People Are Claiming That Santa Should Be Gender Neutral | 22 Words

A mom has come under serious fire after she referred to the fictional Christmas character, Santa Claus, by his "gender-specific" name, Father Christmas.

The woman's choice of name triggered a lot of angry social media users, and they have even come up with a new, more gender-neutral name for the bearded chap... Keep scrolling for more.

We're living in the era of gender fluidity.

Long gone are the days where there were simply 2 genders - Now, people can identify with up to 100 different genders or no gender at all.

More and more people are identifying as gender neutral...

Or "non-binary", in other terms.

Just to break it down for you...

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 People use the term “non-binary" to describe genders that don’t fall into 1 of the 2 more traditional categories of male or female.

It can be a confusing concept to get your head around...

While some non-binary individuals identify as either having a gender which is in-between the 2 categories ‘man’ and ‘woman', others can fluctuate, or have no gender, either permanently or some of the time.

But how far is too far?

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 While people are completely free to identify how they wish, there are some who take the whole gender argument a little further than others.

Take gender slamming fictional characters, for example.

Yep, some people choose to take offense over the gender assumption of made-up characters. You know, the ones that are not real, or do not have a valid, real-life opinion on gender?

And Father Christmas is the latest character to fall into the gender trap.

No, I am not making this up.

Given that Santa Claus is a fictional character designed simply to make Christmas fun for the kids...

Does it really matter what's underneath his signature red suit?

Well, apparently it really does matter.

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 Because one mom has come under serious fire for assuming the gender of the reindeer-flying postman.

One comment gave her a whole lot of grief...

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 The unnamed woman from Plymouth, England, claims that she was attacked online after calling the fictional Christmas character by a gender-specific term instead of a more gender-fluid term.

Yes, fully grown adults arguing over the gender identity of Father Christmas.

Stop the world, I want to get off.

The woman made her grave error on Facebook...

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 The local mom claimed that she was discussing a children's Christmas book in a Facebook group when she used the name "Father Christmas", PlymouthLive reported. Sounds pretty innocent so far, right?

Well, the name "Father Christmas" is rather problematic these days...

Because, by calling him "Father", it is automatically assuming the jolly, red-suited chap's gender.

What if he wants to identify as gender-neutral?

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 Well, he isn't real... But still.

The woman was urged to call the Christmas character "Santa" instead...

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 “Santa is now seen as gender-neutral," the woman wrote on her post. “But I was only referring to the book ‘Father Christmas’ by Raymond Briggs."

The woman insists that she didn't mean to cause any offense...

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 And is now unsure how to address the fictional character in the future. "It’s left me a little confused and on edge about what we are aloud [sic] to say," she continued.

Obviously, people were left outraged by her story...

And most jumped to her defense, slamming the whole situation as "ridiculous" and "idiotic."

Many believe the gender debate has got a little out of hand...

It's a fictional character people!

And others pointed out that you simply can't change history...

The person who the character of Father Christmas was initially inspired by, St. Nicholas, was male. Therefore, Father Christmas has always been male, and he hasn't had an issue with that so far.

But there may be a solution...

"Santx". The perfect gender-neutral alternative. Or, we could continue calling the character Father Christmas, Santa Claus or St. Nicholas and just get over ourselves? For more on all things gender-neutral, keep scrolling to read about Barbie's gender makeover...