Is Victoria Beckham promoting harmful gender stereotypes to daughter Harper?

Victoria Beckham has unwittingly ignited a ‘gender stereotyping’ debate on Instagram after sharing a passage from an old nursery rhyme.

The former singer turned fashion designer took to social media to proudly share a snap of the poem alongside some artwork that was written and drawn by her daughter Harper.

“Boys are made of slugs and snails and puppy dog tails. Girls are made of sugar and spice and all things nice,” it read.

Victoria had taken Harper, six, for a drawing session with illustrator Tatiana Alida, and proudly showed off their work online.

But while the majority of comments were praising the mum-of-four for carving out hours in her busy schedule to spend quality time with her daughter, others believed the poem was promoting ‘gender stereotypes.’

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

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

“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,” another user commented. “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.”

Despite a handful of negative comments, many of Victoria’s fans were quick to step in and defend the sharing of the poem, describing the backlash as an “overreaction.”

“All this trying to be overly PC gender neutral stuff is just nonsense…. the next generation will just grow up even more confused….,” one user wrote. “If your child likes pretty dresses, hearts and sparkles then you give your child what they want… this is a sweet innocent drawing by a little girl… why do people feel they have a right to comment with their negativity… live and let live.”

“The world’s gone mad this poem has been around for years all the do gooders are causing the problems in this world have these PC people got nothing better to do get a life,” another user agreed.

“Wow, seriously! This is a well known children nursery rhyme that dates back well before all this “gender neutral” rubbish. It’s very good artwork and absolutely nothing wrong with it!

It isn’t the first time a member of the Beckham clan has sparked a debate on Instagram. Last year, a handful of users got their knickers in a twist over Victoria giving her daughter a sweet birthday kiss on the lips.

And earlier this year Cruz Beckham unwittingly kicked off a parenting debate about how young is too young to be working out in the gym after sharing a picture of him working out with his big brother.

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