Specsavers under fire for separating ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ glasses for kids
Specsavers is under fire – for deciding to separate children’s glasses by gender.
As companies elsewhere make moves to break down barriers by removing gender labels, a petition urges the glasses retailer to backtrack on its decision to offer ‘boy’ glasses and ‘girl’ glasses – where they were previously unisex.
The petition states: “Specsavers are starting to roll out separate sections for children’s frames based on gender.
“This decision is going backwards by telling children which glasses they can or cannot wear based on something as arbitrary as gender.
“It fails to recognise children who may be gender non-conforming or non-binary, or who are starting to realise that they are a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth.
“This change limits both cisgender and transgender children, telling boys they can’t like pink, and girls that they can’t like football, and totally ignoring all the young people who fit in anywhere on the spectrum of gender!”
The creator of the petition told PinkNews: “We think this is ridiculous as not only does it enforce harmful gender stereotypes but it also denies the existence of non-binary, agender, gender queer, gender non-conforming and transgender people.”
It comes after US retailer Target decided to make changes to remove gender markers from children’s toys in its stores – affirming that children can play with any toy.
Target said: “As guests have pointed out, in some departments like toys, home or entertainment, suggesting products by gender is unnecessary,” Target announced on it website on Friday.
“We heard you, and we agree. Right now, our teams are working across the store to identify areas where we can phase out gender-based signage to help strike a better balance.”
