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?! 🤔

Yes I've mentioned this in a couple of shops and was told they buy to demand so girls clothes are more in demand in our area

Yep!

And this is before you get started on the sizes. My 6 year old DD is expected to wear tshirts the same size as 3 year old DS.

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.

so where this discriminates against men and boys it is just business and customer behaviour. Is the same ok when it goes against women and girls?

YABU. I have a girl and a boy and never had a problem buying decent boys clothes. Girls on the other hand is all crop tops, tiny shorts and unicorns. Oh and don't forget all the tshirts reminding them to Be Kind!

Primark have boys swim shorts in about 12 plain colours including light pink, mint green, pale yellow etc etc as well as bright stripes and star patterned ones. They are £2.50 a pair can’t go wrong at that price.

In terms of ethics I think an item of clothing for £2.50 probably is quite wrong.

This is exactly the point I was trying to make! If the clothes were there to be bought we’d know if people actually wanted them. I have had to cave and buy some swimwear I don’t particularly like (as it sounds like loads of people have, for girls too actually). That then tells the shop I love the shark print and they should make more of it when that’s absolutely not the case 🙄

It seems almost every single comment on here is in agreement on a few things…
*the choice of boys clothing is poor and has very limited patterns, which just seem to get worse as they get older.
*girls clothing is also terrible and very sexualised for young children
*shops should try selling more of the plain, varied coloured clothes to let people have the choice of buying it!

Thanks for all the suggestions of places to try. Actually hadn’t thought of Boden! H&M is a favourite of mine and not too costly.