Victoria Beckham is accused of promoting 'harmful' gender stereotypes after sharing daughter Harper's poem about being made of 'sugar, spice, and all things nice'

Victoria Beckham, 43, has been criticised for a sketch her daughter created
Angry Instagram users said she was promoting 'harmful' stereotypes
The sketch featured a quote about girls being 'sugar, spice and all things nice'

Published: 15:02 GMT, 19 December 2017 | Updated: 01:13 GMT, 20 December 2017

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To most of her millions of Instagram fans Victoria Beckham appeared every inch the doting mother when she proudly posted a snap of her daughter Harper's artistic efforts over the weekend.

But the six-year-old's sketch - which included lines from the old nursery rhyme about girls being made of 'sugar, spice, and all things nice' - prompted some followers to criticise the former Spice Girl, 43, for her parenting methods, insisting it amounted to promoting 'harmful' gender stereotypes.

Harper had decorated a piece of card with a quote from the nursery rhyme 'What are Little Boys Made Of?' which says boys are made of 'frogs and snails' while little girls are made of 'sugar and spice and all things nice'.

Furious Instagram users said the rhyme was 'harmful' to little girls because it suggests they must be sweet, while boys are allowed to be naughty.

The duo created a sweet piece of art that featured words from an old nursery rhyme that says little girls are made of 'sugar, spice and all things nice'

Victoria Beckham, 43, took her daughter Harper, six, to an art class over the weekend

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

Harper appeared to have cut out her drawings of women and star patterns to decorate a quote from the nursery rhyme.

The quote reads: 'Boys are made of slugs, snails, puppy dog tails. Girls are made of sugar, spice, all things nice.'

Clearly proud of her little girl's work, Victoria posted the art on her Instagram page - but not all of her fans approved.

Furious Instagram users said the nursery rhyme reinforces gender stereotypes by allowing little boys to be naughty while girls are supposed to be sweet

She captioned the post: 'Mummy and Harper having so much fun with @tatianaalida_illustration X kisses VB.'

While the sweet post reached over 95,000 likes on the app and was flooded with comments from well wishers, others were not so keen on the artwork.

Some users insisted the nursery rhyme reinforced gender stereotypes among children, and criticised Victoria for effectively passing them on to her daughter.

@KlambertaThomson wrote: '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. So girls shouldn't be mischievous or act out, cause they are supposed to be sweet and nice.

The former Spice Girl is mum to (from left) Romeo, 15, Brooklyn, 18, Harper, six, and Cruz, 12

Victoria also received a lot of positive comments from well wishers saying how sweet the post was

'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.'

@Ruariwalker commented: 'Do you think that reinforcing gender stereotypes is fun?'

Hinewhetu agreed: 'Not a cool poem. This is whete [SIC] conditioning begins. Ive always hated this poem. As much as ive hated the story of bluebeard.'

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Victoria Beckham and is awaiting comment.

Victoria, formerly known as Posh from her Spice Girls days, married her former footballer husband David Beckham in 1999

Elsewhere, it has been a happy week for the Beckham clan as oldest son Brooklyn returned home to the UK from America.

Victoria posted a sweet photo on Saturday of her eldest reunited with his three younger siblings.

'I'm so happy!!! All my babies together!! @brooklynbeckham is home!! Xx Love u kisses x @romeobeckham @cruzbeckham #Harper kisses x,' Victoria captioned.

On an Instagram Story post captioned: 'Good morning!!!', the proud mother showed her youngest child playing the drums.