Mum blasts Morrisons over sexist T-shirts for girls

Supermarket chain Morrisons has been caught up in a sexism row after complaints about their children’s slogan T-shirts suggesting boys had “big ideas” while girls had “big smiles.”

A photograph of the offending children’s T-shirts was shared to Twitter by a mum who had spotted them while out shopping for holiday clothes.

The T-shirts designed for boys had slogans which read “Little man, big ideas,” and “King of the castle,” while the girls tops contained slogans such as “Little girl, big smiles,” and, “pretty little me.”

“Looking 4 kids’ holiday clothes this morning @Morrisons Didn’t buy anything. I see you don’t think much of girls,” the mum tweeted.

Since sharing other parents have also taken to social media to share their feelings about the slogans.

“Morrisons this is a horrible example of gender stereotyping and @EverydaySexism. Please don’t diminish girls this way,” one user tweeted.

“Such a disappointment This is 2017 for goodness sake,” added another.

“This is absolutely appalling, @Morrisons. It’s Victorian. Rank sexism and misogyny. Girls must smile & be pretty, but boys have the big ideas?” asked another disgruntled user.

Others pointed out that the t-shirts were also unfairly priced with boys T-shirts priced at £2.50, while the girls were £3, making them 17% more expensive.

But while many were offended by the T-shirts other Twitter users thought people were making too much of the issue.

“Seriously get a grip on reality. “Sorry Mum, I can’t be successful because this t-shirt doesn’t encourage me to”. Pathetic. It’s a t-shirt,” one woman tweeted.

“Get over it love, there are far worse things in the world,” another user added. “What’s the big issue? Why do people these days get easily offended?”

Morrisons replied to the original tweet, commenting: “Sorry you feel this way! I’ve fed this back to our buyer for review. Thanks for raising this – Matthew.”

While another spokesperson pointed out that: “Girls t-shirts with slogans like these are very popular with our customers.”

And a third tweeted that t-shirts with other slogans were available for girls. “There are also girls t-shirts with “I want to be a rock star” and “girl power” messages in store now.”

Morrisons aren’t the only supermarket chain to get caught up in a sexism row over children’s clothing.

Earlier this year a mum called out Asda for using a ‘sexist’ slogan on a children’s jumper.

Debbie Dee from Huntly, Aberdeenshire was browsing her local Asda when she noticed the £4 blue jumper that had the words “Boys Will Be Boys” emblazoned across it.

Sharing a picture of the jumper to Facebook she went on to explain, in a now deleted post, why she found the slogan so offensive.

“Quite literally gobsmacked and raging to see this in Asda Huntly!” she wrote. “This is so damaging we cannot possibly still be spouting this nonsense to our children.”

She went on to say that the phrase was often “used to excuse bad behaviour (in boys and men) like hitting, being destructive or boisterous.”

And she also claimed the phrase goes “as far as excusing rape and sexual assault.”

Her post drew a mixed reaction online. And while many parents agreed that the slogan was inappropriate, others thought it was a bit of a fuss about nothing.

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