Monday, October 23, 2006

"Now I have to tell them that they can't have a gingerbread man and they can only have a ginger person."

Bakeries in the UK have renamed their gingerbread men as "gingerbread persons" to "accommodate modern sexual sensibilities." Are they saying 'modern sexual sensibilities' prohibit identifying people as male or female? That's clearly not accurate. We may be breaking down traditionally restrictive gender roles, but it's hardly restrictive to name cookies or cartoon characters as male or female.

Hmmm...French would have been a lot easier to learn if nouns were gender-neutral. I wonder what they would do if the world saw gender labels as offensive.

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