Read on Twitter
While I'm on the subject of @Matalan, let's have a peep at their children's clothing. First, what messages are boys getting about themselves? Well, they're superheroes.
Boys like gaming! Tech! Camo!
They like dinosaurs! Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs! More camo! Space!
Boys are monsters!
They are THE BOSS.
Did I mention they like DINOSAURS?
Dinosaurs and gaming?
Gaming and tech!
Tech!
Gaming and tech!
Gaming and tech!
Tech and gaming!
My husband joined me at this point, and he said, 'What's wrong with these messages? Don't all kids like gaming?' And I said, 'Come with me to the girls' section and see how many of their clothes tell them they have ownership of games, tech, science.'
So he did. And here's what little girls are being told about themselves.
Like their adult female counterparts, they're being urged to LOVE. Nothing wrong with this message, except it doesn't appear anywhere on the boys' clothes.
They're *still* being urged to dream about fantasy animals rather than engage with the real world.
Girls are ordered to Be Kind, again not a bad message in itself but why isn't it all over the boys' t shirts? I'll tell you the practical application of this drilled-in messaging: if, in a classroom, there aren't enough iPads to go round, guess which sex rushes to give theirs up?
And guess which sex takes them without even a second thought? That pattern is replicated all the time. Girls are groomed to give up their spaces, time and possessions in a way boys are not.
Girls are taken a step back from the business of the world.
It's hearts all the way. No hearts on the boys' clothing.
Girls are urged to smile and be pleasant, compliant and decorative.
"Always kind." Always give way, give up, step aside.
Where are the corresponding 'Little gentlemen' t shirts?
Girls in Matalan don't take part in competitive activities but they are allowed to dance, in bows and princess crowns.
Sparkly Princess. Ye gods.
Smile, smile, SMILE.
More hearts, more insistence that girls need to make the place pleasant for everyone else.
It's like an order.
Over and over again.
Be perfect, girls. That's your job.
PERFECT, we told you.
Don't concern yourself with the real world. Fantasy is your small, untroublesome domain.
What does "GLITTER ON" even mean?
I could have made this thread as long again (no, please, Kate, enough) but I ran out of time and anyway you get the point.
It's no good us ringing our hands about girls not taking careers in STEM when we're pushing them away from those subjects right through childhood.
It's no good us ringing our hands about girls not taking careers in STEM when we're pushing them away from those subjects right through childhood.
It's no good us wondering why so many boys grow up unable to reach out to friends, emotionally disconnected and vulnerable to mental health problems when we've told them plainly that love and positivity is just for girls.
We're telling one sex here they don't deserve to have boundaries or a stake in the real world, and the other that their most significant relationship is with tech.
My husband couldn't believe what he'd seen. 'It's only one shop, though, yeah?' he said. I told him the same messages were being repeated in every high street retailer.
'I see it now,' he said. 'It's not right, is it?'
