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!

WTF , are you for real? Your only category for selecting toys is they need to be “gender based”? What even is a gender based toy? Is it a toy that you can only operate with your genitals?

This thread is bonkers

I thought clothes companies were sensibly removing the gender options from clothes now. Just browse for clothes you like, and ideally, your kid chooses. Mine has chosen since they were about 2.

See, my DD is tall, so things like t-shirts for nursery etc are much better from the boys section. The girls ones are generally more fitted and for some reason shorter (I'm sure I had this issue as a child too, as I'm also tall).

I find the unisex stuff tends to be slightly bigger than the "girls" too.

It's like this in shops too ,rows and rows of girls stuff and about half a row if your lucky for boys

Agreed.

Yeah I've never understood gender based toys. I liked trains as a kid, and tractors.

My DD has a doctor's kit, a tool kit (they've merged together actually), a "baby" doll, a bike, gardening tools, a fairy garden, soft toys, Spiderman colouring books, princess colouring books etc.

Toys are for having fun and learning skills. Not for learning "how to be a girl/boy".

No, it’s because parents buying clothes lack imagination.

Can’t relate as I buy my daughter clothes from either section. I don’t see the point in limiting her to certain colours, prints & styles just because of her gender. Also, even if you filter for boys or girls specifically, they will still show you clothes that they consider to be unisex such a hoodies & leggings like you’ve shown in the screenshot.

@Cocobeau I actually think the only people getting their knickers in a twist on this thread are you and the couple of people who agree with you.
The vast majority on this thread seem to disagree and they seem to be quite calm about it.

If you know what you like him in, then surely it's just as easy to click on that colour on the filter as it is to click boys? Or type dinosaur?

And as to seeing boys in dresses- you're right, we don't see many. But what I am seeing more of (thankfully) are boys in cycling shorts, animal print, unicorns, girl characters (Skye paw patrol, bluey), pastel colours, hearts. Also seeing more girls in reds/ yellows/ blues, dinosaurs, vehicles, boy characters (the other paw patrol ones), blacks, longer shorts, dungarees. All of these things would typically be found in the other gender, so it really is a good start that they're starting to become more common.

If your lad wants to wear a paw patrol top with Skye on in 6 months, will you let him? Because it will make him happy, even though it will almost certainly be from the girls section? Or will you make him wear the blue chase one instead, because it's boys?

@x2boys perhaps you should also let him look at the t-shirts and shorts in the 'girls' section to see if there's anything that takes his fancy?

People saying "I'd put that on my boy" when they're at an age to know what colours they like, it's not that simple.

I understand the frustration, @Cocobeau and you're always going to get people asking what the issue is, trying hard to be "liberal" or who don't have boys or boys of an age they can choose and are conscious of what they're wearing. If something is unisex that's cool, my youngest liked lilac colours until he was about 6 and its like he changed what he liked overnight, boys don't wear leggings (apart from under sports kit maybe but boys have their own for that) and not how girls do, plus the style of coats boys wear tend to be a bit different.

A few of the sports clothing sites don't do this, but many do.

I resigned myself years ago to either extra scrolling or then having to put in colour/brand filters. It is annoying.

I find it incredibly annoying too. I don't want to search through a load of girls's clothes to get to the boys's.

I would buy those hoodies for my son, in fact I tried to buy the bubble gum pink one in the M&S sale but it isn't in his size. So I like that they do it. The one I have a gripe with is Primark. They had the most gorgeous blue t-shirts in the girls section so I picked up three for my guys. Disaster. It occured to me I should double check the size just in case it was different to the boys and holy god the difference was insane. Maybe I just got really unlucky but I ended up having to get the three sizes in the boys section and then try compare the girls ones, it was like a 5-6 girls matched a 2-3 boys. I ended up abandoning the whole thing. In fact often I find unless it specifically says unisex then there's no point looking in the girls section. Girls clothes just seem so unnecessarily skimpy. Which is a pity because there's rarely rainbow, cats or unicorns in the boys section.

I would much prefer there wasn't a filter for boys/girls, and retailers would just show us clothes. I'm capable of deciding what I want to dress my child in, and sometimes the filters mean you miss the good stuff.

Also, who decided boys don't wear leggings? They're always under the girl section. Just daft, my five year old prefers them to joggers and refuses to wear jeans.

I agree that gender based colours etc are bollocks and I do think it's great that the lines are being blurred in principle, however unfortunately my 7 year old DS completely disagrees. He just wants what all his friends have and very firmly thinks girls stuff is gross (I have done my best but ultimately he's going to follow the crowd) so it is annoying and a complete waste of time showing me leggings in his size. He'd rather die.

"Brilliant" because why would girls want to have shoes that have grip for climbing and running that don't let gravel in the massive gap at the top?

If you're finding gender specific toys I think you're shopping in a toy shop that's not for children. I've never come across a child's toy that is operated with their genitals.

I do online shopping for my children and never experienced this. This seems like a post to just stir up an argument on gender.

But that's only your son. Some boys might want them. How do the shops know that when you click boys you don't want the leggings but when Joanne Bloggs clicks it she does?

You know your son wants green, blue, brown, jeans, trainers. Great, search for that.

Yeah I’ve had this, I also on social media am constantly served the carousel adverts for Gap Kids, Boden, M&S and Zara with all (clearly girls - dresses, skirts bikinis etc.) I have never in 7 years been served a carousel with boys clothes - never.

And yes like others have said most large retailers websites are appalling for functionality full stop.

Mmmm @SnapdragonToadflax I kind of agree - my DC still lets me choose and wears a lit of primary colours as well as pink and lilac/purple (as I think they look nice and whilst he still lets me choose I will).

However I use some independent retailers (who sell multiple brands) and don’t offer gendered search and just show you everything its such a pain to then have to go to the product search and individually select everything bar, skirts, dresses, kickers, bikinis etc. It would be much better from a functionality point of view to have everything (as in the individual categories pre selected) so that you can de-select 3/4 categories rather than having to select go through the whole category list selecting 10-20 odd.

Just to support the OP slightly, not weighing in on the gender part here but this actually happens to me all the time. H&M if you go to baby boys section it has all the baby stuff, including a sweater that says ‘best sister’. If you go to baby girls section it has ‘best brother’ clothing.
it doesn’t particularly bother me but I definitely find sites have a filtered section that isn’t actually filtered at all.

What really annoys me is Vinted when you can only search boys or girls clothes- well if I want some tops for my daughter I'm happy with pink/purple/red/blue/dinosaurs/fairies etc! The only 'all' option includes toys etc too

I’m tired of having to play make believe on mums net.

@Happyinarcon in what way? In that you don't believe some of us shop in both sections of the clothes stores?