How do you feel about this?

I was at the park with a friend, a friend I’ve known a very long time

She hands me a shirt, it’s a Halloween shirt, it’s really cute. She asks me if my daughter wants it, it’s a little big but will probably fit her next year. My daughter is 4, the shirt is a 6. I tell her yeah it’s super cute, but why doesn’t she want it? She shrugs and says she bought it for her son (he’s 6) but doesn’t want to wear it before he said “it’s too girly” I tell her clothes have no gender and she shrugs it off and says her son didn’t like it.

I was surprised her son said that because I feel like at 6 years old, you don’t really think that way unless you are being taught that way. My daughter is 4 and knows clothes have no genders. So the fact her son is 6 and claiming somethings are “too girly” and refusing to wear them kind of sets off alarm bells, like what is he being taught?

My friend was super casual about it, she didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with what her son said. I don’t know if I’m over thinking it, or if she is just ignorant

A lot of people are asking why it’s transphobic, and maybe I didn’t use the correct word. I just feel like parents play a huge role in what their children say. If her son is claiming something is too girly, it seems to me the parent is putting the idea into the child’s head that some things are for boys, and somethings are for girls, which is further emphasizing gender roles. So maybe no, not transphobic, but definitely not a progressive way of thinking. We should be moving away from gender not continuing the cycle with our children. I will edit the post to leave out transphobic since I didn’t use that correctly.