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People are not impressed with these 'patronising' pink pencils for girls

Sigh.

OH DEAR, JOHN Lewis have upset people. Sure, they made people cry with this year’s Christmas ad, but now they’re simply rubbing people up the wrong way.

234468869alt2 John Lewis John Lewis

The department store are stocking Abigail Warner For Her pencils, which many women have described as sexist.

They’re pink and contain slogans such as Girl Boss and Buy The Shoes. Journalist Hannah Dunleavy wrote an open letter to John Lewis, explaining her outrage at the pens.

I cannot tell you the number of times I have struggled with a non-gender-specific pencil and thought, ‘If only this were pink,’.
I haven’t had the opportunity to purchase any as I feel I should seek my husband’s approval first and unfortunately I’ve yet to meet him. I only hope there are some left when I do, as their wonderful pinkness is bound to attract every single female who comes into your store.

234468869alt2 John Lewis John Lewis

Another disappointed customer, Leah Hayden, wrote on Facebook:

Thank you so much John Lewis for creating pencils I can finally use with my delicate, female hands. Oh wait! This isn’t the early-mid 1900′s. This is 2015 where I thought women were beginning to reach equality on all sorts of things. Clearly, writing utensils are not one of them.

Twitter soon picked up on the items.

But is it all hulabaloo over nothing?

Abigail Warner also sells pencils For Him, which include slogans such as Best in Show and You’re Welcome, but they aren’t available in John Lewis.

original_for-him-pencils Notonthehighstreet Notonthehighstreet

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Author
Nicola Byrne
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