Gingerbreadperson

[Zandathepanda]

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.

@dePfeffel

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

If it is it's a short one.

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

Ha!

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.

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.

@BelleOfTheProvince

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

@dePfeffel

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

Say that to your claimant adviser and you'll be sanctioned.

I really want to make gingerbread, now...

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.

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

@MoorGirl

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

Seriously?

I can't really care about this, for a plain gingerbread figure, undifferentiated by decorations.

However, I've always thought that the general man for human was fine and the change makes about zero difference in terms of how sexist people are in actual life.

I'm quite happy also with gingerbread men and gingerbread women, indicated through abstract depictions of traditional men's and women's clothing. In fact, at Christmas, I often make gingerbread St Nicholas, who has a miter but is not actually a bishop or even a Christian.

I'm also happy to be a chairman, or, in my youth, even an infantryman, though at the time I was a soldier in order to avoid seeming sexist the young officers were trained to call us "men and females" which always made me roll my eyes a little. It had, as you might expect, no correlation to actual sexism by said young men.

@BelleOfTheProvince

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'?

Bake me a cake before I'm done versin'?

Make it for free cos I forgot to put my purse in?

@BelleOfTheProvince

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.

I understand that reasoning, but I think it would be better if we could move to a situation where the idea of a policewoman or actress etc. wasn't considered silly, less serious, second-best or more vulnerable in some way. The switch to the gender-neutral term feels like an admission and confirmation that it is. It concretes that idea in, rather than challenges it.

What are people's thoughts on snowmen?

That sounds a little bit like ignore it and it will go away.
You have to look at it from a pc perspective. Suspects don't give a fig for sexism, but might react differently to 'a police officer is on the way' than 'a police woman is on the way'.
Actor is neutral like officer so that's fine. Although female actors and male actors obviously need different awards etc. Or males would dominate.

The best gingerbread person I ever had was a gingerbread Morrisons delivery driver. They sent it free when I placed my first order with them.

We've got a cutter somewhere that makes gingerbread people with no legs. Instead their are holes you put your fingers through to make them dance.

I think I'm quite cheered to see the removal of the word man for a change. I'm a bit scarred from the torrent of women replaced by cervix havers, birthers, chest feeders, gestators and the rest by clueless prostrate havers.
Let the gingerbread men get it for a change and give us women and mothers a rest

Obviously there is nothing inherently either ideologically or anatomically wrong with having gingerbread men, women or persons/people (not least because there'snothing particularly obviously male about the usual style of gingerbread man). There's just something a bit petty and ott (or maybe tongue-in-cheek!) about feeling the need to change the standard name of something as inconsequential as a bloody biscuit in deference to either a feminist or a genderist agenda. It rather makes a mockery of real concerns about compelled language.

Gingerbread cervix haver.

It rather makes a mockery of real concerns about compelled language.

Yes, this I think.

It's not on purpose, IMO. This kind of fiddling with language is what civil liberties seems to have come to, and it's been moving in this direction for a long time.

But it doesn't accomplish anything.

I have a set at home for making zombie gingerbread biscuits. It's called The Walking GingerDead.

Personally, I enjoy a gingerbread Peppa Pig.

lazylinguist you have a way with words - this is what I was trying to articulate.