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Original poster

Gingerbreadperson

60 replies

Zandathepanda · 24/09/2021 11:50

Sainsburys! Where’s the gingerbread man gone? Dd refuses to buy a gingerbreadperson. Good on her.

Run run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me as I don’t exist anymore.

OP posts:
BelleOfTheProvince · 24/09/2021 14:56

I'm on a stupid diet and all I can think of is gingerbread warm out of the oven.
D'oh!

TeiTetua · 24/09/2021 14:55

My dad used to say that when he was growing up, his sister (my aunt) used to say "Always choose one of the boys. You get more."

It doesn't entirely make sense, though. Call them men or people, they're not made to be anatomically complete.

Tell me about gingerbread non-males! Well, they could look like anything, couldn't they.

TheABC · 24/09/2021 14:50

I really want to make gingerbread, now...

Jaysmith71 · 24/09/2021 14:40

@dePfeffel

To be fair, 'gingerbread man' isn't a career choice, is it?
Say that to your claimant adviser and you'll be sanctioned.
Cailleach1 · 24/09/2021 14:33

The biscuits themselves aren't great though, are they? They could make novelty shaped biscuits which taste better.

dePfeffel · 24/09/2021 14:20

@BelleOfTheProvince Grin

BelleOfTheProvince · 24/09/2021 14:17

Just to form another perspective. My friend is a police officer. She says she is very happy with the change to officer/sergeant as bias on documents and even in calling through to another officer using the word 'policewoman' was very apparent.

The police is still hugely sexist though, but at least she's been afforded one layer of protection.

IvyTwines2 · 24/09/2021 14:13

My issue is that we have gone straight from 'man' to the supposedly 'gender-neutral' 'person', batter, firefighter, officer etc. rather than bringing in 'gingerbread woman', 'batswoman' 'firewoman' or whatever. It's reasonable to use the neutral term as plural for a mixed sex group, but when it comes to individuals, with the word 'woman' disappearing at a rate of knots from public life (including supermarket aisle labelling) it looks less like inclusivity or neutrality and more like erasure.

PaleGreenGhost · 24/09/2021 14:02

Agree that we should be able to be clear which [people] are affected by abortion laws though.

Ha!

BelleOfTheProvince · 24/09/2021 14:01

@dePfeffel

To be fair, 'gingerbread man' isn't a career choice, is it?
If it is it's a short one.
BelleOfTheProvince · 24/09/2021 14:00

Just looks to me like a way to skimp on the icing.
This is why we have to sing pat a cake man. Person has very few rhymes that work with the narrative of making a cake quickly.

Pat a cake pat a cake baker's person
Make me a cake before I finish nursin'?

dePfeffel · 24/09/2021 13:50

To be fair, 'gingerbread man' isn't a career choice, is it?

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 24/09/2021 13:45

Another one here who likes gingerbread people because of rejecting the assumptions that (1) default is male and (2) trousers is male. Likewise we look for the green person at the crossing. That's part of my feminism.

Agree that we should be able to be clear which [people] are affected by abortion laws though.

ButterflyHatched · 24/09/2021 13:44

@EmergencyHydrangea

Not sure whats wrong with gingerbread person to be honest? Do you object to chairperson, fire fighter, police officer?
@EmergencyHydrangea I, too, am completely mystified by this. We've even successfully gotten previously explicitly exclusive titles like "rifleman" and "infantryman" renamed to "infantry soldier" and "infanteer" and opened up in order to allow everyone to do them, finally overturning the ludicrous historical restrictions.

Where did this reaction come from?

Original poster
Zandathepanda · 24/09/2021 13:27

Obviously we are getting worn down with language fatigue! Men and women seem to be disappearing, but women at a greater rate than men.
To illustrate, here’s the ‘offending’ person and the people we can’t get anymore. It does seem a bit odd given gingerbread man is a term used in all their other own brand products.
I will leave you too it now.

Gingerbreadperson
Gingerbreadperson
OP posts:
Original poster
Zandathepanda · 24/09/2021 13:11

Oo just come back to this thread. It was supposed to be a bit light-hearted but the reason Dd was fed up was she saw the Ruth Bader Ginsberg quote being changed from women to people (so it didn’t make sense), then we had just discussing getting the 2 pack gingerbread people (one man, one woman - we used to fight over the woman as she had more icing of a nicer flavour like a pp noted above) and they don’t do that anymore. As she was looking, she said you could get a ‘make your own’ or a gluten free gingerbread man. So they still do men but no women Grin.
The ‘person’ has a bow tie, buttons and shorts. And a bemused expression.

OP posts:
EmergencyHydrangea · 24/09/2021 12:59

@MargaritaPie

I thought it was feminists who objected to the gingerbread "man" because it was "sexist"?

Isn't this what you wanted?

This is actually what we were fighting for 20 years ago, I don't know what the fuck happened.
AssassinatedBeauty · 24/09/2021 12:57

The biscuit was around for hundreds of years before the children's story. An early example being Elizabeth 1st's liking for having gingerbread versions of her and her guests at court created. The Gingerbread man story is from 1875, although there are plenty of similar fairy tales about runaway food from around the world that pre-date this.

MargaritaPie · 24/09/2021 12:55

I thought it was feminists who objected to the gingerbread "man" because it was "sexist"?

Isn't this what you wanted?

NotBadConsidering · 24/09/2021 12:54

“Run, run, Elle McPherson, you can’t catch me I’m the Gingerbread Person!”

From the classic folk tale, The Gingerbread Person and the 1990s Supermodels. The gingerbread person is pursued by an increasing number of angry supermodels including Elle McPherson, Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer and Christy Turlington, before eventually being eaten by a fox.

(Not many words rhyme with person 🤔)

Dinnertime22 · 24/09/2021 12:46

We have the book and I always thought it was the cookie based on that character? The Gingerbread man?

PaleGreenGhost · 24/09/2021 12:40

@AssassinatedBeauty

I've always called them gingerbread people, or gingerbread women. It's because I generally try to subvert the stereotypical norm that "people" are defaulted to "men".
Same here. Also cross the road at the green person.

I don't ever trust the motivation of big business, but this does not appear to be an issue.

mytortoiseisill · 24/09/2021 12:36

“I wouldn’t object to this unless the supermarkets drew tiny icing knobs on them and still called them gingerbread people.”

:)

YetAnotherSpartacus · 24/09/2021 12:34

It’s a ploughpersons at my local pub now

Is it traditional or has it gone all gourmet?

MoorGirl · 24/09/2021 12:27

It’s a ploughpersons at my local pub now. 🤦‍♀️