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Food

‘The Great British Bake-Off’ Is Being Accused of Frosting-Related Sexism

The public’s current qualms with the popular series are over promotional photos wherein pink and blue frostings are designated for male and female contestants, respectively.
Hilary Pollack
Los Angeles, US

It's 2016, guys. We're on the brink of having the first female US president, a four-foot-eight woman just kicked everyone's ass in the Olympics (lookin' at you, Simone), and Will Smith's son wears dresses in public because your contrived standards of masculinity don't mean shit to him and he feels like it, OK?

My Mood When They Try To Hate pic.twitter.com/VWRgQUSxUT

— Jaden Smith (@officialjaden) February 6, 2016

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GTFO, gender norms.

These days, people are feeling pretty woke when it comes to the arbitrary classification of certain things as being "for girls" or "for boys." (Let's not forget the BIC for Her drama, after all.) Maybe there was a time when women were looking to reach for a butterfly-emblazoned bottle of white zinfandel over a black-labeled Merlot, but we're living in the future, (wo)man, and we want equality in all things—including food and drink.

READ MORE: We Made a French Sommelier Drink The Girliest-Looking Wines We Could Find

Just ask fans of the BBC Two series The Great British Bake-Off, wherein extremely British people make extremely British things and then judge them in extremely British ways. There are "fondant fiascos" and pudding sabotages and biscuit boxes and all kinds of other very serious baking-related scenarios endured by the contestants. But when you taste their cakes—goodness gracious, they're fit for a queen. The Queen, even.

But all's not well in the land of flour and sugar: The promotional photos for the show are currently being accused of promoting sexism in the form of gendered bowls of frosting.

The public's current qualms with the photos are over the difference in coloration of the frostings for contestants, based on their genders: pink for women, blue for men. What is this, anyway? A baby shower?

ON VICE: Judging the 'Great British Bake-Off' Contestants Entirely on Their Press Shots

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The Twittersphere was positively miffed at what they viewed as a sexist system of characterizing the men and women on the show, as pointed out in Metro.

SO excited for Bake Off, NOT excited for their gendered icing promo shots #GreatBritishBakeOff pic.twitter.com/oSbAlkIx2B — Eleanor (@e_muffitt) August 16, 2016

just incase we couldn't tell the gender of the #GBBO contestants lets give them pink and blue icing #EverydaySexism pic.twitter.com/SNVTXsWmiK — ☆ Queen Jenna (@ohmyponds) August 16, 2016

So disappointed by the gendered icing on #GBBO this year. So unnecessary. We should #LetCakesbeCakes pic.twitter.com/hC3a40VnXE — Els Dr_eger (@elsdraeger) August 17, 2016

Even members of Parliament spoke up with their concerns about #Icinggate.

Looking forward to catching #GBBO but I hope the pink icing for girls, blue icing for boys is dropped. https://t.co/L3PiPqPGwQ — Tim Farron (@timfarron) August 16, 2016

Betty Crocker's UK branch, injecting their opinion in this baking controversy, offered solace to both blue and pink frosting-lovers falling anywhere on the gender spectrum.

It's baking season and things are starting to hot up! But don't worry, any coloured icing is fine by us! #GBBO pic.twitter.com/UezYJf8rJu — Betty Crocker UK (@BettyCrockerUK) August 17, 2016

Viewers of the show seem to be a sensitive bunch. Season six winner Nadiya Hussain was criticized by fans after a photo of her prepping a birthday cake for Queen Elizabeth stirred up a controversy over whether she uses cage-free eggs. Yes, they're that sensitive. So it went noticed very quickly when the show seemed to draw a (frosting) line between its male and female contestants for no apparent reason. And despite its somewhat precious and antiquated premise, the show actually has a strong history of diversity among contestants, which may be why viewers are so surprised to see its creators fumble in this regard. But if nothing else, the controversy surrounding the icing has stirred up even more interest in the already popular program.

As a show that so joyously transcends gender, age, race and sexuality, I'm heartbroken by the pink/blue icing #GBBO publicity shots. @BBC — Jenn Morgans (@JennMorgans) August 16, 2016

And of course, there are other theories about the color-coding—that it's not about gender at all, people! As Metro points out, several of the male contestants are wearing pink shirts, and vice versa. And then there's this:

BLUE icing means they voted REMAIN. — Joe Lycett (@joelycett) August 16, 2016

How will this inferno of outrage end, friends? We have a feeling that in spite of it all, all of the free publicity kicked up by Icinggate will allow the producers to have their cake and eat it, too.