A mum has complained about the range of T-shirts available for girls in Kmart. Photo / TikTok/@letsgoaussie
A mum has complained about the range of T-shirts available for girls in Kmart. Photo / TikTok/@letsgoaussie
An Aussie mum has taken to TikTok to complain that Kmart's range of boys and girls T-shirts are "telling them how to act".
While some agreed with her video and said Kmart should simply have a genderless kids clothing section, others disagreed and labelled her concerns a "stretch".
In avideo that's been viewed more than 651,000 times, Barbara Bryan (@letsgoaussie) compares the Kmart girls range of T-shirts to the boys collection.
She compared the boys and girls shirts. Photo / TikTok/@letsgoaussie
"What are we doing to our girls? Let's compare girls and boys shirts at Kmart," she said.
"Why are we telling girls how to feel via their clothing? They see each other's shirts telling them how to act – be happy, love, be perfect."
In the video, Bryan scanned over a collection of Kmart girls T-shirts with slogans like "a whole lotta love", "bright as can be", "more love", "take it easy" and "Aloha".
There's no shirts telling them how they should feel, the mum says. Photo / Tiktok/@letsgoaussie
In contrast, the boys range of T-shirts had minimal slogans and featured words like "adventure", "alpine trail" and a picture of a bear.
"Oh look, these shirts encourage boldness, adventure, fun," Bryan said. "There's no shirts telling them how they should feel or behave."
Her video attracted thousands of comments, however, people were fiercely divided over whether they were telling boys and girls to act differently.
Some commenters said the idea that a T-shirt would influence children's behaviour was "ridiculous".
"This is a little bit too far isn't it? Considering I really don't see any girls buying those shirts ... there are a lot more and they're just cute ones," one person wrote.
"I feel like kids aren't going to feel oppressed by clothes from Kmart," another wrote.
"If you don't like it, don't buy your daughter it. It's that simple," one comment read.
But others agree with Bryan and said there was evidence that "subliminal" messages in childhood impacted development.
"Waiting for Kmart to just have a 'kids' clothes section instead of separating them ... boys and girls," one commented.
"Why is everyone hating on this? I think she's right. It's subliminal messages they'll carry around with them," one person wrote.
"This comment section is NOT it. These products are extremely consequential to the socialisation of children as they grow up. It propagates inequality," another commented.
It's not the first time a parent has complained about Kmart's kids clothing range – back in 2019 a New Zealand mum started a Change.org petition asking the retailer to make labels "genderless".
The mother started the campaign after coming across a "boys" label when buying a dinosaur T-shirt for her daughter.
However, her plea sparked a major divide, with some parents agreeing while others branded the petition "madness".
