Dear Old Navy,
My husband, 2 year-old daughter, and I recently went to one of your stores. I confess that I haven’t shopped at Old Navy in a long time, but my husband had a coupon, and I needed some workout tops so we went.
After my husband and I got our items, we went to check out the kids clothes. Our daughter didn’t need anything in particular, but it is hard to pass up kids clothes on clearance (because as we all know kids go from clean to covered in God knows what in 60 seconds). As I do anytime I shop for my daughter, I go to both the girls’ and the boys’ sections. And as in most stores, I quickly became angry at the differences in the clothing I found. The girls’ section had primarily flowers and animals (but only of the gentle variety), while the boys section had messages of adventure, exploration, and conquest. While this is nothing new, there were two shirts in particular that made me livid.
Seriously?!?!
We have a woman running for president. Women all over the world are leaders in business, government, medicine, communities, etc. And you create these shirts for boys and not girls.
Yes, I can and do buy these kinds of shirts for my daughter, but that is not the point. The point is that it is 2016, and we are still having this discussion about the discrepancies in the messages that women and girls of all ages are getting, and we wonder why. Well, part of it is that at 3 months, a boy is encouraged to be the future president and girls are not.
Boys are encouraged to “run wild” and girls are encouraged to wear a pretty dress.
This is not to say that there should not be feminine clothing. As much as it drives my tom-boy self mad, my daughter genuinely likes the colors pink and purple. She adores wearing a “twirly dress” so she can spin herself dizzy. But over and over again, the messages in children’s clothing are clear. And the messages matter. What we tell children everyday in their clothing and the way we react to their clothing matters.
I will say Old Navy seems to be taking strides in the right direction. For instance, I appreciate these pajamas found in the girls’ section. The pjs on the left say, “Who needs superheroes when you can be one”, and they are right next to some dinosaur pjs.
But the differences still exist. Here are a few side by side comparisons of shirts from the boys’ and girls’ sections.
For a day at the beach:
A purpose in life...
Ways to spend your day...
And my favorites… those that remind you where a woman’s true value lies… in her looks,
as opposed to boys whose value lies in their achievements…
So Old Navy, and for that matter the majority of children’s clothing manufacturers, I ask you to 1) let go of the boys’ and girl’s sections and just create one children’s clothing section and 2) create girls’ clothing with messages of leadership and power. And when you do include these messages, please don’t make each one pink and sparkly.
It is simply time to stop reducing our daughters to looks. They are worth so much more.
