John Lewis remove gender labels from Childrenswear
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John Lewis has been praised as the first retailer to remove gender labels on their childrenswear offering, replacing labels with ‘Boys & Girls’ and ‘Girls & Boys’ in a bid to abolish gender stereotypes.
The department store has also added ‘non-gender specific’ collections, featuring trousers, jumpers and dresses with dinosaurs and spaceship prints.
Caroline Bettis, the head of childrenswear commented: “We do not want to reinforce gender stereotypes within our John Lewis collections and instead want to provide greater choice and variety to our customers, so that the parent or child can choose what they would like to wear,” in a press statement.
Though these changes have mostly been described as ‘a step in the right direction’, they have also been met with outcry online, for example MP Andrew Bridgen said to The Independent “I have no idea what would possess John Lewis to do this...I cannot see many customers buying a dress for their six-year-old boy.” Other consumers took to social media to vent their opinions on the move made by John Lewis.
'Gender neutral' merely means offering all children the same choice of clothing. It doesn't mean erasing/changing gender. ???? #JohnLewis
— Queen of Cwtches (@DuchessStoHelit) September 3, 2017
#JohnLewis Your gender neutral ideas are a joke - boys are boys & girls are girls, get over it and accept it. Far more you could be doing
— Consumer (@Dowoha) September 4, 2017
The news follows public outcry over retailers Gap, Asda and Clarks placing gender specific statements on clothing, such as ‘social butterflies’ on Girl’s Gap clothing and ‘Little Scholars’ on Boy’s.
The National Trust were also criticised after a photo was posted on social media of a pink bucket printed with ‘future footballers wife’ on sale in one of their gift shops.
Though John Lewis is the first major retailer to make these changes, gender neutral clothing for children has been around for a long time in the UK and Sweden.
"Until around age 11 boys and girls have the same body shape and clothing needs," said Karina Lundell, head designer of gender-neutral Swedish clothing brand Polarn O. Pyret in an interview with Refinery29. Parents have agreed with this too, noting that children’s clothing should be primarily comfortable, and free of any gender conforming messaging.