FFS!

[FusionChefGeoff]

Asda T shirts.

"Boys - build rockets, be a scientist! Girls - look shiny!"

AND Sky is missing from the Paw Patrol shirt.

I try sooooo hard at home and then I see this shite and want to weep.

Feminism is going too far with this complaining lark now. Just please get over it already

Oh fuck off with this attitude. If you can't be bothered to engage your brain and see why this kind of marketing at children is problematic then you are part of the problem.

This sort of thing infuriates me. I was in Mothercare the other day looking for clothes for my 2yo dd and had the same problem.

I'd love to be able get over feminism. In much the same way as we've now got over the need for smallpox vaccinations.

My three year old was watching cbeebies the other day and announced to me that 'boys don't have eyelashes'. These issues are real, they matter.

@badbadhusky yes!! In all the pics from when I was a child with my cousins, you can hardly tell which children are boys or girls. We're all wearing red, green, blue, yellow and have similarly flattering bowl cuts

It's hard to believe we've gone backwards on this but we really have.

Boys often have the best eyelashes it’s quite unfair lol

It's really annoying. If we're honest, we know that very very few boys would wear the unicorn one, but loads of girls would happily wear the 'boys' ones. And that's why we should have just a children's section, not a boys' one and a girls' one. Because yes of course you can buy your dd clothes from the boys' section, but every time she goes into a shop, she is still getting the message that that kind of non-sparkly, non-pink t-shirt with a cool, aspirational slogan is not really for her because she's a girl. Anyone who thinks that kind of social conditioning has no effect on equality is very naive indeed.

So Ursula would you buy the sparkly unicorn pink top for your boy?

Just to add, I agree with you OP.

Total absolute shite. So pleased that some shops are going for non gendered areas in children's clothes.

Yes Eolian you are right. And if one of those male children did wish to buy the sparkly unicorn he may well be considered 'trans'.

The whole thing is just getting to be absolute nonsense. I despair.

Last post, I promise.

Why shouldn't boys be sparkly unicorns? I think it's lovely. They are just shoehorned into being brainy and scientists when the reality is that they won't be part of the 5% who are above average intelligence.

The difficulty is that Asda are simply going to go to market with whatever shifts the most units.

As such, the real problem lies with all the sexist dads and granddads buying these horribly-gendered clothes for their kids.

5% who are above average intelligence.

My experience is that very slightly less than 50% of boys are of above average intelligence. Same goes for girls. Why can't both boys and girls be aspirational?

As such, the real problem lies with all the sexist dads and granddads buying these horribly-gendered clothes for their kids.

Unfortunately, given that buying clothes for small children is itself too often a gendered task, its probably more liable to be (hopefully unconsciously) sexist mums and grannies.

5% who are above average intelligence.

Bit of a Govian slip there, elendon, but I guess we all know what you meant

What pisses me off about Skye missing from the tee shirt is that when a boy wears it, there's a subconscious message that girls don't matter.

DS wanted skye socks and the only ones I could find were the kind that are trainer level with frills on the top. No practical ankle socks for girls apparently. It's so stupid. They're socks.

Why shouldn't boys be sparkly unicorns? I think it's lovely.

True. It's interesting though. Essentially, the fact that boys are effectively 'denied' access to pink, sparkly stuff is still really a symptom of sexism against women, not against men. Because it stems from the belief that pink and sparkly equals girly and girly stuff is namby pamby and inferior so boys don't wear it because they don't want to be like girls.

"They are just shoehorned into being brainy and scientists when the reality is that they won't be part of the 5% who are above average intelligence."
Which is yet another piece of problematic gendered thinking that to be a scientist, you just have to be naturally brilliant and brainy and those are traits we expect more in boys, whereas girls just work harder. Whereas for kids, it's just a sensible way of looking at the world (and annoying your parents by asking 'But why do we think that about boys and pink Mummy? I'm as strong as Harry, we tested it by arm wrestling...'), and means you get to drop the sweets into the bottle of cola and really make a mess (I was just trying to refine the rocket propulsion system Dad, do you think we can do multistage, and what flavour should the second stage be?).........

www.mykidsadventures.com/mentos-and-coke-rocket-car/

(Although note that the more boyish looking one gets to do the building and tearing with gritted teeth, the girlish one gets to hold and smile whilst the boy gets to do the important IGNITION and RUN AWAY bit. Humph!).

Also note the more craft-oriented one by a woman, which is sparkly but non-functional...............

Double humph!!!!!!!!

Wish they had a sparkly
Unicorn to fit me

The HQ of the shop needs to know that this is a massive sexist marketing fail.
If we all pile in buying 'future scientist' for our DDs, that is great individually, but then the shop will just order in more of the same shite and pat themselves on the back thinking they are all doing a fucking great job.

The glittersparkle pink stuff for girls is bullshit- 'born to sparkle' i.e. girls to look cute and be acceptable... whereas boys born to get out there and do something important (and paid...)

And WTAF... they left the only girl pup off of the Paw Patrol T-shirt.?! Boys-marketed clothes can't even have a picture of one girl character on among a group of other boy characters . Jeez.

Is there something stopping you from buying the blue and the green for a girl?

Is there anything stopping Asda from putting all the children's shirts together and letting children choose instead of seperating then so that the average 8 year old girl doesn't want it because it's for boys and she'll be teased?

If you don't believe children are affected by advertising why do think companies spend billions of dollars advertising to them?

Basically why expect more from the 8 year old instead of holding the shop to account?

I just bought that "Future scientist" top for my 4 year old daughter! I bought it online, and the clothes on the George website didn't seem to be divided by sex/gender.

DD loves it, but might not have been so keen if we'd seen it in a shop, clearly on the boy's section. I think John Lewis have the right idea.

When paw patrol first came out, Sky wasn't one of the originals. She came later. Could it be they're using old (original) resources to create the material for clothing at Asda?

If I see a t-shirt without Sky that would be my first thought tbh.