To ask if boys can wear coloured gingham school shorts?

[Makingitupaswegoalong]

DS starting school in September. I’ve never liked the grey boys’ school shorts. I think they’re horrible.

Could a boy wear the shorts version of the summer dresses in the warmer months? The ones like this:
https://direct.asda.com/george/school/shorts/light-blue-girls-gingham-longer-length-school-shorts/G008057152,default,pd.html?redirectFromInt=1&cmpid=ppc--geor-------_-dskwid-_dm&utm_campaign=pla:Fashion-School-_Performance_Max&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17501196607&gbraid=0AAAAADt8Wcm1oMWVYoBrMZRAaJmY4OxHM&gclid=Cj0KCQjwgIXCBhDBARIsAELC9ZgYG9pdeZibdgD76_xniRBLDqnyyvZArL9DdLA7VsYiWE5zGC1CWE0aAkIFEALw_wcB

The little boys round here wear a lot of brightly coloured patterned leggings.

Why couldn’t they were these shorts? Are they obviously girly? Would people bully him or think we were weird? I just think they’re nicer.

I’m not policing you. I’m not telling you to stop or suggesting you go away or calling you a troll.

Your position as chief of threads isn’t under threat, don’t worry, dear.

Depressing as anything. The vitriol I’ve been subjected to for challenging the misogyny is astounding. This is supposedly a site for women and considered to be largely gender critical.

Today I asked my friends 10 year old son & his friends who were over to his house to play computer games if they thought boys should wear skirts & dresses. They looked at me as if I had insulted them. I felt awful & made the excuse I asked them because the Victorians put dresses on little boys until they were 5 or 6. One boy did say only if they want to be girls. I then made a quick exit. It appears not all children share the views of many adults nowadays.

Did you ask them if girls should wear trousers?

Why is one way ok and the other not?

my belief is that girls are considered inferior, so wearing ‘girls’s stuff’ is much worse. That’s what hacks me off.

I think it might be the simpler explanation that trousers tend to be more practical and have therefore been adopted as lifestyles got more active.

But it’s no wonder you are so wound up by the whole issue if you are that brimful of insecurity around it.

Again with the insults.

It’s not insecure to understand misogyny exists.

If it was all about practicality, why would ‘girly’ colours still be seen as unacceptable for boys?

Why take that as an insult? It’s something for you to think about.

I genuinely don’t feel inferior or threatened as a woman by the fact that most people don’t dress their four year old sons in shorts made from girls’ uniform fabric.

I don't think there are any colours inappropriate for boys especially if you are referring to pink. There are pink congratulatory cards for the birth of girls & blue for the birth of boys. I doubt that will ever change & I see nothing wrong with it. Parents also tend to dress baby girls in pink.& baby boys in blue. This changes as they get older,no harm done.

🤦🏼‍♀️

Oh dear. You’re not seeing the bigger picture.

It’s not about the shorts.

I know, right? 😂

Um, my son wore gingham shorts out of school in summer because I like them. No one ever considered teasing him.

It isn't earth shattering. It'd only take 2 or 3 boys to wear them and the kids would lose interest.

It's fabric. It's not puberty blockers and surgery. Get a grip!

Pink used to be a colour associated with boys, and blue with girls. There’s no need to buy pink or blue birth congratulations cards. I usually get ones that are purposely not pink or blue. There are plenty of others.

Girls' school uniform shorts? Why? If it wasn't those specifically then you've missed the point.

Um, my son wore gingham shorts out of school in summer because I like them. No one ever considered teasing him.

right. There’s a lot of adult projection happening here. These kids are 4 , I doubt they barely notice or care what fabric another kids’ shorts are made of.

Pink for a newborn baby girl is still as popular as ever. I've yet to see a newborn baby boy leaving the hospital in a pink outfit. There is absolutely no need to buy blue or
pink congratulatory cards for the birth of a boy or a girl if its not something you believe in.The fact remains this is the design of the vast majority of cards for this purpose that are on the market & I doubt it will change.

Yeh, this is how weird and hung up adults are about putting kids in clothes that immediately signal what variety of genitalia they have . All kinds of assumptions, stereotypes and , ultimately , restrictions and inequalities derive from this obsession with gender , which starts even before babies are born. Why are you so desperately attached to it? Do you think the world as you know it might collapse if a baby boy came home from the hospital in a pink onsie?

When they still had those bounty photographers coming round, my one suggested I change my daughter out of her blue onesie for the photo. So weird. See also people who put bow headbands on bald baby girls

It's beginning to sound like there are factions of society who would like to disperse with all women or men who dare to perceive themselves as having feminine or masculine traits in the traditional sense.Apparently this leaves a woman open to being downtrodden and gives a man the right to exploit them & treat them as subservient. We should now address this by refusing to make baby girls look feminine, sweet & cute.What a load of utter nonsense.

That made me laugh - in a nice way 😊 My DS did actually leave hospital in a lovely raspberry pink babygro 😀

He was born unexpectedly, was premature, ill initially, and vomited over almost all the clothes we’d brought in, except the little outfit I kept back as that was his ‘going home’ outfit.

When they said we could leave the hospital, I dressed him in his special Going Home outfit (white, if you’re wondering) and yes, you guessed, he was sick all over it! So we borrowed another babygro from the hospital, which was pink. No-one said anything - not the nurses, not the other mums, nobody. A complete non-issue.

Possibly.

But more likely that large sections of society don’t want to uphold gender stereotypes that are proven to be harmful to both sexes.

Baby girls are cute and sweet already - you don’t need to stick a bow on them. As for feminine - if we could make someone feminine just with clothing, the TERFS and TRAs would get on better.

Borrowed clothes in an emergency are different.
If its was a choice between school skirt vs gingham shorts because thats whats in the school cupboard then id guess the teacher would opt for the shorts but it's not something you'd go out and purchase specifically for a boy.

Nothing wrong with having feminine and masculine traits. Nothing wrong with baby girls looking feminine , sweet and cute. Btw, all babies are already sweet and cute- male or female.
What is wrong is the insistence that people born with a vagina must always look look/ present/ be this way (sweet, feminine, cute) and people born with a penis must always look/ be that way- put in that kind of outfit that signals a different kind of box, and the horror at the idea that the two could ever be mixed up.
come on this is 2025 , we all know and understand what results from that. And we all know and understand that lots of boys and men are actually feminine , sweet and cute and lots of girls and women aren’t, and all of those things are a-ok,

There is nothing wrong with wanting baby girls to look feminine! I really hate having to justify to some people why I put bows on my baby girl. I personally like girls to look feminine and boys to look- like little boys! Nothing makes me more annoyed than being judged for actually liking gender stereotypes.

Jesus H Christ. Can't believe this thread is still going. 34 pages over a pair of light blue shorts. Gender is all made up bollocks right?! Couldn't possibly affect people in any tangible way, correct?! I tell you this for certain my trans and gender queer mates would NOT be making this fuss!

Are we still on the 'we should give in to the potential bullies and teach our children to conform' train?