Department store John Lewis is facing a boycott for making its children’s clothing ‘gender neutral’.
The high street giant has done away with separate ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ sections in its stores and removed gender specific labels from its clothing line.
All John Lewis children’s clothing – including dresses and skirts – will now be labelled for both boys and girls.
Political correctness
The move provoked a strong reaction from shoppers, who said they would be taking their business elsewhere.
Writing on John Lewis’ Facebook page, David Hollingworth said: “Your bowing to politically correct nonsense over children’s clothes labelling is ridiculous. I hope people vote with their feet and shop elsewhere.”
Frode Gummer said: “How do I cancel my store membership reward card, I will not support a store that bows down to such PC claptrap.”
And Debra Hemani expressed her frustration saying: “My son is a boy and I want to go to the boys’ department to look for his clothes. Why is that not OK? I think this change is ridiculous.”
‘Confusing’
The decision makes John Lewis the only UK retailer to have removed gender labels from children’s clothing.
Head of childrenswear Caroline Bettis said John Lewis made the decision because it does not want to “reinforce gender stereotypes”.
But Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said: “I have no idea what would possess John Lewis to do this. Boys and girls labels and signs are informative. I think removing them could be very confusing for the customer.”
He added: “I cannot see many customers buying a dress for their six-year-old boy.”