I thought everyone, or everyone with children at least, knew about the differences between boy and girl section clothing — because it’s been blogged about a lot (e.g. here, here, and here). However, I posted these photos above of T-shirts from a “girl” section vs T-shirts from a “boy” section on facebook. My friends took the opportunity to vent which was what I expected from my bubble. But when a friend reposted it to their wall and into another bubble, one comment took me by surprise. They said, “Wow. I’m shocked (& kinda disgusted!) I have 3 girls so would hardly ever even walk through any boys clothing section so this is enlightening” along with some fuming angry emojis.
So not everyone knows! And even people who know, may not have thought about it that much, nor made a point of giving their children a full range of clothing options. Which is why I suggest the gender expression clothes rack provocation to educators.
To keep this blog post short, I’ll skip a long detailed rant and ask you to do the thinking. To start you off, I’m going to offer you some “girl” section vs “boy” section comparisons and ask you to reflect on one very important question… What message/s do these clothes give children about gender?
SIZE: Girl section clothes, in the same size, are smaller.
FABRIC: Boy section clothes are made of thicker more durable fabric.
COLOUR: Girl section clothes are dominated by pink/purple and pastels.
FIT: Boy section clothes are more boxy and less fitted.
WORDS: Boy section clothes have words like “awesome” and “strong” while girl section clothes say “smile”, “delicate flower” and “be kind”.
IMAGES: Girl section clothes have images of butterflies, unicorns and flowers while boy section clothes have dinosaurs, snakes and skateboards.
Please share your thoughts in the comments. And check out all the work done by Let Clothes Be Clothes in the UK.