Kmart accused of enforcing gender stereotypes on kids
A customer has complained about Kmart’s range of children’s clothing, accusing the retail giant of “gender stereotyping”.
In a Facebook post, shopper Swagata said she was frustrated by the differences in Kmart’s range of kids t-shirts for boys versus girls.
She claimed that the designs of girls tops included words such as “love”, “more love”, and “smile” while boys tops featured phrases like “adventure”, “wild woodlands”, and “alpine trails”.
“Could you possibly be more gender stereotyping with your kids clothes?” the shopper wrote.
She went on to suggest kids clothes should be gender neutral to give shoppers and kids a wider choice.
“Thumbs down from this parent,” she said.
The complaint comes after a recent petition called on Kmart to stop separating children’s clothing into “boys” and “girls” sections and instead offer one range for all children, claiming the retailer was sending the “wrong” message to kids.
“Many parents of young boys will tell you their son loves pink, rainbows and flowers but simply cannot wear clothes in these styles like girls do without taking them from the girls section, which sends a strong message that the things they like are ‘wrong’,” the petition read.
“Similarly, many parents of girls lament the lack of dinosaurs, trucks and non-frilly styles in the girls’ section.”
But, the petition has received some backlash from parents.
“I don’t mind if they want to remove the ‘Boys’ and ‘Girls’ signage and just make a ‘Children’s’ section,” one commentor wrote.
“But please don’t mix the actual clothing items up so that we have to trawl through racks of ‘boys’ clothes to get to the ‘girls’ clothes we actually want, or vice versa.”
A Kmart spokesperson previously told 7NEWS.com.au that the store embraces inclusion and diversity.
“At Kmart, we are proud to offer customers a wide range of children’s clothing in lots of different styles and it’s certainly not our intention to stereotype children based on gender,” the spokesperson said.
“The store layout reflects a majority of the way our Kmart customers shop and the difference between our boys and girls apparel range (in terms of fit) is marginal, so all customers have the opportunity to shop both areas for children.”