We Need More Gender-Neutral Children’s Clothing
My 3-year-old son had been wearing his Paw Patrol T-shirt for several weeks before I noticed something was missing. The episodes he watched featured six regular characters, but only five were on his shirt. Nowhere to be seen: Skye , the symbolic girl.
A quick check on the Internet reveals that this was no coincidence: Paw Patrol boys’ shirts typically only show male puppies (and sometimes their human friends). But there is Skye on every girl’s shirt , and some or all of her co-workers are excluded. What if you’re a boy or girl who wants the whole team on your shirt? You, my tiny child, are out of luck.
This problem extends to the entire clothing aisle: almost all clothing is labeled to indicate whether it is for boys or girls. Find a cute plain t-shirt in the girls section? It most likely has ruffled sleeves or a tiny bow at the neck. Walk up to the guys and you will see that the entire color palette is different: a lot of navy, orange, green and brown, shades of which go against everything in the aisle.
This convoluted dichotomy is why it’s so good to see all gender-specific product lines hitting Target stores this month, such as Toca Boca apparel and accessories . Target has already stripped gender tags from its toy aisles and loosely mixes boys and girls clothing in the kids section, which is a great start.
I believe that if we have any hope of building a world where people can wear whatever they want, we should start with children. And so there should be more stores and brands that don’t impose a false dichotomy between boys ‘and girls’ clothes. Apart from Target and Toca Boca, Handsome in Pink and Jill & Jack are just a few brands trying to mix things up. Their clothes are special for parents who know how to look for them, and the price matches: $ 25 for a T-shirt. I look forward to the day when all brands will produce affordable clothing for children of all genders.