Saturday 27 March 2010

Oh, Not These Cretins Again!

A campaign group has won its battle to persuade a major supermarket to remove "sexist" children's clothing from its 500 stores.
Now, who do you think is doing this?

Oh, you guessed right – it’s our old friends, the Pinkstinks mob again.

What are they complaining about? Bunny costumes for five-year-olds?
The Lewisham-based organisation Pinkstinks complained to Sainsbury's three weeks ago about a range of children's clothing which included a doctor's coat with the word 'boy' written on it.

Other items included a pilot, superhero and soldier outfit labelled 'boy' and a 1940s nurse outfit labelled 'girl'.
That’s it?

People have time on their hands to whine about this?
Pinkstinks co-founder Abi Moore said: “We asked what sort of sexist message this was sending to girls about what they are fit for and what their aspirations might be."
Let’s hope their aspirations are to be more than a whining victim, forever complaining when things don’t go 100% their way, eh? Like you.
She added: "One of our most popular role models is Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore, the RAF's first female Red Arrows pilot.

"This is an amazing achievement and yet Sainsbury’s pilots’ outfits were also labelled ‘boy’, as were the army outfits - even though women have been fighting alongside men at the front line for years.

We simply drew to Sainsbury’s attention the fact it would be a hugely confident and independent little girl who would dare risk the ridicule of her friends by asking for a costume in-store clearly ‘meant’ for boys."
Well done! I bet you feel proud of yourselves, striking such a blow for womanhood!

Why, there’s Kirsty Moore, out there at mach 2, doing an incredibly skilled and dangerous job and then there’s you (and your equally-irritating harridan friend), writing letters to supermarkets whining about labels.

Truly, I don’t know who is the better role model for womankind…
This week Sainsbury's agreed to remove this range of clothing and announced it will use "non-gender specific" labels on its new children's costume range on sale in July.

A spokesman for the company said: "We made the change as we feel it isn't acceptable to suggest that certain professions are the reserve of any gender."
Oh, well done. Now, you are on the hook for every barmy idea this ditzy bitch gets into her head.

Don’t expect any sympathy when she starts writing to you demanding that all your wrapping paper and birthday cards be devoid of kittens and fairies and kiddies birthday cakes come in a unisex shade of grey icing.

You opened the door…

14 comments:

Jiks said...

I wonder what new atrocities will be inflicted upon the English language whilst ensuring "non-gender specific" labels are used. They can't simply be called "childrens clothing" bacause that would be ageist and demeaning! Young Citizens Uniforms perhaps?

Gah! Uniform must be promoting war and likely a hate crime ... Fancy Dress ... no, thats sexist!

*head explodes*

Sue said...

It'll be adult T Shirts with sexist/politically incorrect messages next.

These people need proper jobs. Still, Lewisham.... nuff said.

Ross said...

"We made the change as we feel it isn't acceptable to suggest that certain professions are the reserve of any gender."

Tell that to the bosses of Spearmint Rhino who uncermoniously binned my job application.

Gibby Haynes said...

One of our most popular role models is Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore, the RAF's first female Red Arrows pilot.

Great. But what about Charlotte Madison? She's the first female Apache pilot. Here's an inspiring quote from her: "I think of our job as being like an airborne hitman. You get a scrap of paper with a grid on it and get told to kill whoever's there. It's kind of cool. And we're on the side of good."
Just the sort of role model Pinkstinks can get behind, amirite?

Furor Teutonicus said...

Pinkstinks co-founder Abi Moore said: “We asked what sort of sexist message this was sending to girls about what they are fit for and what their aspirations might be."

So. Piggys, you think that nursing is an inferior job that only those of low expectations aspire to do you?

I hope you point that out to the nurses if you ever end up meeting them proffessionaly.

Can you please record the result on your camphone and post it online?

Mrs Rigby said...

Our local "casualty" is now "Nurse led" - no doctors available.

Why don't these parents think being a nurse is something to aspire to?

Chuckles said...

It seems to me that this is simply Abi Moore proudly telling the world that she can read (but regrettably not read and think), while committing a variation of the old 'the map is not the territory' error.

How exactly does the presence of 3 or 4 letters of writing on some packaging affect the 'fitness for purpose' of a childrens' costume?

Angry Exile said...

"...even though women have been fighting alongside men at the front line for years."

Fail. Or mostly. Women are "...excluded from primarily combat units in the Army, Royal Marines, Royal Air Force Regiment, and the submarine service." Also excluded from having to actually check facts if they're politically inconvenient by the sounds of it.

Longrider said...

Can you please record the result on your camphone and post it online?

After it's been removed and cleaned, presumably?

Mark Wadsworth said...

Ha!

I'l see your Pinkstinks and raise you a recent Fun Online Poll at the Guardian on whether women would be better astronauts than men. There's one possible answer that they missed off.

JuliaM said...

"I wonder what new atrocities will be inflicted upon the English language whilst ensuring "non-gender specific" labels are used."

*shudder*

"It'll be adult T Shirts with sexist/politically incorrect messages next."

Well, they've already started with politically incorrect T-shirts...

"Great. But what about Charlotte Madison? She's the first female Apache pilot."

Ah, but thast's a nasty war machine! Quite unlike those pretty little red jets that have no military application whatsoever, in the mind of idiots like Abi...

"Why don't these parents think being a nurse is something to aspire to?"

Well, even nurses seem to think that basic nursing is beneath them these days!

JuliaM said...

"How exactly does the presence of 3 or 4 letters of writing on some packaging affect the 'fitness for purpose' of a childrens' costume?"

Given how few children in Lewisham can read them, I'd say none...

"There's one possible answer that they missed off."

Heh!

selsey.steve said...

If I gave my eight-year-old grandson a 1940's Nurse's outfit he'd shiv me in seconds. End of.

PJH said...

[...]and a 1940s nurse outfit labelled 'girl'.

Of course, if it had been labled "boy," we'd have heaven knows how many fake-charities complaining.

My guess is that they'd complain even if they hadn't been labled at all.