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Clintons apologises for selling 'sexist' mugs calling girls 'princesses' and boys 'heroes'

'You do know it's 2019 right?'

Wednesday 10 July 2019 08:14 BST

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Peppa Pig accused of sexism for using the word 'fireman'

Card and gift shop Clintons has been criticised for selling “sexist” mugs that describe girls as “princesses” and boys as “heroes”.

On Sunday, shopper Paula Espener, from Glasgow, shared a photograph of the mugs on Twitter, warning that they are perpetuating gender stereotypes.

Using the hashtag "everyday sexism" and tagging Clintons, Paula tweeted: “What a delightful message to spread to our children. Please do better.”

Many social media users were similarly outraged by the mugs, with some describing them as “vile” and “revolting”.

Others responded by providing examples of their children who defy gender stereotypes.

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

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1/12The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Anne Hathaway

The 32-year-old actress said she has already experiences job rejections because of her age. “Now I'm in my early thirties and I'm like, 'Why did that 24-year-old get that part? I was that 24-year-old once. I can't be upset about it, it's the way things are,” she told Glamour.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Helen Mirren

On news that Maggie Gyllenhaal had been turned down for being ‘too old’, aged 37, to play a 55-year-old man’s partner: “It’s f***ing outrageous. It’s ridiculous. Honestly, it’s so annoying. And ’twas ever thus. We all watched James Bond as he got more and more geriatric, and his girlfriends got younger and younger. It’s so annoying.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Gyllenhaal revealed she was told by a Hollywood producer that she was too old, aged 37, to play the love interest of a 55-year-old man. “It was astonishing to me. It made me feel bad, and then it made feel angry, and then it made me laugh,” she said at the time.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep has helped fund an all-female screenwriters group called The Writer’s Lab to encourage more women to pen Hollywood scripts. She previously told Vogue in 2011: “Once women pass childbearing age they could only be seen as grotesque on some level.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Emma Thompson

The actress said she thought Hollywood is “still completely s***” when it comes to treating women equally to men. ““When I was younger, I really did think we were on our way to a better world. And when I look at it now, it is in a worse state than I have known it, particularly for women, and I find that very disturbing and sad.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Elizabeth Banks

Banks said she was driven from acting to directing due to the lack of roles for older women in Hollywood. “"[Industry sexism] drove me to direct for sure. I definitely was feeling that I was unfulfilled and a little bit bored by the things that were coming across my desk. I mean look at Gwyneth Paltrow who has her Oscar [for Shakespeare in Love] and played fifth banana to Iron Man,” she told Deadline.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Viola Davis

“I had never seen a 49-year-old, dark-skinned woman who is not a size 2 be a sexualised role in TV or film. I'm a sexual woman, but nothing in my career has ever identified me as a sexualised woman. I was the prototype of the ‘mommified’ role,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Liv Tyler

The Lord of the Rings actress said she only get cast in roles where she is treated as a “second class citizen” at the age of 38. “When you’re in your teens or twenties, there is an abundance of ingenue parts which are exciting to play. But at [my age], you’re usually the wife or the girlfriend - a sort of second-class citizen. There are more interesting roles for women when they get a bit older,” she told More magazine.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Cate Blanchett

The actress famously called out sexism on the red carpet at the 2014 Screen Actors Guild Awards. When a camera operator scanned her up and down, she said: “Do you do this to the guys?” In her Oscar acceptance speech for Blue Jasmine, she reminded the film industry that movies with leading women can still be successful. “And thank you to... those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films, with women at the centre, are niche experiences. They are not -- audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. The world is round, people.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Ellen Page

Asked if she had ever encountered sexism in Hollywood, Page told The Guardian: ‘Oh my God, yeah! It's constant! It's how you're treated, it's how you're looked at, how you're expected to look in a photoshoot, it's how you're expected to shut up and not have an opinion, it's how you... If you're a girl and you don't fit the very specific vision of what a girl should be, which is always from a man's perspective, then you're a little bit at a loss.”

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Zoe Saldana

The actress says she refuses roles where she has to play the generic girlfriend, wife or sexy bombshell. "It's very hard being a woman in a man's world, and I recognised it was a man's world even when I was a kid. It's an inequality and injustice that drove me crazy, and which I always spoke out against — and I've always been outspoken,” she told Manhattan magazine.

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The actors fighting against sexism in Hollywood

Charlize Theron

The actress spoke to ELLE about negotiating equal pay for the Snow White and the Huntsman sequel: "This is a good time for us to bring this to a place of fairness, and girls need to know that being a feminist is a good thing. It doesn't mean that you hate men. It means equal rights. If you're doing the same job, you should be compensated and treated in the same way."

Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

“Really? You do know it's 2019 right? Shan't waste my time. Gotta drop my 11-year-old girl to karate (brown belt) and 15-year-old T1 diabetic girl to lifeguard training,” one person wrote.

“These fab young ladies are my heroes, I'd be a mug to purchase anything like what you're selling.”

Another added: “My daughter is a hero and my son is a total babe!”

A third person, who works as a firefighter, wrote: “@ClintonsTweet are you saying that I can only be a princess and not a hero? Because that isn't in my job description #firefighter.”

Since sharing the photograph online, Espener’s tweet has received 1.8k likes and nearly 500 retweets.

After seeing the response, Espener expanded on her original tweet, adding: “Its mind boggling and extremely frustrating rather than offensive.

“It’s not wrong for a girl to want to be a princess in the same way that it’s not wrong for a boy to want to be a prince but the problem comes when you a tell a girl/woman that’s all she can be.”

Clintons replied to the tweet and said it would pass the concerns over to its buying team for review.

In an additional statement, Gabrielle Peters, head of gifts at Clintons, said the company was “very sorry” for any offence caused.

“This is one from a wide range of drinkware that we sell, all of which is selected by our all-women gift buying team,” Peters said.

“Many of our products feature affirmative, strong statements relating to women. There are many princesses and heroes – fictional and real – that are very positive role models.

“We are sensitive to feedback and will review our range. All of our messages come from a good place and our intention is to cater to as wide an audience as possible.”

Earlier this year, supermarket Asda was accused of sexism over the stereotypes it used to described children’s clothing online.

Katherine Tierney, from Scotland, recently noted the difference in the supermarket chain's clothing descriptions while browsing the children’s section of its website.

The mother-of-two was so enraged by what she found she decided to share two screenshots of the gendered ranges on Twitter alongside the caption: “I'm shocked at the different descriptions of trousers @georgeatasda have used for baby girls & boys [sic].

“Active little men who need comfy clothes that move with them, or pretty little princesses who look as cute as a button?

"Are you actually kidding me?! #everydaysexism @letclothesbe."

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