Where is the Dora clothing for boys?
Categories: Media
My son is pleased as punch. He found a great Dora shirt (on sale) on a recent trip to Kohl's. It pictures his favorite of all possible favorite characters: Dora, Boots and a cool star. OK, so it has ruffles on all the bottom hems. But at least it's not pink!
Why can't the relentless marketers create boy's clothing with Dora's image on it? I get that cousin Diego was added to address just this issue. But it's not Diego that Everett loves: it's Dora. Dora's the hero. And I see nothing wrong with little boys who think little girls are cool. To present the world otherwise would be terrifically sexist. Yet, clothing marketers are evidently stuck in the chauvenist past. Every little boy I know loves Dora. Why can't I buy Dora clothing without having to cut off the ruffles? We have a woman secretary of state. Women CEOs of some of the biggest tech companies. Woman Supreme Court Justices. This is the 21st century. Can't our little boys have little girl heroes?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Uncle Roger 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
Count me in too! Wee Jared loves Dora too... along with Land Rovers, running around outdoors, and (soon) camping. Dora's an explorer just like him.
And while we're at it, why couldn't we have some non-pink Dora (or other characters) for Girls? Little Sara is only 7 months, but she already seems to like starships and such. If I have anything to say about it, she's going to be as self-reliant, confident, and capable as her brother (despite the pink-loving efforts of -- it seems -- the rest of the world)!
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cooper 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
You are so right on the mark here. My three year old son LOVES Dora and wears his big sister's old Dora PJs to bed. They aren't too frilly, but geez, why do kids have to be put in a gender box? My five year old would be so happy if there were "girl" Spider-man undies.
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Ted 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
We had the same problem when using the Pampers Feel 'n Learn pullups. Our 2.5 year old thinks Spiderman is scary, but he loves Dora. However, he looked at the Dora Feel 'n Learns, spotted the flowers and said "These are for girls."
(We can't figure out where the flowers/girls thing came from, though.)
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Cheri Duensing 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
Count me in too!!!! My two year old just adores Dora...doesn't even recognize Diego..Boots is just the best to him. It is so hard to explain to him that he cant have that nightgown..or that cute shirt in the girls department. Who should we all contact to protest this girl only Dora clothing?
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Jill Mohr 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
I am glad to see my son and I are not alone in this problem. Dora is his favorite by far and I cannot find anything for him to wear. He wants a swiper outfit so bad and I cannot find one anywhere. Dora appeals to boys and girls and should not be sold in only pink frilly outfits.
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Tami Ochs 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
Hey my son loves Dora too! He is soooo upset his little sister has Dora PJs (in blue?!) he wants to wear them but they are 2 sizes to small!
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Kayte 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
So I'm not the only one! My son (2 1/2) loves boy and girl characters alike...why should he only be allowed to identify with characters of the same gender as himself? I'm always on the lookout for non-girly Dora clothing...glad to know I'm not alone. And in answer to Cheri, we could contact Nickelodeon and specify that our sons want Dora clothing too and that they are being shortsighted and sexist by not creating it!
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Mr Bevan 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
In addition to clothing, my partner wishes that manufacturers of childrens shoes, would stop being so gender specific where it comes to style. Recently she had to take our three year old son to the girls section of a local shoe shop to find a pair of close toe red t bar sandles, for him. They were made by a company called J Ray Shoes.
What is more irritating is that checking on the net, my partner has been informed by several manufactures, that this style is suitable for both girls and boys. Both J Ray, Shoes and Startrite, make the t bar style. We both feel that unlike trainers they are better for young feet as they are able to breath.
They are very practical as they can be worn for play and more formal occassions. Having t bar sandles such as those made by J Ray Shoes and Startrite, in a unisex style also means shopping for suitable footwear for young children is easier. Finally my partner said that at Nursery the other day, she noticed a little girl was wearing the identical shoes to our son. Surely this suggests that parent power should be important, not fashion on deciding these things.
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jennifera 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
Sorry that this is so long.
My 3 year old son is the same way, I also have boy/girl twins who are 6 years old, Both boys have long hair and when we go out, alot of people think that i have 3 daughters, My 6 year old son looks just like his sister, They have even switched places at times and my daughter became her brother and her brother became his sister wearing each others clothes, My 3 year old son has also been out in public dressed in girls clothes.
Both of my sons love to watch Dora, If we are out shopping and either of my 2 sons wants something that has dora I will buy it for them, they dont care if it is girlish or not and frankly I dont either, I bought my daughter a Dora nightgown, At times my 6 year old son will forgot to put his dirty PJ's in the laundry, And when he runs out of his PJ's, His sister will let him were some of her's, If is is in the summertime, She will let him wear a nightgown and in the winter she will let him wear tops and bottoms and just about all her PJ's are pink.
My sons have said that they wanted Dora nightgowns of their own, I did do out and buy a Dora nightgown for both of them.
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Tammy 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
My son too loves Dora. He wants the Dora clothes that are in the store but they are all for girls. I wish i could find him a shirt or something that was for a boy.
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Ann 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
As the mother of not one, not two, but three little boys who were all Dora fans at one time or another I can only say, "Exactly!" or "Exactamente" if you prefer. *grin*
Fortunately I have a mother who sews and she made some adorable boys clothing from Dora emblazoned material readily available at a large discount store. As sensitive as branding companies are to interested markets with money to spend you'd think they'd have figured this out before now. Hey, maybe mom should start an eBay business. Dorawear for Dudes.
I agree with your last sentence completely. Why can't males have female heroes. Indeed!
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Jennifer 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
I get some snide comments from time to time, but I started buying both girls and boys things for my son when he was about 2. You just can't find fun things in the boys department.
He loves to wear colorful things and most of those a girls. He's got some dresses but mostly tops. I keep his hair just long enough that if he's wearing something to girlish, people just assume he's one and don't give it another thought
I'm sure that I'll have to stop when he reaches school at but at 4 1/2 I think you can do this and everyone has fun.
Jennifer
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Lindsey 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
I think your all going to feel really bad when your sons come home from school in tears because other kids are relentlessly making fun of him. And the most outragous comment I think I read was from Jennifer. I hope you don't mind when your son grows up to be gay, or maybe turns out to be a cross-dresser. To each his own, but my personal opinion is that this is the reason that I fear for my childrens generation.
Don't get me wrong, I will still love my kids (and I have 1 boy, and 1 girl) if either of them turn out to be gay, but I would hope I never encouraged this behavior.
I do agree that it is perfectly O.K. for boys to have girl heroes. My son watches Dora with his little sister all the time and also thinks she is great, however he does not want to dress in Dora clothing because he knows (and not because I told him this) that Dora is a girl show.
Although, the idea of making "boys" Dora clothing is much better idea than just letting your sons hair grow out long enough that people can't tell whether he's a boy or a girl.
And I just have to ask.......What do their fathers think of this?
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Naomi 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
You know I think what Jennifer is doing is fine. My MIL put dresses on my husband when he was little because she wanted a girl and already had three boys. When he went to school he got his (waist-length) curls cut and wore boys clothes thereafter. The picture of him are adorable and it certainly doesn't appear to have affected his manlihood - at least as far as I can tell!
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Radovan Sliskovic 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
My God, what the hell has our world come to? That's just sick Jennifer!
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Jane 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
Lindsey, the way you dress has absolutely *nothing* to do with your sexuality. If you associate gay men with cross dressing, perhaps it's because only gay men are given societal permission to indulge in behaviour that I suggest an awful lot more men would like to try.
If *all* parents allowed their children to express themselves rather than insisting on gender roles, I suggest that teasing at school would *not* be inevitable. These kids are picking up these attitudes from their parents. Parents who think that being different and not accepting the stereotype is a bad thing. Parents who think that the way you dress inevitably reflects your sexuality or moral fibre.
pax
Jane
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Laura 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
Whoa Lindsey! My 4 year old son LOVES Dora AND SPIDERMAN! I don't think Dora is a "girl's" show at all. I think she is just a girl character! Is Barney a BOYS show b/c he is a boy? I think Dora is wonderful for both my son and daughter. It is so important for children to learn to accept things that are different and Dora does a great job of teaching my caucasian English speaking children that not everybody is like them and that's OK. Why then, would it be bad to teach them that it is OK to like things that the other gender likes? By the way, many GAY men supress their sexuality due to the fear of not be accepted by their parents and are overly "manly" to make up for it.....good luck with that if your son turns out to be gay! I feel for him not having an accepting parent! OH.....and to everyone else about the DORA clothes only being in pink...what's up with that? You'd think the marketers would figure it out! Let me knwo when the Dudes for Dora website is up!...and while your at it....would you make a Girls Love Spiderman, too ONE?
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Lauren 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
My son absolutely adores Dora. He has all of her movies and many of the toys and dolls. The problem I've run into is that he now at the potty training stage and he is adamant that he wants Dora panties. I just don't understand how the marketing folks for Dora totally missed the boat on Dora stuff for boys.
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jennifera 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
Lauren, If your son is adamant about wanting Dora panties, I would get them for him, As I said in my post above, My 2 sons wear girls clothes quite a bit, A few days after I bought a Dora nightgown for both of my sons, My Husband went out and bought both of my sons Dora panties
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Frances 12-18-2005 @ 6:51PM
This is interesting. I have 3 year old boy/girl twins and they dress up in each other's clothes. My son (who is described by many as "all boy") thinks nothing of dressing up with his sister in her "girly" dress up clothes. She wears is Spiderman p.j.'s and dresses up in his camo and football outfits. Their father thinks as I do, that it's all child's play.
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