A chain of U.K. stores called John Lewis has pulled a line of pencils from its shelves after customers complained that they were perpetuating stereotypes about women. T

he charge to erase these from stores was led by journalist Hannah Dunleavy, who raked John Lewis over the coals in an open letter published in Standard Issue magazine. Dunleavy wrote:

Dear John Lewis,

Thanks so much for the new range of pencils designed especially for women on sale in your Cambridge branch. 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. 

Later on, she added:

Yes indeed, if you are heading to an important meeting, nothing says ‘respect me’ more than a pink pencil with the words Girl Boss on. I only hope no one makes the mistake of taking the ‘Buy The Shoes!’ pencil into a meeting and has to leave to go shopping. Can you imagine! But seriously, women love shoes, don’t they? And glitter and bling and smelling roses. It’s a wonder we get anything done at all.

Leah Hayden waded in on the debate, writing on the store's Facebook page: "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 1900s. 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."Super disappointed in a brand that I am both usually loyal to and was a former partner of."

However, some shoppers defended the brand, with Sarah Duggers tweeting: "Oh my god, imagine if there were actually girls who liked glitter, shoes and were, in fact, girls! The horror the horror."

- See more at: http://viralwomen.com/post/these_sexist_pink_for_her_pencils_are_pissing...