Children's wear too genderized?

[MimiR]

Hi
Is it only me who thinks that children's wear (both day wear and sleep wear) is just too genderized and segregated? It's not just the pink and blue thing but even the prints. I am yet to see a girl's tshirt with trucks or spaceships on it and a boys tshirt with rainbows. Are spaceships too masculine and rainbows too feminine? Who decides these things?
Honestly I would be willing to pay a bit more to see a wider spectrum of clothing prints/colours for our little ones and was wondering what you all thought.

Definitely is an issue with the motifs/ characters as well. DS is 10 and is particularly fond of cats. I bought DD a pair of Gap pyjamas with a cute kitten on, and it occurred to me that DS might also like an item of cat themed clothing.

Number of pink/ pastel/ glittery/sparkly/bow infested items in girls section with cats on - approx 7,000,000,000.

Number of items in either section with cats on minus pink glittery sparkly shit - approx 0.

Never knew cats were a gender specific item!

I love H&M because it's less genderised. I also dress my little girl in a lot of boys stuff (she loves pirates, dinosaurs and sharks).

Constantly gets called a boy though for it. 🙈

Bizarre that anyone thinks there is anything other reason than supply and demand! Most little girls like girly things and boys like boyish things.

Yes, because billions of pounds of marketing has no effect on small impressionable children ... Not to mention peer pressure and adult expectations.

Small children do not wake up one morning and spontaneously adopt gendered behaviour and clothing desires, it's suggested to them and heavily reinforced.

Agree @Semaphorically I get so annoyed about it. It's never been something I'd consider a huge issue but when my mil turns up with a BRIGHT pink garage set because I said that dd likes playing with cars, I do wonder if everything I'm trying to achieve is for nought.

Babies don't have a preference though! A lot of the baby stuff is absurdly genderised.

Currently Next has a dress with rocket ships on it and last Summer they had dinosaurs. Same with Boden

My girls wear what they want - unicorns and mermaids for the eldest, peppa for the youngest and both have stuff with rockets and dinosaurs...

Who defines a 'girlish thing' in the first place? Fairypink I can recommend the book 'Delusions of gender'.

My little boy loves a bit of glitter but I can't send him out wearing Dorothy slippers can I?

I could however put him in t shirt that had a kitten or a truck with maybe glitter on the trucks wheels for example.

He used to love pink but the damn boys in his school have been very quick to point out pink is for girls...

It took 2 days to point out that of course he like girls - he flaming well plays with them doesn't he? but I digress...

The 0-5 ranges are starting to include less stereotyping- e.g some dinosaurs on 'girl' clothing but the 6+ ranges are over-sexualised dross. T-shirts are clingy or cut off in the girl ranges.

If you're happy to pay a bit more, then boden has lots of dinosaurs on girls things and animals etc on boys'.
Little bird for rainbows on everything.
Otherwise, do as most people do- buy what you like to see your children in, and ignore the label!

For older DC, sites like Spreadshirt and Redbubble allow you to design and order your own tshirts, hoodies etc (and offer have discount codes on). Not a full solution, but helpful IMO.

Totally agree.

We get lots of our clothes from independents because supermarkets and high street shops have the same old flowery/trucks/trains etc. Try diddle pigs online, I've just ordered some unisex bits from there

For me the problem is why buy two entirely different wardrobes for two two-year-olds? Yes, once puberty hits, a girl will need jeans etc in a feminine cut, but until then it would be nice to be able to buy things that can be handed down without people thinking your children are cross-dressing.

And ain't nobody got time to buy a new wardrobe for a newborn when there's an older sibling's babygros lying around the place ... So would be nice if they weren't all pink and sparkly if your second one's a boy.

DD1 has a cool solar system t-shirt from Boden, and both DDs have some dinosaur t-shirts from Boden too. Too pricey to buy all the time though.

Unfortunately the only high street shop that I can depend on to sell clothes that fit DD1 (tall, very thin) is H&M and there's a lot of pink/glittery/crap logo'd stuff on offer there.

My mum has photos of my brother in my hand-me-downs till at least the age of 7. Most of his childhood wardrobe was previously mine. I can't see that happening much now.

Why do people look down upon pink and sparkly? Why can't a boy wear pink and sparkly? And why why is "gender neutral" always always primary colours, tshirts and trousers? What's wrong with a gender neutral skirt? All that's doing is telling girls that skirts and pink and sparkly is worth less/not as good as "boyish"clothes.

Don't see people complain as much about the dark drab colours in the boys' section, or all the "action"type motifs......

I agree that choosing a pink and sparkly skirt should be as gender neutral as choosing bright non-blue/pink trousers, Ricotta. But objectively, based on how society currently recognises colours and garments, that's not the case.

I also agree with you that it's important not to be negative about pink glittery things, as it implies that the "girl" choice is lesser. And as a choice in a wide array of possible choices I have no problem with it. When little girls start thinking they can only choose the thing that's pink and sparkly, and no other colour, it's symptomatic of a much bigger issue however.

Incidentally my friends with little boys do complain about how hard it is to buy boys things that aren't blue.

Yeah, I hate how many of my son's clothes are blue.
And no, I don't have a problem with pink. I have a problem when everything on the rack is pink.
And yes, I did dress him in pink when he was a baby sometimes.

(Most of his clothes are hand me downs, so I don't actually buy much of what he wears.)

There is a campaign called let clothes be clothes. Its not just you.

I assume shops make more money from gendered clothing as it's harder to use them as hand me downs.

I've bought a few girl things for DS. Nobody noticed He is sucking a pink flowery dummy as I type (they were cheaper for some reason?)

Yes! Totally agree, my little girl loves Thomas Tank, Postman Pat, trucks, cars... so we look in the 'boy' section for her too 😊

My daughter loves the boys tshirts from Next. If she prefers a tshirt with a digger on it over one with flowers and hearts then it's up to her. A friends son has some sparkly pink unicorn shoes. Why shouldn't he if that is what he wants?

Just buy what you like though, what does it mean to say 'there are no tops with rainbows on, for boys' etc?

John Lewis don't sort their children's clothes by gender anymore which is good.