A furious Edinburgh mum has hit out at ‘sexist’ messaging on children’s clothing sold by Primark which “reinforces old-fashioned stereotypes”.
The raging parent took aim at ‘outdated’ wording on t-shirts and jumpers stocked by the high street giant which promoted boys as “future leaders” while reminding young girls to “smile” and “be kind”.
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The clothes, which are said to be suitable for children aged upwards of three months, have already been panned by some social media users for their archaic sentiments.
Primark said “inclusivity was important” to the brand, adding they offered “a broad range of styles…to cater for every taste and preference”.
One t-shirt, designed for girls aged nine to ten, features the word ‘smile’ in a heart design on the upper right arm, while another in the same range asks ‘could I be any cuter?’.
By comparison a hoodie designed for boys includes an insignia reading ‘go for it’.
The Edinburgh mum-of-two, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: "It makes me so depressed that in 2022 that I can take my daughter buy clothes, and she is being told to 'be kind' and 'smile' while her older brother is branded a 'future leader'.
"It's damaging - and condescending - that from a young age girls are encouraged to look happy and pretty."
She added: "I thought these old-fashioned stereotypes were a thing of the past, but obviously not if big brands like Primark are still churning out these sexists tropes."
Several of the clothing items were highly criticised by novelist Kate Long in a post on Twitter last week.
Tagging the store online, she wrote: "Stop telling girls their place is to serve others! Stop telling boys they should have nothing to do with kindness and love! What are you, a throwback to the 1950s?"
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A Primark spokesperson said: "Inclusivity really matters to us and we work hard across our campaigns, stores, and products to reflect this.
"We offer a broad range of styles across our kids clothing to cater for every taste and preference and have evolved our approach in recent years to remove gender specific labels on all our kids and baby ranges.
"Ultimately, we want our customers to choose and decide who and how they wear our clothes and our campaign imagery and the way we talk about our clothes reflects this.
"However, we are always learning, we welcome customer feedback and will continue to look at where we can do more."
