Sexist girls' clothing

[CaitlynsCat]

DD is 11, still pre-pubescent, and notes:

1. girls' shorts are shorter than boys/mens. It's not the done thing to wear very shorts where we are (not in the UK at the moment, on holiday), but her shorts are from England. It is very hard to find longer shorts for girls her age.

Case in point:
girls: www.primark.com/en/product/older-girl-black-short,N35397174203296
boys: www.primark.com/en/product/older-boy-skinny-denim-short,N35397174255349

2. no, or useless, pockets, this is a problem for her as she has just got a phone and is very careful with it, but has nowhere to store it about her person

My dd is 10 and for the past few years I have bought her shorts and a few shirts in boys sections
The shorts are longer and have decent pockets

Yes, the predator/prey distinction was a good point and tends to hold true. I've noticed that sometimes girls get predators but the animal is wearing a bow or some other feminine marker.

My DD has swimming trunks rather than a bikini or swimming costume. She's 3 and therefore no reason to cover her chest even if we agree that there is any good reason to cover breasts. They are blue, pink and yellow spotty so I think they are supposed to be coded feminine. Whatever, they are very practical and she likes them.

Board shorts. Grrrrrrrrrr.

Men's are knee length, giving sun protection and protection from board rash (on surf boards). Women's are tiny and do neither. Presumably because the job of women is to look hot and attract actual surfers. Not to surf Even the rash shirts show women's bellies. I've had board rash on my stomach. It's excruciating.

Which is bad enough. But they do the same with girls' and boys'. From very very young. I just bought the boys' with sharks (more predators) on them. But DD likes Hawaiian flowers. It would be nice to get longer ones for girls. As standard.

Haha yes Paris is for girls, London is for boys. Another great example of this utter nonsense.

This is why I buy predominantly Scandinavian clothes for the kids although they've become more pink v blue recently.

Wtf is all the 'Paris' clothing about? I thought it was just me who'd noticed 😂 I found it weird and upsetting when the 'Frozen' pyjamas for boys didn't have Ana and Elsa on them, just that annoying snowman and ?Kristoff. As if the very idea of wearing a female character is beyond the pale for boys. But then thinking about it, do any boys clothes have female characters on them? Usually Skye is not included for Paw Patrol stuff (nor is Everest). Some PJ Masks stuff has Owlette but a lot doesn't :(

www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/the-gender-politics-of-pockets/380935/

The pockets / phone thing has been written about... loads of other interesting stuff about the feminist issue of pockets kicking around the internet too.

pudding.cool/2018/08/pockets/

This being a cracking piece of research on men’s : women’s pockets and what will fit in them

Almost all animals are gendered. Girls have cats, mice, horses, ladybirds. Boys have lions, tigers, dogs (apart from poodles), frogs

I don't get this. As a child I'd have gone for the tiger or lion print. Big fat meh not bothered to cats or mice.
Same surely the other way round? Why is a horse or a ladybird not a "boys" tshirt?
Load of rubbish. Buy what you like.

Just bought my 2yo daughter a t shirt with a dinosaur on it yesterday.
Pink and sparkly too.

Although after saying my previous comment, just remembered DS1 used to love Dora the Explorer and Charlie and Lola.
Could you ever find any clothing in either of those that wasn't pink or sparkly?! Could you hell!

I don't get this. As a child I'd have gone for the tiger or lion print. Big fat meh not bothered to cats or mice.
Same surely the other way round? Why is a horse or a ladybird not a "boys" tshirt?
Load of rubbish. Buy what you like.

Erm, yes, it is a load of rubbish. I believe I said that. I don't follow the girls/boys divisions in clothes shops for my children and I don't encourage them to see a lion as a 'boy's animal'. But they will pick up on these messages soon enough by themselves.

Surely you don't disagree that animals in this context have undergone a gendering process, though? Ladybirds and cats are being marketed as feminine. They have been used in such a way that a ladybird is now a marker that a t-shirt is 'meant' for girls. That is what I was talking about. I am not saying that it makes sense or that we should follow these stupid rules, merely commenting on the phenomenon of kids' clothing designers assigning a gender to almost everything.

And yes there are some clothes that seem to be a backlash to this, mixing up the established gender markers, e.g. pink and sparkly dinosaur t-shirts. But these are the exception, not the rule. The very fact that we all immediately know what the people who designed the pink dinosaur t-shirt were doing and reacting to shows how well the gendering has worked. Even though we may personally choose to reject gender stereotypes, we all know what they are.

Simple answer. Wear 'boys' clothes until you get to the point they aren't the right shape, round about puberty. I did it in the 90s when distinctions were greater than I preferred proper pockets and hated skirts.

Its a prevailing problem of image though and plays to theories girls are pretty and inactive.