A ‘woke’ Devon pub has been slammed after taking the Ploughman’s lunch off the menu and rebranding it ‘ploughperson’s’.
The Tors pub in Belstone, Devon offers the dish for £12.50 and it contains all the ingredients from the classic Ploughman’s lunch – cheese, ham, pickled onions, chutney and sourdough bread.
However, it is instead named a ‘ploughperson’s lunch’ with the pub’s landlord saying the name recognises the ‘amazing ladies’ in the local farming community.
The gender-neutral re-brand sparked a backlash on social media as some accused the pub of cancelling a British tradition.
The Tors pub in Belstone, Devon has replaced its Ploughman’s lunch with a more gender-neutral ‘ploughperson’s lunch’
A picture of the pub’s menu, complete with the new name of the dish, was posted on social media by Charlotte Deakins, 36.
She told the Telegraph: ‘Quite frankly, my reaction is that it is pandering and dangerous, unless the pub owners have done it in a tongue-in-cheek manner and I hope they have.
‘The tweet has gained some traction and people are absolutely sick of the nonsense and having to pussyfoot around because of a small minority who are eternally offended.’
Reacting on social media, one person said: ‘Definitely a place to avoid. Ploughperson’s lunch? Even spellcheck won’t accept it.’
Another wrote: ‘Ploughperson…ffs…world’s properly gone mad.’
While a third said: ‘I actually thought this was a joke until I saw their website. Gobsmacked why anyone would change ploughman’s to ploughperson’s, and The Tors Inn, Dartmoor, have the audacity to advertise a ‘traditional pub menu’. One to avoid.’
In response to the outcry, Dicky Harrison, the landlord of The Tors pub, said on Sunday: ‘The menu item was just meant as a bit of tongue in cheek. We live in a farming community with amazing women and men farming the land.
‘It’s just a bit of fun and a nod to the amazing ladies who work the land here. I didn’t think it would cause offence, but in reality, women plough too.’
The ploughman’s lunch is just the latest dish to be renamed in recent months.
In January, Marks & Spencer renamed Midget Gems sweets to Mini Gems after a disability campaigner claimed that their name could offend those with dwarfism.
Dr Erin Pritchard, a lecturer in disability and education, told supermarkets that the term midget was ‘a form of hate speech’.
The Liverpool Hope University academic criticised stores, as well as comedians and TV shows, for continuing to use the word.
Dr Pritchard – who has achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism – said: ‘The word midget is a form of hate speech and contributes to the prejudice that people with dwarfism experience on a daily basis.
The Tors pub in Belstone, Devon offers the dish for £12.50 and it contains all the ingredients from the classic Ploughman’s lunch – cheese, ham, pickled onions, chutney and sourdough bread
‘Having spoken with various firms about the use of the word midget, it’s clear that many companies are simply unaware of just how offensive the term is, and I’ve had to explain to them why it’s such an issue.’
Midget gems were first created by the Yorkshire based Lion Confectionery who have been making sweets since 1903.
Dr Pritchard acknowledged that some people may think the change is part of ‘cancel culture’ but argued ‘when people scream the name at you in the street, it is only right that it is removed’.
‘The change should have happened years ago. It is easy for people not called the word to think its removal is wrong,’ Dr Pritchard, who also appeared in Channel 4’s Dating with Dwarfism, said.
She added that she had asked Amazon to remove novelty items which use the term but acknowledged it would not be possible to rename items no longer in production such as the MG Midget car or the Daihatsu Midget minivan.
An M&S spokesman confirmed the rebranding and said: ‘We are committed to being an inclusive retailer – from how we support our colleagues, through to the products we offer and the way we market them to our 32 million customers.
‘Following suggestions from our colleagues and the insights shared by Dr Erin Pritchard, we introduced new mini gem packaging last year, which has since been rolled out to all of our stores.’
The chain also changed the name of its canned version of the pornstar martini cocktail to Passion Star Martini, after feminist campaigners complained it was ‘normalising porn’.
M&S has changed the name of its popular Midget Gems to Mini Gems following complaints by disability campaigners that the term ‘midget’ is offensive and a form of hate speech
BEFORE: The chocolate giant Mars recently announced that it was rebranding its M&M sweets to reflect a ‘more dynamic, progressive world’
AFTER: The green female M&M character was to be ‘less sexy’ and the brown M&M, also female, given heels of a more ‘professional height’
An image of the gender-neutral ‘gingerbread person’ which was introduced by Co-op
Last June, Waitrose rebranded its Kaffir lime leaves following complaints the name was racist.
The word ‘kaffir’ was replaced with ‘makrut’ because the previous term is also a slur used to describe black African people in South Africa.
Several supermarkets and companies, including Co-Op, have also released gender-neutral gingerbread people, rather than gingerbread men.
In September, a historic pub changed its name after more than 200 years ‘because of the Black Lives Matter movement’.
The Black Boy Inn, in Bewdley, Worcestershire, is now called The Bewdley Inn.
The current leaseholders said Stonegate Pubs, the brewery which owns the 15th Century tavern, ordered them to change the name ‘because of the Black Lives Matter movement’ and that they had ‘no say in it’.
Furious locals have blasted the move, accusing the company of ‘giving into woke’.
However, the owners said the pub was renamed as part of a company rebrand and disagreed with accusations it was to do with race.
Primark also recently came under fire for changing its maternity section to a ‘parenthood collection’.
The high street retailer was accused of bowing to ‘woke’ ideals after it promoted the collection in a post that did not explicitly mention maternity, women or mothers.
The post read: ‘Introducing our A/W parenthood collection. From floaty frocks to simple jersey staples, say hello to our hero pieces you need to curate your capsule pregnancy wardrobe.’
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