winter and I went looking for a snow suit. Only in pink. Arguably I could've bought it in pink (they had various 'girl' coloured items because generally I didn't care). But what irked me is that in the baby boys section there didn't even make a snow suit. Just felt right from the beginning that they were telling my boys to toughen up to be a man and stop complaining about the cold! I may have slightly over thought this but you get my point!

I mutter about this a lot every time I go in our local M&S choice for boys over age 7 is maybe three racks of things, just nothing! It's so frustrating and right now if you're not into sport or Harry Potter you're totally screwed for choice on the high street!

It’s the entire fashion industry not just kids clothing. You only have to look at the men’s section in shops compared to women’s, say in Primark. An entire floor dedicated to women’s but 1/2 to men’s. It starts with the kids. I suppose the theory is boys / men aren’t as interested in fashion as women but is this a chicken and egg scenario? It probably wouldn’t be as bad if the boys section was half decent, but as you day it’s boring prints in every shop. If your boy doesn’t like dinosaurs you’re screwed.

Hi Op,

So i dress one of each.

I often actually prefer the boys clothes. I wonder if the difference is skirts and dresses?

To be honest all of the nice girl stuff is also sold out at the moment. I think its a supply issue rather than a gender one.

Stop thinking of clothes as boys and girls clothes ( skirts/dresses aside) and choose from the overall selection available.

Just wait until they outgrown the 'baby and toddler' range. Then everything is grey, camo or has slogans on unless you go for the more expensive brands.

A lot of it is supply and demand. Shops exist to make money so it makes sense to stock what sells and not waste floor space with stock that will just sit there until it ends up being reduced
I agree. Shops don't exist to provide a fair public service, but to succeed as a business, so what they do will be based on what will maximise profit, which is driven by customer behaviour.

Not RTFT so sorry if I’m repeating anyone… I hate the lack of boys clothes in shops, both in terms of quantity vs girls and the limited range (everything is blue or dinosaurs/diggers). But it takes my rage to a whole new level when someone pointed out the safety aspect of boys swimming clothes…. See attached pic.

I have this issue with my son. It’s really really hard to shop for him, some times I just have to buy what ever is available in his size just so he has clothes.

He basically wore the same thing for 4 years as H&M didn’t bother adding any new items to their range so each year he just ended up with the same thing just in a bigger size!!!

if retailers actually made enough stock, they would perhaps find it would sell

This drives me bloody mad, makes it seem like boys are the second best option when you have a kid. I love my little boy and don’t always want him in bloody diggers and dinosaurs!!!!!!

I agree. Shops don't exist to provide a fair public service, but to succeed as a business, so what they do will be based on what will maximise profit, which is driven by customer behaviour.

The trouble is as another poster said its a chicken and egg situation. Parents can't buy the clothes if they aren't stocked in the first place and then because they are not buying these none existant clothes the shops think boys clothing is purchased less often that the girls clothing they continue to stock less.

Try having a girl who hates pink and unicorns! It’s a nightmare trying to find clothes that don’t have stupid logos and are way too short and tight. A lot of the time we end up buying clothes from the boys section as my dd loves Star Wars, Minecraft etc and she doesn’t want to wear shorts that don’t even cover her bum! On our last shopping trip we braved Primark and found clothes in the ladies section as the xxs fit her, she wears 11-12 years clothes.
Mountain warehouse have some nice bright boys clothes. I’ve just seen a wolf T-shirt my dd would like! Saltrock are good too.

If there's a potential for a good profit on a particular type of boys' clothing that no one is making it's strange that no company has ever tried to exploit that. If they did then other shops would soon copy so they could get some of the profits too.

As toddlers I dressed all of mine in H&M stuff, Zara, Frugi or scandi brands like Duns. I like the colourful prints from Frugi and Duns, I appreciate they’re not everyone’s taste but a lot of it is unisex which I appreciate.

I know what you mean though, I was always frustrated by boring tractor/car prints in mainstream stores.