It’s never been able to separate sexiness from actual sexism. How can we change that?
Throughout this piece I refer to women—this includes and always will include Trans Women. It is also a piece of personal insight and opinion. Please take from it what you will and be respectful in your responses.
I’m a woman, and I like sexy things. Things that are delicious and decadent, things that are a bit risqué—things that remind me that I’m not a grey blob in a hoodie, that I am alive.
There has always been a difficulty between treading the line between sensuality and straight-up sexism in advertising. Internalised misogyny throughout society objectifies women, and using their bodies to sell, well, anything you can think of, underlines the perceived cheapness of women, and their usefulness only as a commodity. The flip side of this is a whole demographic of men who openly despise women, believing that we want this objectification, that we desire the male gaze—of which they are responsible—and will do anything to get it. Either way, women come out right at the bottom.
As I write this, a Chicago house tune by FISHER is playing through my speakers. The femme voice over the top says: “take it off/slow/steady/undress/impress.” Even music uses women to feel sexier. FISHER is a 37 year old man. It’s not his voice. Yet I still like the song—it’s cheeky, it’s fun. I’m not offended by it, in fact I feel slightly energised. It makes me want to dance in a club wearing a sparkly dress. Have I been brainwashed by the patriarchy to want to dance in the club in a sparkly dress to songs that talk about getting naked? Or is this what I want? It’s so hard to tell anymore. Let me call a taxi and we can talk about it on our way over there.
I wanted to have a go at untangling some of these ideas because I sometimes find the sexism in beer arguments difficult to engage with. Let me begin by saying I completely agree that women are just as valuable within the industry as men, that beer is for everyone, and that as a woman who drinks beer and promotes it too, I have a responsibility to advocate for women within the industry.
The way women have been treated in the beer industry is disgusting. Inequality and harassment has been more common than anyone thought (although, you know, people do talk about it if you listen), and women are still treated with condescension in beer spheres. We still feel unsafe at festivals, and places where high levels of alcohol consumption mean we feel as though we need to be on the alert around our fellow drinkers. I’m making allusions. You all know what I mean.
To promote women within the beer industry is commendable. I want to help in any way I can. But I also, parallel to this, want to protect women, and I want bigger issues relating to women in beer to be addressed and worked on before I encourage more women to choose a career within it. I want women working in breweries to be treated equally and paid the same as men. I want women in the beer world to be commended for their achievements and their skills and talent and chosen to be mentors and leaders within industry—not just added to roundtables and speakers’ lists to talk about “being a woman in the beer world”. I want people who abuse, harass and demean women within the beer industry to be held accountable for their actions, to lose their jobs and status, to understand that this is not an acceptable way for anyone to act, anywhere. I never again want to find a woman a job in a hospitality setting only for them to leave that job because a manager, or a colleague of any kind, was bullying or harassing them because they are a woman. I want women to feel safe and valued within our industry, and I want the same for me.
Customers don’t see this side of the industry, and so while it is incredibly important to me, I’m not convinced that the treatment of women within beer is the reason more women aren’t drinking beer. Perhaps that “laddish” image doesn’t work in beer’s favour for many people, not just women. But in a conversation with drinks writer Rachel Hendry, we both agreed on something: women who don’t drink beer want something that matches their mood. A drink that accentuates their style and punctuates their sentences. A drink that makes them feel how they want to feel. When I go out and choose not to drink beer—and I’m reminding you here, I’m a woman—it’s because I want something chic like a martini, or sexy and flirty like a spicy margarita. Easy-breezy like a vodka tonic.
Beer is seriously unsexy. Is that why women who don’t love beer for all its flavours and styles and aromas don’t drink it? I don’t know. Has anyone asked them? What do women want? As Rachel says: “To feel sexy! And strong! And smart! And sensual! Give me a champagne coupe!”
Yes, there is a lot more to women than these simple, carnal desires, and to judge all women as one entity is futile. You know it is. We can’t understand why women aren’t drinking beer because we are guessing at what non-beer-drinking women want instead of asking them. In a study by Dea Latis, who actually have been asking women what they think, women were asked why they didn’t drink beer they said three things: advertising, presentation, and health/calorific concerns. Are the first two not what I’ve been saying?
I can only say how I feel. I am a bisexual woman in my mid (shut it) thirties, and I’ve seen a lot of shitty beer advertising that takes advantage of women for the male gaze, and it has always confused me. Yes, it’s crap, but it also finds a way to other me in a new, unimproved direction. I fancy women, so am I supposed to find this appealing too? Is that what people who love women are like? I know that more than once I’ve been offended, not by the pump clip or label art itself even, but because the beer was appalling. Boobs are too good to be used to sell badly made beer. I’ve also seen misguided attempts at bringing women into the fold by appealing to our “sweet tooth”. Absolutely get fucked. Am I angry about the assumption here, that women don’t like the taste of beer, or is it the lack of imagination? Maybe it’s both.
I’ve been taken in by women-centric marketing too—especially in the wine and spirits categories. Rachel said she agreed, and that, “Wine and spirits are sexier and aesthetically pleasing, and evocative of desire.”
Beer has never successfully managed this balance, and I have a strong suspicion that if anyone tried, women who like beer are so absolutely sick of being othered that these attempts would be shot down, no matter how chic and stylish and tasteful the design was. It’s an understandable reaction to years of putting up with this shit—keep women’s bodies off beer labels, keep gender away from beer marketing. But if we truly want more women to enjoy beer, to choose it in pubs and restaurants over the alternatives, we need to think about it beyond the drink and its social mores. I saw a t-shirt made by a Manchester bar depicting a woman relaxing in a huge glass of Delirium Red, eyes closed with pleasure, boobs out with abandon. I loved it, and wanted one of my own, and then I saw the comments underneath their Instagram post. “Disgusting!” I felt confused and guilty. This wasn’t a bad picture of a pin-up girl advertising a beer called “Daft Bitch,” this was a cute illustration on a t-shirt (designed by a woman, apparently, although I don’t have confirmation on this) advertising a bar I always have a great time in. I am still confused. Women who I respect have openly deemed it a disgrace. It’s a sexy image, but I don’t think it’s degrading—that’s just my opinion. I didn’t feel degraded, I felt like—hell yeah! Bathing in pink Belgian beer with my tiddies out! It’s pink beer summer, bitches! To delete sexiness from beer entirely and in every instance in the name of appealing to women and assuring our valued place within the industry assumes that women and their male allies aren’t interested in sexy things, only bad men are. And yes, if the male gaze is always the standard inspiration for this, then it would certainly seem that way. So, how can we include women? How can we make beer sexy, without being sexist?
“I think one of the only sensual pints being marketed at the moment is Guinness,” says Rachel. “The tension and the anticipation and the slow shimmer of the liquid.”
Yes, Rachel. Yes. Guinness seem to market to very separate demographics with incredible ease, but this is actually an unbelievable feat of engineering requiring hours of research, data collection and analysis, and many thousands of pounds in R&D, creative direction, and the actual making of the branding, the adverts, the posters, the bar towels. There are women in their adverts, drinking Guinness by the pint in the sun. There are luxurious close-ups of black-velvet beer glistening in perfect lighting. They know how to look classy, even aspirational when it’s warranted, and they can be fun too, and irreverent. Working with Co. Waterford-born artist Fatti Burke to create “The Snug”, an artistic interpretation of the traditional Irish Pub, was a combination of bright, joyful imagination and an abandonment of how beer is usually presented to people who aren’t already beer fans. Perhaps this sort of creativity is why 24% more women are drinking Guinness, even if they are shunning other types of beer. Meanwhile Guinness also manages to sponsor the Premier League, the Six Nations, and the Women’s Six Nations, appealing to people who don’t care much for olives in their drinks or Sabrina Carpenter. It’s not one or the other. Beer doesn’t need to pick men or women, and nor should it. But it needs to work on its image overall before any non-beer-drinking women would ever start choosing a pint over an Aperol Spritz, and it most certainly needs to stop asking “what do women want?” and actually start asking them.
