BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

Hello, I've had a rather interesting day today on my programme on five live.

We had a really good chat about children's clothes.

We'd been alerted to the fact that some retailers have different messages for girls and boys.

So on girls' clothes, think of slogans like be kind, humble, grateful, but for the boys,

power, change the game, explorer, didn't sit nicely with lots of the parents who got in touch.

And I've got Kath and James with me. Kath, James, hello.

Hello. Hi, Lago.

Hi. Tell me about what happens when you go shopping for clothes for your children

and you see labels like this, Kath.

It just makes me a bit sad, really.

You know, my eldest refuses to buy dresses and she refuses to wear anything that is overly girly.

And she likes to sort of shop in the boys section because it's just more, I don't know,

more practical for her, the messages resonate better with her.

It's just sad that we're still having these gender stereotypes coming through.

Totally agree with that.

As a person that's out to work and I don't often go shopping with my daughter who's 11,

very sporty.

We had an odd experience recently where she wanted some denim shorts.

So we go into the girls section, I won't mention any shops.

And I was actually horrified that the shorts aimed at that sort of age group were shorter than I ever imagined.

Well, they didn't do it, James.

...