Spanish publisher pulls sexist 'joke' book

MADRID, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- A Spanish "joke" book derided as sexist has been pulled from the shelves amid threats of a lawsuit from a women's group.

Publishing company Libsa removed "Lil' Jokes: About girls [only for boys]" advertised as "the best jokes and funny stories for boys," from the market after the country's Women's Institute threatened to sue over the book's "unacceptable sexism," which the group said "encourages violent behavior against women," TheLocal.es reported Tuesday.

"What do women and squash balls have in common?" one of the books jokes reads. "The harder you hit them, the sooner they come back to you."

Emilio Mata, sales director for Libsa, told the Spanish edition of the Huffington Post the company pulled the book because it doesn't "want to cause any kind of controversy."

"It's trivial. It only represents a grain of sand of our total sales, so we'll avoid the problems," Mata said.

"We never meant to harm women with the book," the sales director said. "It was just meant to be fun."