The boys have predators on their clothes, the girls have prey.

[dinodora]

sonshinemagazine.com/magazine/animals-aggression-and-entitlement

An interesting analysis of high st children's clothes.

My boy does love sharks buand he would say they're prey to humans - I must say I'd have struggled with many of the girls clothes these days as I'd have preferred the dinosaurs.

Regularish poster, I've nc.

Clearly you don't read fan fiction

Oh my gosh. I have never noticed this. I loathe the princessification of girl's clothes but had never twigged this about boy's clothes at all.

And out of the range of about ten lunchbags I lined up for five year old DS2 to choose from a week ago, he went straight for the sharks

And now I'm questioning what made me include the sharks in the line up, or the tiger, or the T-rex. I included some cuter, more neutral animals as well, and a Minion one, but they were rejected out of hand.

I broadly agree, but surely no one fucks with a unicorn

The thing is, I like wild animals, my son loves watching david Attenborough as do I. Kids love animals. But a boy wouldn't have a kitten tee shirt despite probably loving kittens. I guess it's the way the clothes are divided between the sexes. Would you get an open jawed shark printed on a pink tee shirt?

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the images in the tee shirts, it's the way they're adapted and marketed for girls or boys.

Kids pick up on it at a very young age. I noticed it becoming a thing my son was aware of around 3. And as much as I try to battle it it's hard to avoid it.

It's down to the designers - however I do now think consumer demand for the cheaper places also drives it. People blindly accept the status quo, but also perpetuate it too.

The shorts is one that I notice a lot and really winds me up. Girls ones are bizarre - cut so that little girls will have loads of leg and possibly a bit of bum cheek hanging out - just why ???????

Meanwhile boys cover their arses well and usually a fair bit of leg as well, good pockets, comfy material, etc etc

The thing that strikes me with this as well is that I bet the girls stuff- the thin materials and the skimpiness - means that girls get more sunburn than boys. All this is non trivial IMO.

Prompted by PP who flagged shorts.

Yep sardines.

Several mums of girls have been saying to me that their preschool daughters sit in their push chairs in their dresses often "showing every thing off" and pants that are too small....

If I'd had a dd I think I'd have done the same and got boys pants for as long as possible.

Where does this come from?

It's like in the 90s when we all had low-rise muffin tops... I looked and looked and looked for jeans that came up higher and there simply weren't any, so I had to buy muffin top ones. Why does this happen?

then they say it's driven by demand

4 year old girls are not demanding to be dressed like daisy duke in ting hotpants.

Very few parents are keen either.

We went shopping for shorts for DD (8) and in all the shops they only had stuff in the girls section that would have had her arse hanging out.

In the end we got a load of stuff from JD sports

We looked in the boys section as well obv but DD is sizable of bum and that didn't work either.

DD1 prefers boys clothes always has - confortable, decent coverage.

Girls clothes are so revealing, women's too. I think that the average man would feel really really vulnerable if he suddenly had to dress like teen girls / women are epxected to / what is fashionable etc.

Has anyone else noticed the cherries?

My dd is 4 and has just moved up to the older girls age category of clothing. I went shopping for her recently and I searched the whole shopping centre but nearly every shop had clothes that were far too grown up looking for her.

In several different shops I found clothes that I initially thought looked ok, but then found they was covered in images of cherries. I don't know if it's just me, but I feel that there is a sexualised message in images of cherries on little girls clothes, as if it's advertising their virginity as a cherry waiting to be popped.

In the end I bought her clothes in mothercare from the little bird range.

SardinesAreYum - ask most uk men to wear speedos to see how little they like being on display - its just a bikini bottom for men.

PookyHook - agree with the cherry thing as well, i can't believe this is an accident.

i hadn't noticed the predator thing, just the boring colours and generally more aspirational slogans. But thinking about it the only animal prints we have on clothes are sharks and tigers.

weighted
I've got a few slogan tops for my girls - one that's "I'm not bossy - I have leadership skills" and there's another floating around a laundry pile somewhere with "forget princess I want to be a scientist"
I just wanted to point out that although these are better, no one would ever use bossy as a descriptor for a man, assertive sure but bossy is primarily a slur used against women who dare to have their own opinions on how things should be done, so while it’s an improvement on t shorts that day ‘cute’ or some other such drivel there’s still an implied sense that girls who are assertive are less than boys who are.same with the princess scientist one, boys don’t have to reject a fluffy label to adopt a more ambitious one, they just gets the ambitious one by default.
That’s not a criticism of your choice in tshirts for your dad just pointing out that that’s the best of a bad bunch and even the best on offer by manufacturers still carry implied inferiority for the female sex

Sorry typos, not dad... dd

I hate how flimsy fabric is for standard women's / girl's clothes until you get to more premium brand. I was looking for work shirts and the vast majority I'd need to wear something underneath. How is that practical? It really winds me up that shops like Next have good quality men's clothes in natural fibres and their women's clothes are almost entirely created in man made, staticky, flimsy fabrics. Shopping for toddler clothes, it seems this trend starts as soon as babies are out of baby grows.

I'm sure everyone else knew this but I didn't, that let clothes be clothes have a website:

https://www.letclothesbeclothes.co.uk

In a group I'm in a parent was complaining that there were 2 octopi related t shirts in a shop, the girl's one distinctly different to the boys one. Her daughter loves octopuses. (Apologies if anyone knows this group, I'm keeping it anonymous as possible.)

So girls go to the beach to eat ice cream and wear bows; boys go to surf.

And the girls get burnt arms.

I noticed Boden have a decent range of girls clothes at the moment...dinosaur and shark dresses included...sadly a bit pricey for me but I think they are heading in the right direction.

Yes..... but....

The teeth are still sharper on the boy's sharks.

Hell glad I could cause offence to someone.

Oh re the fabrics - adult clothes and Unexpected Transparency!

How many have been caught out (once - and never again!) by something that looked solid in the articifial shop lighting and in daylight is sheer or even see through?

Why do they do that? How many women want to wear transparent clothes? Not many FGS. It's so frustrating.

Yesterday I was walking to work and a woman in a lovely white dress went past, on her phone, striding along, obviously office ready. I could easily see her bra and pants through her dress in the sunshine. She may have known this, but more likely she did not. I was tempted to ask her but didn't as too quick and it would have been a bit weird of me. Just reminded me of a time my friend wore a skirt that was transparent, didn't realise, no pants, in a job with loads of men there (betting shop). She was mortified.

Why do they do this? They KNOW that we often won't see what it looks like in sunshine. It's almost like it's deliberate but I can't quite believe that. But otherwise - why?

THE FECKING PATRIARCHY!

that's why.

My DD would have chosen the grey octopus every time. We ignored the girl/boy divisions (well, sometimes not so much 'ignored' as loudly derided). She had pretty dresses etc too, no limitations.

weighted - I need that 'I'm not bossy...' shirt for my DS1

Hellbent I interpteted the shirt as trying to make the exact point you raise, although perhaps it can be read two ways.

I actually quite like Morrison's clothes for boys, because they do occasionally have green, yellow and orange colours clothes, away from the sea of grey and blue. I find Asda the worst offender for shit like 'Its a boy thing' slogans. I can't abide them.

I also cannot comprehend why characters need to be sex-specific on clothing. Why can't Sky be pictured with the rest of the original PP pups on a unisex tee? It's bizarre.

Thanks for this OP - that looks like a really interesting website. And very good article :)