Why this Tesco sign is splitting opinions online in a furious sexism row

Rob Lowe was out shopping in Tesco when he saw a sign for the toy aisle.

The sign indicated that the aisle was stocked with ‘Pre-School Toys’ and ‘Girls Toys’

The furious father snapped a pic of the sign before uploading it to Twitter and complaining about it being sexist.

He wrote: “Come on @Tesco. This isn't really acceptable anymore. My daughter loves unicorns and dolls. She ALSO loves robots, dinosaurs, rockets, monsters and lego. Don't make me have to reassure her that this is ok. @LetToysBeToys @letclothesbe"

The tweet sparked a huge response online with almost 500 retweets and hundreds of comments from people on both sides of the debate.

Some people argued that there was no problem with the sign including one person who tweeted: “Anymore? So it used to be acceptable? What changed?

“Oh yeah. People started caring about ridiculous stuff like this when we have real problems in the world. It wasnt a problem when you grew up and it's not a problem now.”

Daniel Parker tweeted: “That’s great your daughter likes to play with robots and unicorns or whatever she likes and she should.

“But people just seem overly sensitive to everything now. What’s the big deal with labelling the aisles girl/boy toys? If I go there looking for a Barbie doll it sends me in the right direction.”

However, other people were quick to agree with Rob, calling on Tesco to change the sign.

Mike tweeted: “Well said Rob if they just left the sign saying Toys it would of been acceptable for all.”

Ben Brown tweeted: “I agree, couldn't they have put Toys instead of making it a boy or girl thing?”

Whereas others were quick to point out Tesco’s grammatical mistake.

Donna Franceschild tweeted: “Plus, how is she supposed to get to grips with English grammar if @Tesco omits the crucial apostrophe indicating the possessive? Perhaps they don't think girls should be worrying their pretty little heads about that.”

Jean-May tweeted: “It definitely matters...my daughter once entered a competition in Tesco and had to tick which toy she would like from two lists - girls’ toys and boys’ toys and asked in an ashamed way if she was allowed to tick a boys toy!! It does confuse them!”

Rob went back online to defend his original point stating that the sign was an ‘example of how girls and boys are told to act in a certain way and this influences their life choices’.

A spokesperson for the company said, "We agree toys are for everyone and removed the ‘Girls’ Toys’ and ‘Boys’ Toys’ signage from our stores several years ago, but it appears that this one was missed.

"We will have it changed to the new signage as soon as possible."