Pinkstinks' Victory Over UK Supermarket's Sexist Labelling

PINKSTINKS FORCES SAINSBURY’S SUPERMARKET CLIMBDOWN OVER ‘SEXIST’ LABELLING:

Pinkstinks has forced UK supermarket giant Sainsbury’s to withdraw the ‘sexist’ labelling on some of its children’s clothes. The retailer – which has more than 500 stores nationwide – has agreed to re-label thousands of children’s dressing-up outfits after pressure from Pinkstinks and the group’s 13,000 supporters.

Sainsbury’s has now admitted that its gender-specific product-labelling was ‘not acceptable’. The store was selling princess outfits and a ‘circa 1940s’ nurse outfit labelled GIRLS, while pilots, superheroes, soldiers and most astonishing of all, even doctors white coats were marked BOYS.

Abi Moore, Pinkstinks co-founder said: “We asked what sort of message this was sending to girls about what they are ‘fit’ for and what their aspirations might be. As far as we are aware, there are more women at medical school than men nowadays. On our website – www.pinkstinks.co.uk - one of our most popular role models is Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore, the first female Red Arrows pilot. An amazing achievement and yet Sainsbury’s pilots’ outfits were also labelled ‘boys’. 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 that 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, no matter how much she wanted to dress up like a doctor, while the nurses outfit sends a message to boys that they are not ‘meant’ to be nurses either.”

Sainsbury’s has pledged the outfits with new non-gender specific labels will be in-store from July. Sainsbury’s customer director, Gwyn Burr, told Pinkstinks: “It isn't
acceptable to suggest certain professions are the reserve of any gender. This is an error and one I am seeking to address ASAP. The new labels which will be non gender specific will go on the next allocation of clothing, so will be in store from July.”

Says Abi: “Though this may seem trivial, it is important. This kind of labelling is
part of the drip, drip of messages that girls (and boys) receive on a daily basis about their roles in life and the expectations that they should have. Pinkstinks is committed to tackling any kind of gender stereotyping, in particular that which is aimed at children, which we see as damaging, limiting or just plain old-fashioned. We want to congratulate Sainsbury’s on its swift action to redress this matter and hope other retailers will follow their lead. We will be watching.”

For further information contact Lucy Lawrence, Head of communications, at media@..., or on 020 8318 4582. For out-of-hours enquiries please phone 07887 635698.

MORE INFO ON PINKSTINKS:

Pinkstinks was established in 2008 to challenge the culture of pink which invades every aspect of girls' lives. In 2009 its founders won the Sheila McKechnie Foundation’s campaigners award in the Women Creating Change category.

Last December, Pinkstinks ran the campaign Early Learning Centre – Early Learning Emergency, to try and raise parents’, educationalists’ and other concerned parties’ awareness of the widespread gender-stereotyping of the toys and dressing-up outfits being sold in its stores. We felt very strongly that, although the ELC is by no means the only such offender on the high street, its commitment to stretching children’s boundaries was being directly undermined by the products it was marketing towards girls while, at the same time offering boys all manner of exciting action,
adventure, educational and other toys. That campaign received coverage on hundreds of websites, in newspapers, on TV and radio, in 43 countries around the globe and gained us more than 11,000 supporters on Facebook alone.

Pinkstinks aims to counteract the national obsession with celebrities and to champion women who we see as inspirational, important, ground-breaking and motivating. Our website is for parents and non-parents alike and aims to gather support, promote discussion and ultimately to mobilise that support to influence commerce and the media about the importance of promoting positive gender roles to girls.

Also, under development, is our project cooltobe.me, aimed directly at children themselves. Using the best in design, writing, interactivity and content, we will use the power of the web and multi-media to challenge the norm. Unlike many toy manufacturers we will credit our audience with intelligence. We will engage with girls - and boys - to give them something real and cool to aspire to be."

VIVA LA REVOLUCION FEMINISTA!