My Daughter Prefers Boy’s Underwear – A Tale of Star Wars, Pee Flaps, and Gender Stereotypes
Summary: If your daughter doesn’t want flowers, hearts and unicorns on her ass she’s out of luck. The shocking fact that there are no Star Wars underwear for girls.
Recently my seven-year old daughter announced she wanted boys underwear. The idea was funny to her and she preferred the patterns on the boy’s underwear. So we got her a couple of pairs that had footballs, baseball and bats on them. The odd thing is she has no interest in these sports.
She proudly ran around the living room in her sports themed underwear and stopped frequently to see how they looked and to examine the fabric.
“What’s this part for?”
“Oh, that’s a little flap. Pull it open. It’s like a little hole.”
“Why does it have that?”
“Well, the idea is that a boy could open the flap and pull his penis through. That way he can pee in the toilet without pulling down his underwear.
“What?!! Is that for real?!!”
“Yes”
“I want to try that!”
“Uh, you can’t. You’ll just pee all over yourself. You need a penis to do it.”
“I’m going to try!”
“No you’re not. It won’t work.”
“Awwww…”
Shortly after we got the sports themed underwear her birthday came up. She was clear on what she wanted – more boys underwear – and preferably Stars Wars. The Star Wars part being the most important.
Now, one would think that Star Wars underwear would come in both boy’s and girl’s styles. Just about every kid I know, be they boy or girl, loves Star Wars. So why not market to both?
Apparently, the brilliant minds who control the children’s clothing market has decided that only boys want Darth Vader or Yoda on their butt. Girls, well they can drop $90 and get some vintage C3PO Underoos that look like a costume, but only guys get the real deal.
I was shocked.
Now, over the years I’ve gotten numb to the gender ghettoization of Toy’s R Us with their alternating pink and blue isles of girls and boys crap. I’ve even gotten numb to the over sexualization of children’s toys where the dolls look like whores or Lolitas in training and the action figures look like roid raging freaks who exist only to destroy and fight. But I was not expecting something as ubiquitous to post 70’s childhood as Star Wars to suffer the same fate.
How short-sighted and sad that they think my daughter only wants kitty cats and rainbows.
Shame on whomever deserves to be shamed on. Oh, and damn them all to hell as well.
File Under: They Don’t Make Stars Wars Underwear for Girls – Gender Prejudice in Children’s Clothing Choices
July 28th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Great topic! I grew up with 3 brothers, no sisters, so I too was a fan of boys’ clothing as a child. Your daughter is on to something. In addition to being more visually interesting at times, boys’ clothing is sturdier. Try some outerwear such as a sweatshirt or a jacket.
Cielle
.-= Cielle Christopher´s lastest blog ..Summer homeworkAre you kidding me =-.
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September 19th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
I hear you! My daughter loves airplanes, and everything is geared for boys only. We also want to get her a bike that is gender neutral so we can pass it on to her baby brother someday…but the choices are barbie or hello kitty bikes, or flames totally super boy bikes. UGH! And she likes boy underwear better too!
.-= candace´s lastest blog ..Family Outing to Natural Science Museum =-.
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March 29th, 2011 at 8:41 am
I’m 24 and still looking for star wars underwear… I’m afraid that if she follows the way of being a nerd (which is so much fun) you’ll run into this a lot with all kinds of things… and when you FINALLY find something for women it’s either skanked out or going to require a loan to purchase or both… sad day
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April 13th, 2011 at 11:03 am
LOL those are awesome.
Do they make “force” noises when you take them off?
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May 22nd, 2011 at 6:17 pm
When I was about 11, I was at the mall with my mom, shopping for clothes. I remember wanting to get these boy shirts just because I preferred the plain earthy colors and the more comfortable looking style. I was then reprimanded by my mom for wanting something that was socially unacceptable, “those are boys shirts, you can’t wear those”. There really isn’t one person to blame for these stringent gender accepted roles, it’s just been perpetuated from society and people, like my mom, continuing to stick to it.
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February 21st, 2013 at 12:33 pm
When i was 8 my dad took my to go get some long johns for an ice fishing trip we were going on. As we headed back to the girls section we walked right pasred the boys long johns. I saw a pair that had all kinds of bugs and creepy crawlies all over it. I stopped and asked my dad if I could get that pair, me said that was fine, if that was really the pair I wanted. I said yes. He still wanted me to look at the girl ones, the were pink and had flower…. not being a “girly girl” I was horrified that there were little girls that wore that when the could have bugs.. my dad just laughed
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