Cafe replace their gingerbread men with ‘gingerbread gender neutral people’, but not everyone is happy

8 November 2019, 14:51

By Alice Dear

One cafe has made headlines after adapting their biscuit jar to be more inclusive.

Cafe The Tannery, based in Auckland New Zealand, has been received with mixed reactions after changing the name of their gingerbread biscuits.

Owner of the cafe, Andre Cettina, changed the name of the festive treat from ‘gingerbread man’, to ‘gingerbread gender neutral person’.

Stuff.co.nz reported that Andre told them: "It was completely tongue-in-cheek at the start.

“But it's become a really good conversation piece in the cafe.”

They continued to add: “We've had a lot of people commenting saying 'stop being so pedantic, it's just a biscuit'. I had to reply to them going, 'did you miss the whole point?'

"It used to be that 90 per cent of the time we sold [the gingerbread biscuits], it was to kids. There's a lot more people buying them now, which is quite funny."

The decision has been received with mixed opinions, with some people calling it “PC gone mad”.

One person wrote on The Tannery’s Facebook page: “PC gone mad, always been ginger bread man, why change now.

“It's a biscuit, not a living creature. I find this all so sad!”

Another person added: “Oh great..just add to the madness why don't you.”

Others think the change is a positive move, writing: “Not sure why people getting so mad. This is a conversation starter, and these issues won't be dealt with until we are open to talking about them.”

They added: “People getting mad about this completely miss the point of what it could achieve.”