John Lewis and the gender-neutral clothing debate
In 2016, John Lewis made the bold decision to remove gender-specific labelling from its clothing range for boys and girls, making it the first major UK retailer to do so. They have also removed gender-specific signs from their children’s departments. Although this decision was made over a year ago, the change has only recently been noticed and publicised by the media, resulting in widespread backlash against the company.
John Lewis has explained their position as simply wanting to provide “greater choice and variety to our customers so that parents or children can choose what they would like to wear”. The move has also been described as a bid to reduce “gender stereotypes”. Regardless, many have accused the retailer of bowing down to political correctness. Some have gone as far as to say that this new initiative risks confusing children. Chris McGovern from the Campaign for Real Education stated: “there is a dangerous social phenomenon occurring of gender identity theft, which says there is no difference between boys and girls when of course there is”. Many of the reactions have surmised that mental health issues will rise as a result of gender-neutral clothing. Despite the suggested catastrophic outcomes of John Lewis’ decision, it is unlikely that such an initiative will actually have much of an impact.
Having gender-neutral clothes does not force boys to all of a sudden wear dresses or the colour pink. It simply provides them with a wider range of clothing to choose from. Their desires are not going to automatically change just because the labels on their clothes now say ‘Boy and Girl’ instead of solely ‘Boy’. A lot of boys will still want to wear jeans and tops with stereotypical male patterns on them. And yes, the focus solely on boys and their clothing has been deliberate. If critics of this initiative are truly honest with themselves, there is one particular sex that they are concerned with. And this focus says a lot about society. It is unlikely that such critics are fearful of girls wearing stereotypical boys clothing. Seeing girls wearing clothes featuring dinosaurs or superheroes is not something that will get many people worked up. The thing that will enrage people, however, is the thought of seeing boys wearing the colour pink or a dress. And this is very telling.
The fact that the majority of people don’t bat an eyelid at girls wearing stereotypical boys clothing but become offended at boys wearing stereotypical girls clothing is indicative of the way society view females. A male wearing ‘female’ clothing is mocked and viewed as weak and emasculated whereas it is comprehensible to most that girls would want to be like men in terms of their clothing. This could be viewed as a direct link with how women are viewed and valued in our society as lesser than men. There is also this strange assumption that someone’s clothing will somehow influence his or her sexuality. There is a fear by society that a boy wearing stereotypically female clothing will make him gay, which is still unfortunately perceived as a negative quality. It appears as if the backlash against gender-neutral clothing is due to the fear that boys will be associated with certain persons who society deem to be ‘lesser’.
The decision taken by John Lewis to remove gender-neutral labelling has sparked a debate that seems to be very prevalent in society at the moment, surrounding whether or not political correctness has gone too far. What becomes very apparent during this debate, however, is exactly why society is so against gender-neutral clothing. By looking at the exact reasons why anyone would actually be against this initiative, it becomes apparent that it all comes down to sexism and homophobic tendencies. After all, the only image that people are actually offended by is the potential for boys to start wearing pink dresses — nothing else would elicit such a strong public backlash.
Edited by Maryam Elahi
