Countdown corrects 'sexist' sprinkles after uproar

Pink and blue sprinkles labelled boys and girls have created outrage on Facebook.

"Sexist" sprinkles have sparked controversy on social media after a post appeared showing a photo of pink and blue sprinkles on a supermarket shelf labelled boy's and girl's.

Felicity Bright took a photo of the Countdown labels saying "girl sprinkles" and "boys sprinkles" underneath jars of pink and blue Mrs Rogers sprinkles.

She posted the photo on Countdown's Facebook page saying she was intrigued to see boy and girl sprinkles in the Hobsonville store.

"How do these work? I sprinkle the 'boy' in the air and a boy appears? Or a girl, if I sprinkle the suitably pink version? Or do I sprinkle the 'girl' ones onto my boy to turn him into a girl and vice versa? Could you explain?" she posted.

"I'm curious about the relationship between sprinkles and gender. Maybe, just maybe, it's old fashioned everyday sexism. Perhaps you could revise your labels."

Fifteen hours after the photo was posted it had gained more than 1000 comments some supporting her stance, others calling it "PC gone mad".

One person said: "They are sprinkles for baking for goodness sake. If my girl wanted BLUE dinosaur sprinkles on her cake then she'll get blue dinosaurs... Are you going to walk into baby factory, farmers, baby city etc and complain there are boy and girl clothes?"

Another said: "Is it really worth the drama? If you want pink Ones buy pink. Want blue, buy blue. Does a name really define an object and upset people that much these days? To much time on ya hands my dear."

But many agreed with Bright saying: "Yeah its all not a problem until your little girl wants the blue sprinkles, but see's those are "boy" sprinkles, so perhaps she changes her mind to conform to the social norms y'all talking about, and vice versa for boys....y'all would lose your minds if the dark chocolate sprinkles were labelled Maori sprinkles and the white chocolate sprinkles pakeha."

Another said: "Wow I am surprised how many people missed your point. It's a prime example of institutionalised sexism. She was merely pointing out that's not necessary to label (on the countdown price tag) that colours or sprinkles belong to a gender."

Others were more light-hearted about it.

"I'd be more worried about those poor bake cups below being called thick my god they have feelings," one person said.

Others posted: "Clearly the mistake is that the girl sprinkles should be 18% cheaper..." and "Are these colors really pink or blue? Or faded red and lightened blue?"

Countdown replied on Facebook and said staff had made contact with the Hobsonville store to correct the labelling on our shelves.

Spokeswoman for the chain Kate Porter told the Herald the company agreed the sprinkles should not be gendered and were changing the ticketing as quickly as possible.