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!

My boys have some pink shorts this summer that they’ve hardly had off! Willies have stayed intact.

I’m not seeing the options that you describe.
This is what I see (starting at mobile site home page)

My son regularly wears pink trousers (both leggings and joggers, though recently his preference is for joggers). He also dressed himself in a blue tshirt and red sparkly skirt on Friday (he and my daughter did a clothing swap for fun). He looked adorable.

What is 'inappropriate' about lilac for a boy? Why do they just get shitty old beige?!

My friend's son would be all over the lilac and good for him!

Then this. No option to choose boys before seeing all the 3 for 2.

It’s the way you’re searching. Either go to 3 for 2 on all kids then slide across to find the ‘boys clothing’ tab or go to all boys clothing then click on the ‘3 for 2’ but highlighted in yellow.

The way you’ve done it has just taken you to all the clothes on the 3 for 2 offer, you can see there’s no filter on.

Instead of going into sale first and selecting boys, it’s better to go to boys first then select All Boys’ clothing or the type you want, THEN sale. There is a big 3 for 2 banner at the top:

The search logic in sale items is never going to be as reliable as it is so dynamic.

Haha, it's enjoyable seeing you all getting your knickers (or boxer shorts) in a twist because only on Mumsnet does every parent dress their boys in girls clothes, which is odd because I don't remember seeing many - if any - little boys wondering around in dresses. Must be the same parents that insist they take their kids to the park every day in the pouring rain. I never see many of them either.

I don't have time to reply to each person as I'm busy scrolling through thousands of girls clothes so I can find a dinosaur t-shirt and a jumper with a football on it.

For those asking why I don't let my son choose (and ignore my original post mentioning this) - he's 20 months old. If I showed him the pink top or the blue one, he'd point at the lampshade.

I'm also not trying to insist it's some far fetched practice to get us all to be gender neutral or whatever expression you want to use. I just don't see the point of having a whole section dedictated to "boys" stuff, for those of us who prefer to use that option and then fill it with pink dresses (yes, if you scroll down a bit there are pink dresses).

I can accept this might just be an annoying glitch in the particular instance, but it's not an isolated thing as I & other people have mentioned.

Oh and finally, yes his drawers are full of fucking dinosaurs because people who design clothing aimed at boys lack imagination.

This should have started eh "I'm absolutely fuming!".
Just scroll the stuff?
Breaking news, when searching for whatever item u get shown many other items, always, the search rarely leads me to a number of holy grails that would be exactly what I imagined in my mind.

It’s not a glitch though. Many people have shown you how to search and filter and nobody else is seeing girls’ clothes.

I just checked Next and their site is fine too. I have a boy myself so I am always filtering out dresses and frills and it’s really never a problem.

Oh and finally, yes his drawers are full of fucking dinosaurs because people who design clothing aimed at boys lack imagination.

Oh the irony!

I don't really have skin in this game anymore because the only thing DS wears these days are football/rugby/basketball strips which are unisex. That said, we do still buy the occasional non-sports-strip outfit for him and it drives me mad that shops seems to have a huge section of pinks and purples, then a section of navy blue and khaki green. What about any other colour?

DS loves bright green and yellow but it's really hard to find things he'll actually wear in a physical shop. It's also the OTT-nes of the clothes too. The pink stuff is often 99% sparkly/frilly/twee and the blue stuff is 99% minecraft/xbox/trucks. I was neither!

I was a nice range of multi-coloured clothes or clothes with, I dunno, jokes on or a picture of an axolotl or some modern art style paint splatters.

Before his sports clothes craze, I would happily let DS chose whatever he wanted in the shops from whatever section. We've had many colour changing sequin tops and lilac hoodies, along with loads of navy and grey stuff. But it's all just so dull!

https://www.marksandspencer.com/pure-cotton-dinosaur-t-shirt-2-8-yrs-/p/clp60689025#intid=pid_pg1pip33g2r4c1|prodflag_3%20for%202

starts at 2 years but will prob shrink in wash anyway.

After multiple people have now shown you, I think your search must have been wrong and was left on all. Because none of us have got the same results as you. I've never found the problem you're having, I think maybe you're not searching correctly.

https://www.marksandspencer.com/pure-cotton-dinosaur-t-shirt-28-yrs-/p/clp60652031#intid=pid_pg1pip33g2r11c1|prodflag_3%20for%202

…only on Mumsnet does every parent dress their boys in girls clothes, which is odd because I don't remember seeing many - if any - little boys wondering around in dresses.

And this is just obtuse- it’s not just a choice between dinosaurs/ superheroes and frilly dresses, my kids and the vast majority of people I know’s kids did and do wear stripes, plain colours, tops with dogs/ cats/ hedgehogs/ Harry Potter on, chino shorts, hoodies, jeans, joggers, funky leggings and many more clothes which look equally good on both sexes. Most girls I know over the age of 6/7 prefer not to wear dresses for day to day anyway. Loads of this stuff in next, H&M, Boden (second hand on eBay), polarn o pyret and indeed M&S before you also accuse us all of only shopping in boutiques for the woke…

Surprised that you are looking for a football for a 20-month old, who will have no concept of the game. Dad trying to capture his imagination early by any chance?

Just to blow your mind OP, if you are looking for a specific design you can also use the free search box on most clothing websites and you may strike it lucky by just putting in “football” or “dinosaur” if the item’s name mentions the design.

Quite. Avoiding unicorns is a perma-hazard when shopping for girls clothes.

At least dinosaurs existed.

It's just the way they've been tagged on the system in the background. The beige/brown is quite traditionally boy, so people may be more than happy to buy them for their boy. Some people might have twins that are boy/girl and a multi pack could be useful for both of them.

My DD at the moment is wearing an outfit she chose. It's a very dark green hot wheels top (from the boys section) with bright pink cycling shorts. We always look at both because there will be things she likes in the boys. When I took my nephews shopping (and they are in their 20s now) I used to do the same and they could choose whatever they fancied.

No one is making you buy pink for your little boy. But you not thinking it's boy clothes doesn't mean other people wouldn't, and the sites aren't based on you.

I think it’s a very good thing. Clothes shouldn’t be for girls or boys.

If you want to search specific colours, filter by colour. It’s very easy!

You mean unicorns don't???

My DD was insistent that the one horned goat at a farm shop was a unicorn. No telling her otherwise. She's very like Agnes from Despicable Me.

@Cocobeau

For those asking why I don't let my son choose (and ignore my original post mentioning this) - he's 20 months old.

My DD was showing preferences for colours and patterns at this age. She could walk herself to her wardrobe and point at what she liked best. So you actually could show him the colours and see what he preferred.

And I'm one of those parents that does actually take her for a walk every day regardless of the weather, because we have a collie and therefore no choice but to go out. She doesn't care if it's raining. Although now she's at nursery I do tend to drop her there and then walk because it's less work for me pre-work.

Exactly. I didn’t put my Dd in a lot of dresses when she was very small either as it was about comfort at the age where they have no say. Then she had a phase of liking them ages about 4-6, went off them again, and as an older teen now has very much her own style as you’d expect.

My ds did actually like dresses as a toddler, but usually ones pulled from the dressing up box. He doesn’t wear them now aged 10, but again his style is very much his own. If I’m buying something for him I just search the thing I’m looking for, eg “tie dye t shirts”

I was getting frustrated with this yesterday. I was looking for unisex newborn clothes, thinking neutrals, but I kept getting pink frills, florals etc. Then when trying to look for boys age 7-11, I kept being shown similar to what you were, pastel leggings, tops with cats or unicorns on and things that were very obviously designed for girls. One of my boys will only wear black, or very dark colours so it just wastes my time having to sift through all the things I've specifically asked to filter out!

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.

Body shape might be the sImilar @SocksShmocks but average height and weight is different for boys and girls, and kids clothes sizes are often sold by age. The boys clothes range is often a bit bigger than girls clothes when they are sold by age. I’m all for the idea of non gendered clothing but my bugbear is stores that sell unisex items by age rather than height 😂