How gendered are your clothes?

When I went to conduct additional research on this topic (buying even more pants as we are toilet training our twin girls), I noticed a similar pattern across multiple department stores: girl’s pants are covered in hearts, flowers, fairies, and circus animals. Boys pants are decorated in cars, trucks, monsters, astronauts, and dinosaurs.

For my girls, who adore all of these things in equal measure, I found myself dismayed that my car-loving, dinosaur-roaring, rocket-ship flying, butterfly-wing wearing daughters did not have access to underpants with a spooky monster emblazoned on them.

With the exception of Carter’s (a US brand) and GAP, who offer a set of pink dinosaur pants, there was a distinct lack of rockets, astronauts, cars, trucks, planes, tractors, monsters, sea creatures, etc. on pants. There just wasn’t a ready-to-wear option.

Or one wasn’t designed for them. Because they are girls and for whatever reason, girls get ladybirds and fairies and boys get monsters, trucks and cars. Full stop.

I recognise I can simply purchase the boys underpants for the girls and stay silent on the topic. Or purchase plain pants and draw cars and tractors on them. However the market just isn’t providing my girls with a ready-to-wear option. I’ve noticed this pattern before when it came to boys and girls decor, clothing, and books. I can stay silent no more.

It doesn’t end with underpants. It begins with underpants. It extends to our t-shirts, the books we read, the shows we watch, and the way we engage and learn and grow. The fewer options we provide our children — whether it be on their clothing or in any of their choices — diminishes their opportunities and freedoms as an adult.

Women and girls already have proscriptive roles in most societies — even in the “advanced” ones. It is our job to begin when they are young to encourage them to explore their creativity and to provide them with inspiration to stoke their imagination. If my children — my boy or my two girls — want to wear hot pink t-shirts covered in hearts or bows in their hair or other traditional gendered clothing, fine by me. I want to give them the space and options to wear what they want to wear — to play with the toys they choose and to read the books they wish to read — not what society or a fashion buyer dictates. Giving children choices also enhances critical thinking skills and confidence-building.

Furthermore, if we blindly follow societal norms and the status quo, we will continue to have underrepresentation of females in the sciences, fewer women in positions of leadership, and more abuse of power/sex scandals.

I am not suggesting that my daughters will become astronauts if they have a rocket on their pants or an apiarist if they have a bee on the bum of their knickers.

They should simply have more options than unicorns and princesses. All children — not just girls — should have more female protagonists in their stories, more scientists, more positive role models.

I’m not calling for gender-neutral underpants…Honestly, will non-binary underpants solve this problem? Probably not. And that is not my point. Pants for any child — girl or boy — with exciting rockets and fierce dinosaurs, cool cars and zooming aeroplanes are a start, and every child should have access to those designs. Children get excited about cool stuff on their clothes. If it is on their knickers they lose their minds. It is widely accepted that branding can be a powerful tool that moves people to act. Next are their clothes, books, toys and maybe one day, the perspective of a generation.

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