As of yesterday, this lovely tee-shirt featuring the solar system (Lands’ End still loves you, Pluto) and another proclaiming the wearer as NASA crew are available in girl sizes from Lands’ End, and it’s thanks to the request of one mom with a science loving daughter.
Three weeks ago, Lisa Ryder posted a short letter on Lands’ End’s Facebook page, expressing her and her daughter’s disappointment when they found that the awesome science-oriented designs of the boys section of their catalog, sharks, dinosaurs, and glow-in-the-dark rocket schematics, were not available in the girls section or in girls cuts.
When we got to the available t-shirt designs for girls on page 56, instead of science-themed art, we were treated to sparkly tees with rhinestones, non-realistic looking stars, and a design featuring a dog dressed like a princess and wearing a tutu.
My daughter was very confused. Lots of her friends that are girls love science, too. Why were there no cool science shirts for girls?.. how should I respond to my daughter’s question? In 2014, why are you selling “mighty” tees for boys and “adorable” tees for girls? (Descriptions taken straight from your marketing copy.)
As might be expected, Ryder’s post garnered some attention on Facebook, and yesterday Lands’ End released a statement announcing that they were bringing two of their existing science designs from boys shirts to girls, with more on the way. Good news, although according to the Huffington Post, this isn’t the first time Lands’ End has been called on the carpet for excessively gendered kids clothing, just one of the first times it’s definitively responded. Perhaps a product of the changing climate around and increased awareness of the way we market gender to kids?
(via HuffPo)
- Astronaut Steve Swanson wore a Firefly shirt in the first Instagrams from space
- Buzz Aldrin has a “Get Your Ass to Mars” T-Shirt to send a message to NASA
- Luca Parmitano’s spacesuit malfunctioned and nearly drowned him
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