A gingerbread person? That takes the biscuit for wokery, Morrisons

THEY’VE been a much-loved treat for more than 200 years, but now Morrisons has brought gingerbread men bang up to date – with a gender-neutral makeover.

The traditional biscuit has been renamed a ‘gingerbread person’ by the supermarket in the name of ‘inclusivity’ after getting complaints from shoppers.

But even Morrisons’ bosses appear to be confused by the £1.39 snack’s rebranding — for while the website and shelf labels use the new term, the packets the biscuits come in still say gingerbread ‘man’.

Attacking the rebranding as ‘a scurrilous attack on a traditional biscuit’, Mike Buchanan of campaign group Justice For Men & Boys, said: ‘This sort of complaint always originates from chronically whiny, malicious harpies with nothing better to do with their time. Rather than standing up to them, targeted organisations almost always fold, to their eternal shame.’

A Morrisons spokesman, or maybe spokesperson, said: ‘Following customer feedback, we changed this to provide inclusivity to all.’

It is not the first time the treat has been rebranded. The Scottish Parliament’s coffee shop started selling gingerbread people in 2018, prompting Conservative MSP Annie Wells to brand it ‘an utterly pointless’ gesture which simply trivialises the real issues of gender equality’. Sainsbury’s also sells gingerbread people, sparking online comments from shoppers such as ‘I wonder where they are personfactured’.

Pret A Manger has human-shaped ‘gingerbread biscuits’, as does Tesco – though the supermarket still sells mini gingerbread men.

Costa Coffee dodges the issue with a Santa biscuit, but one character on its festive cups is ‘Ginger, the gingerbread person’.

Greggs, Waitrose and McVitie’s have stuck with gingerbread men.

The first documented instance of human-shaped gingerbread biscuits was at the court of Elizabeth I. He became a fairytale character in 1875, with the story of a childless old woman who bakes one, but he then comes to life and runs away.

Later versions had him taunting his creator with the line: ‘Run, run as fast as you can! You can’t catch me. I’m the Gingerbread Man!’

One Morrisons shopper quipped: ‘Maybe now it will have to be rewritten as “Run, run with maximum exertion! You can’t catch me. I’m the Gingerbread Person!”’