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.

I buy in the boys section for my lg & have shopped in girls for my lb, if they're happy & you're happy I don't see the problem. I imagine as they get older & less androgynously shaped that's more tricky.

I have boy and girl twins. I buy mostly boy clothes for them both. If mothers stopped buying pink girly clothes for their daughters then shops would soon get the message.

But surely all kids' clothes are gender neutral?

If you boy likes glitter put him in glitter and if your girl likes diggers put her in a digger top. I'd say that what people actually mean when they say they want 'gender neutral' clothing is that they want clothes shops to make tshirts with trains on them with a girl label on them and pink leggings with a boy label on them, which is not actually gender neutral at all.

If you truly mean it, then dress your child in whatever clothes you wish. Cut doesn't matter until puberty anyway. Just buy a bigger size if girls' clothes are cut smaller and you want them for your boy.

I find Boden sale very useful for boys' clothes in fun colours.

I also put my daughter in every colour other than pink, from a variety of sources, till she was old enough to insist on "da pinky one".

She also refused to wear a number of items in colours she thought were not bright or girly enough, so it was easier to go for what she liked.

My son would have been very happy with pink sparkly shoes as a young preschooler but we (esp my husband) felt it was not going to be helpful in the medium to long term to choose accessories which might cause comment and/or teasing and encouraged other cheerful colours such as red for sandals.

At 8 he is very keen to look a) masculine and b) cool. I note that, for example, big hibiscus style flowers on surf shorts are very surfer dude, but he isn't at all keen on this. I note also that pink items for young boys/ men can be the height of cool on the right person, but often these languish in the sales.

I am very happy for them both to choose their own styles within budget and reason now they are at school, but they are both opting to conform with gender norms pretty much.

My DD has a grey sonic tshirt that doesn't look "girlie" she also has some Star Wars tops which also look more like "boys" but these were from the girls range at next

I used to get all my daughter's clothes from h&m's basics range and it was fab. Most things available in a large range of plain colours or stripes/simple patterns. It was ideal and not gender restricted in any way. Have they stopped doing that? Hope not, that would be a big shame.

A few posters saying, well just put your girl in boys' clothes then. But this misses the real problem which is that gendered marketing powerfully influences our choices - and limits them. When my two were babies I dressed them in a full range of colours, and there were plenty of dinosaurs, but by Y1 they were complaining that their friends were teasing them for it. So I stopped. I'm also aware that when buying for other children - like at birthday parties - I 'play safe' by buying girly gifts because I don't want to be seen as 'that mum'.

This has so many real consequences. My current pet peeve is girls' school shoes - so much narrower and less sturdy than boys;, thin soles and even ballet flats (terrible for their feet). And of course I can't buy them boy's shoes - they would be terribly teased.

And gendered toys worry me too - because children learn through play, so we want them to be open to as wide a range of play opportunities as possible, and funnelling them away from 'action toys' (if they're girls) or dolls (if they're boys) is denying them choice and opportunity, I reckon.

I really don't get why everyone cares so much - really odd!

I saw Star Wars stuff in the girls section at Asda. (Pjs and dressing gown) Considering that the main character of last year's movie was female, i think that this was great.

I saw a Marvel top in the girls section of Morrisons too. It wasn't the usual copout of a female character with pink in the background. The characters on the tshirt included Spider-Man and Thor.

I'm a fan of geeky unisex tshirts myself so maybe more prone to noticing the sort of thing that I wished was available when I was a kid.

My daughter just heads straight for the "boys" section 😂😂

Completely agree with you and was thinking the exact same thing today. We can wear any colour under the sun and shops are selling it. Why not extend that right to baby and child clothes!

I never realised how hard it was to find 'nice' coloured boy's clothes until I had B/B DTs. I never found out what sex I was expecting so bought in a few bits of unisex plain white and beige (what a mistake - mixed race looked like a completely putty-coloured baby).
I have managed to find a few bits when they were younger that were navy and bubble gum pink, purple and orange, but most stuff was blue or sludge. Any girls things has scratchy embellishments on. It's slightly better since then.
I was frowned at for putting them in tights under their trousers when I took them out as apparently that is girly. Now they are 9, we still buy them for Scout camp instead of long johns.

I buy "children's clothes from both the boy and girl aisles" as I like to call them for DD. Thomas and Friends is impossible to find in the "girl" section and she's a fan at the moment (PJS mainly), ditto sharks.

I buy costly scandi stuff from NCT/local posh school nearly new sales at a fraction of the real price.

Ketzele all the kids where I work wear kickers style or DM style lace ups (girls and boys). Thin soled pumps are no longer the thing they were in past years. It's the boys mums who complain about crap quality velcro lace ups that don't last a term. Must be a regional thing!

Semaphorically I agree, kids clothes are gendered much more than adults ones are. There was a thread on here once and the OP said her daughter was getting teased for having brown boots rather than pink princessy ones! Apart from Playboy bunnies etc what adult woman would wear pink glittery boots... She had to explain to her daughter that she can tell her friends "real" princesses can be seen wearing brown boots, such as Duchess of Cambridge, rather than pink!

I completely agree! I dress my daughter in boy's clothes pretty much but Little Bird range from Mothercare is pretty unisex. I really dislike the whole pink glittery clothing going on for girls, I don't want my daughter to be indoctrinated into wanting to dress like a princess!! I know my MIL is desperate for me to dress my daughter like a girl and constantly buys me girly clothing for her despite me saying DD does not like wearing dresses :-) I'm sure the whole pink girly thing was not an issue when I was growing up but then I am quite old , ha ha

Putting the cartoony 'rainbow versus superhero' stuff aside, even with simpler designs, it can be a real pain. I'm not at the boy stage yet but I've found even the baby stage annoying for clothes. With a baby boy the thing I find most frustrating is that I can't find many 'babyish' things for him. I want to dress him as a BABY not a small man! He'll be tiny for such a short time! I wouldn't put a daughter in what I'd wear to the pub, so why does my tiny baby boy have to dress like a man in the pub? Most baby boy outfits are things that could be scaled up in size and worn by a 40 (or 70) year old man without much comment. Collared shirts, straight cut jeans, mid length shorts, t-shirts, sweaters- that is pretty much it. Obviously adult male fashion is inherently less interesting/fun/changeable than adult women's but I don't think the gap needs to be as big as it is with baby stuff. Even ranges that sell beautiful embroidered solid cotton or linen items for girls have boys' collections that are just yet more t-shirt material with slogans. I also think it is far harder to find prints boys can wear. It's like boys are only allowed stripes (God, shops love stripes), huge stars or mechanical prints. I'm happy to spend more money on John Lewis and the White Company -you'd think they would be more open but even their loveliest babyish designs HAVE to have a car on them. And boys have to have aggressive or uglier animals like monkeys or things with scary teeth. Girls get literally every other print. I'd happily buy from the girls' collections (and have done) but they make it hard for you to buy it for a boy by adding pink or lace to anything that has, say, a panda or deer on it. What about llamas, windmills, chicks, ducks, leaves, feathers, sheep, little houses, abstract swirly prints for boys? There's a whole universe of objects that are not robotic, surely? And baby boy shoes are all heavy and covered like men's shoes, whereas girls get nice light babyish sandals. It's so limiting. Both genders are 'allowed' elephants and bears, so at least that's something but really....Bit of a moan, sorry. I've bought some really beautiful things for my lovely boy but I wish it wasn't so expensive/hard work.

What is the sizing like in little bird? I've just taken a look and the patterns are lovely. DD is very petite so finding clothes to fit is hard at the best of times!

My DD1 is very slim Rinceoir. I find the Little Bird tops fit her nicely, but she needs a size smaller for dresses and anything on the bottom half. She struggles with the waistbands in most brands though to be fair.

Mine struggles with waistbands and across the shoulders. She is 3 now but aged 2-3 stuff from next/jojo/John Lewis just falls off her, and slips off shoulders. Smaller sizes too short. Gap/Vertbaudet/petit bateau/zara fit quite well but not many nice bright patterns!

Uniqlo sells nice soft jeans - style trousers in unisex design for under 3s - pull ups with elasticated waist so no scratchy adjustable bands. They have leggings suitable for both toddler boys and girls too. This has been a really nice discovery for me as I really dislike the joggers with the elastics at the bottom of the legs.

Totally agree goldenrachita - I know exactly what you mean about mini adult outfits for babies. Personally I find the little jeans and shirts and t-shirts look absolutely adorable on the hanger but really weird and incongruous once you put them on your actual baby! I'm expecting my second boy in a few weeks and this time round I'm not buying a single outfit, apart from the odd gift outfit, he's going to be in baby grows for the first 3 months at least! They look more snuggly and comfy anyway.

Toddler boys clothes can also be pretty dull. I like the colourful appliqué tops you get from places like Boden and Jojo Maman Bebe but they are obviously a bit pricey. Sometimes you can find cheaper alternatives in Morrisons if you keep an eye out, sometimes the range there is boring but other times they do more of the quirky colourful designs.