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Parenting

20th Dec 2017

Victoria Beckham has been accused of gender stereotyping with Harper

What do you think?

Laura Holland

Weleda Skin Food

What do you think?

Victoria Beckham has been criticised for her latest Instagram post for ‘conditioning’ and ‘reinforcing’ gender stereotypes. She shared a picture of a drawing she created with daughter Harper.

Contained within it was a poem about boys and girls, which read:

“Boys are made of slugs and snails and puppy dog tails.

Girls are made of sugar and spice and all things nice.”

Mummy and Harper having so much fun with @tatianaalida_illustration X kisses VB

A post shared by Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) on

She has received a mix of comments with some very negative:

“Ugh. “Sugar and spice and all things nice” is not girl power, it’s gender stereotyping and cultural rules that are telling girls what they are ‘supposed’ to be. So girls shouldn’t be mischievous or act out, cause they are supposed to be sweet and nice. But it is ok for boys to do that because that is how they are born. It is crap and we really need to move away from such stereotypes that are harmful for our girls.”

“Do you think that reinforcing gender stereotypes is fun?”

“Not a cool poem. This is where conditioning begins. I’ve always hated this poem. As much as I’ve hated the story of bluebeard.”

“Sorry if I don’t think gender stereotyping is a positive thing.”

While others came to her defense:

“OMG!! Let the child be!! Gender neutral champions, please take your campaign elsewhere, let a mother show her pride and emotions on her daughters decorative poem!”

“it’s a poem for children. Get over it. Why do things need to be taken so literally? She’s a child having some fun…just leave it at that!”