A single dad called out Superdrug for the gendered way they promote baby products, after he was unable to find a parenting section on the website.
Dave Darby, from Berkshire, said he was “somewhat perplexed” by Superdrug’s “mother and baby” section and found the wording on their website “derogatory towards fathers”.
Addressing the high-street store on Facebook on Saturday 13 January, Darby wrote: “Whilst looking on your website, I could not find a section for father and baby, yet there is one for mother and baby.
“As a single parent father, I find this somewhat derogatory towards fathers and their children and respectfully ask that this is changed to parent and baby, thus making it politically correct and also Superdrug acknowledging that men can also be single parents.”
A Superdrug spokesperson initially replied: “Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I will pass your feedback over to the relevant team so they can consider this option.”
The store then replied again to say they appreciated Darby’s views and, after a discussion with their web team, have planned an update for this area of their website that will “be more inclusive”.
“This should go live around 20 Feb so we’d love to hear your thoughts on it once it does,” they wrote.
Some mums commented on Darby’s status and said they disagreed with his criticism, stating that the section is called “mother and baby” because as well as baby products it also contains products that are only suitable for mums.
Stef Byerley wrote: “Unless men are going to start needing nipple cream, maternity pads or breast pads anytime soon? It’s nothing against men it’s the products they are selling are for mothers and babies?”
And Louise Riordan wrote: “Now as much as I’m for equality and all, until you (or any other man for that matter) birth a baby and require industrial strength maternity pads, cream for cracked and raw nipples from breastfeeding or nipple pads for when your boobs get a little leaky I would suggest you don’t have a leg to stand on.”
Speaking to HuffPost UK about the upcoming redesign, Darby said: “I can only but assume that there may be some change on their website such as renaming the section to say ‘baby and child’ and within that, or separately, a new mothers’ section, selling creams and pads.
“I await for 20 Feb to see what, if anything, will be changed. Items specifically for mums should be sold in an section labelled ‘new mums’, rather than ‘mother and baby’.
“The things for the child (nappies, nappy rash cream, bottles) should be in a section labelled ‘babies’ with no gendering of the parent.”