To get “girls” stuff when I search for “boys”

[Cocobeau]

This is so fucking annoying.

I get this problem on so many websites. I specifically select the “boys” category and then results show a load of clothes clearly aimed for girls.

This example is from M&S. My exact actions;

Kids tab > 3 for 2 on kids Clothing > Boys (the options are view all, view boys or view girls.

These are the very first results that display. It’s clearly all designed with girls in mind. I get you’re allowed to dress your boy in pink and animal print, but I’d prefer not to for now. He can wear what he wants when he’s old enough to choose.

You might say this is a fly in the system but I have also frequently had this problem previously on Next and H&M.

I messaged Next once about it as I thought it was a glitch on the app. Their response was to tell me to use the web version, which had the same issue.

This is very much first world problems but it’s soooo bloody annoying!

I quite like the blurring.

We're so conditioned from when they are small as to what counts as "boys" and "girls" clothes.

If it as more acceptable to blur these lines and we were less strict about what counts maybe people would feel more free to be themselves in their own gender.

Actually I think it's pretty good that finally large retailers are cottoning on to the fact that their idea of what colours each gender should wear is probably contributing to the issue, and trying to fix it (if that's what they're doing).

If those clothes aren't the type of boys clothes you're looking for, maybe try searching for a colour you prefer instead.

I am a mum who gets mad that my daughter doesn't get offered a pair of red or yellow shorts beyond her bum if we look in the 'girls' section, so I'll be very happy if gendering clothes is over and done with.

Wouldn't bother me. But then I've always found the blueing/dinosauring of boys and pinking/princessing of girls extremely naff.

Yeah, those are not the first results I get. You haven’t got the filter for boy on? Just filter boys! I can see you haven’t because the Filter tab doesn’t have Filter(1) next to it!

🤨 hoodies and leggings require a vagina? I hadn't realised.

We're past the bullshit era of boys only being allowed to wear blue dinosaurs and diggers and girls only being allowed to wear pink, sparkle and unicorns.

You have to search through clothes you don't like to find clothes you do like, that's just shopping.

Yeah I quite like the idea of mums of girls being shown the option of decent length shorts for their tween daughters instead of searching for girls clothing and thinking that’s what they have to buy!

I had to get pyjamas out side by side to check that age 13 girls were the same size as age 13 boys. No idea why wolf print would only be for boys.

Then what’s the point in offering to search with the traditional gender?

A) if you filter rather than search it'll get you what you want more.
B) They are basics that probably come in a range of colours, which is why they are on a both rather than just girls
C) I wish it was easier to get all the clothes at once instead of having to choose girls or boys at the start
D) I also wish it wasn't pink, purple, beige, khaki, blue. And that the rainbow options weren't either missing purple (makes your penis drop off) or just various shades of pink and purple (the only colours for girls) because we actually know all the rainbow colours and would quite like the actual rainbow

Did you follow the steps I described? No, I haven’t added any filters on that page because I followed the websites own link to view “boys”. You’d kind of assume they would have already done the filtering for you, or else there’d be no point in them linking to boys and girl separately

It’s because one of the colour options is boy appropriate. Like that lilac hoody also comes in beige, you can see a boy wearing the beige option in the background of the photo.

The page before results. You could just click view all if you weren’t bothered about getting the full spectrum

In fairness, Marks and Spencer's website is absolutely terrible for searching regardless.

So sometimes things slip though into another category. It’s hardly a massive issue to scroll past

They are just clothes.
Maybe if we didn’t have bullshit stereotypes we wouldn’t have so many young people making life changing decisions to their body because they’ve always felt ‘trapped in the wrong body’ because they preferred pink and dolls to blue and trains when they were kids.

I'd put all of those on my boy

This. My son would happily wear several things from that screenshot.

They’re just clothes. Someone at M&S thinks these are unisex options. You’re under no obligation to buy them.

I’m totally fed up of retailers offering my daughter bike shorts instead of actual shorts, so being able to see the cargo shorts and similar styles is useful to me.

Same at John Lewis, I agree it’s really irritating. I have a boy, I want boys’ clothes. If I wanted him to wear things that were unisex or girls’ I’d tick those boxes, but I’m ticking boys’ and it’s giving me pink girly stuff.

I find it annoying as well. Yes clothes are just clothes, but most people aren't dressing their boys in pink leggings are they?

If you have hang ups about a boy or girl wearing a certain colour (absolutely bonkers in my opinion), then I think that’s your issue and not sure why everyone else has to follow your whims.

FGS, if you can’t tick the blinking box for some ideological reason just look for blue shorts kids or whatever. This seems to be a slight glitch in the website rather than anything else.

FWIW I agree that it’s better just to have a “kids” section at younger ages, my tween girl 100% does not want to be wearing crop tops and arse skimming shorts but the alternative is to go round a section in a shop which is very obviously designed for boys and I am sure there are many others who feel this way. M&S do a great unisex and accessible range so I am all for their approach.

Yes. Those steps.

It’s simply a website issue not a gender stereotype one.

you selected boys, but then went back “up” a level by going to a deal/sale section, which is the same search level as it’s a “category”, but isn’t massively well laid out to indicate such, because of course they are driving traffic to the sale, so the option appears more frequently.

all you had to do was hit filter.

it’s a search issue, not a woke gender stereotyping non conformity problem. Filter the results and you get what you want.

I do have this problem on mini Boden sometimes. I filter girls but there's quite a few boys stuff that pops up in there. May happen on other sites too but can't remember now which ones.
It is annoying.
I know some people aren't bothered but my child does want to wear the clothes in the girls section

Define for me clearly then - are are boy clothes that can’t also be worn by girls? The ones that have dinosaurs, super heroes and footballs on? The shorts that go past the bum?

Men’s and women’s body shapes are different. Young children’s aren’t. You can filter for blue and beige trousers if that’s what you want.