THE author of feminist children’s books has weighed into the debate over “sexist” toilet signs.

Mel Elliott, of Hastings, who wrote the Pearl Power stories, has accused Marks and Spencer in Shoreham of sending the wrong messages to children.

She said the signs could suggest childcare is dealt with only by women.

She said: “However small this is, it’s still there sending messages. They’re still there getting into children’s brains, that the worst thing about it.”

She said some of the comments posted online in response to our original story on Tuesday were “vile”, adding: “I think some of them would prefer cave drawings to toilet signs, frankly.”

On Tuesday the Argus reported Marks and Spencer’s Holmbush shopping centre store had been criticised over its toilet signs.

They indicate the men’s with a blue line drawing of a man in a tie and the women’s with a pink line drawing of a woman in a dress.

Unlike the man, the woman is accompanied by a child, although the store said both lavatories have baby changing facilities.

Ms Elliott said: “I don’t think I would have complained but if I were a man, I think it would offend me.

“My husband and my friends’ husbands do most of the childcare and if I were a father I’d be more offended.

“Also, I’m just so sick of this pink and blue thing, when is that going to stop?”

She said the bigger issue was the way the signs might be read by children.

She said: “I do worry about adults and their opinions, but there’s still sexism about and I’d like to create a generation which isn’t sexist.

“It’s not a big thing but it’s all messages which stick in children’s minds: the man is in a tie, the woman with a child.

“And we’re not going to move on in the way we should be moving on

“I don’t want my daughter growing up think she should be one way and boys should be another way

“However small this is, it’s still there sending messages. They’re still there getting into children’s brains, that the worst thing about it.”

Argus readers have responded to the story in their hundreds online and on Facebook.

One wrote: “Beggars belief.

“This is now becoming common everywhere, if you recall a few weeks ago all the sexists were moaning about the BBC.

“Personally I don’t have a problem with Nurse Who.”

Another said: “Shouldn’t the woman be wearing trousers too, for equality, or the man a dress?”