beauty

The most ridiculous thing we have heard all week.

We thought this had to be a joke. But it wasn’t.

I am quite seriously concerned about the safety of Frosty this Christmas.

You know, that overweight cold chap with the carrot for a nose.

You might think I am joking – but the truth is that snowy little guy better watch his step because someone out there has surely got him in their sights for a PC makeover.

The problem with Frosty is that he is a snowMAN and just like his distant cousins, the Gingerbread-men, if he doesn’t watch his step there is a chance he could be melted down and remade as a Genderless SnowPERSON.

It’s begun to happen you see.

The PC Army have marched and overthrown the baked goods of Australia.

Small wee innocent gingerbread men, whose main concern in life was whether a child would eat their feet or heads first, are now quaking in fear that they will be stripped of their gender and forced to live a life of mediocrity.

The rumblings of this overthrow have begun in a Melbourne bakery that has found social media fame after a Reddit user exposed their Gingerbread Man makeover by posting a picture on the site.

“Genderless gingerbread figures” (organic of course) are being sold for $2.50 a pop.

The reaction on Reddit was swift and ruthless.

“Gingerbread? Really? That’s just insensitive to persons of Irish descent.”

“The world's going to hell, I'll eat whatever religion, gender, or shape gingerbread people I want.”

“That's so politically correct it makes my brain hurt.”

The controversial baked goods post attracted more than 2000 comments in just a few hours.

Despite the outrage of what was (hopefully) an attempt at humour by the owners of the bakery, it’s nothing new for society to find offense at seemingly innocent childhood nostalgia.

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The gingerbread man has been remade before.

In 2006, a chain of British bakeries experimented with the term ‘Gingerbread person’ before bowing to public pressure and being forced to re-institute the little fella.

And it’s not just baked goods.

Only last week, several Melbourne pre-schools announced they had changed the words of Baa Baa Black Sheep to Baa Baa rainbow sheep – for fear of offending any multi-coloured lambs out there.

Sorry, black sheep, you aren't PC.

I am assuming that the actual reason behind the change was to help three-and four-year old kids learn tolerance and diversity.

The biggest problem with all this political correctness is that our kids think it’s just as ridiculous as the rest of us.

My seven-year-old son laughed at the thought of gingerbread people and asked me simply, "Why?".

When I tried to explain that perhaps someone thought it might offend women, he asked me why they would care.

“It's just a biscuit. It doesn’t mean anything.”

The fact is that our kids are born with an inbuilt sense of tolerance, with diversity and with a sense of justice and equality. It is us parents who drive it out of them.

Even if the genderless gingerbread person (organic and vegan) was tounge-in-cheek, we need to be careful not to squeeze the magic out of too much of our children’s childhood – they need as many magic silk hats as they can get before they grow up.

What is your view on the genderless gingerbread person?

CLICK THROUGH the gallery of very manly gingerbread men:

Want more? Try:

The most popular baby name by the alphabet.

“Why I changed my name after 8 years of marriage.”