In the waning days of Women’s Herstory Month, let’s talk about why we even need to have a special month all for ourselves. Because women’s magazines. Because wage discrepancies and tube tops. Because being pressured into motherhood without women’s health care coverage and then the public shame of breastfeeding. Because the hyper-sexuality of commercials for anything and “abstinence only” teaching in schools. Because high heels and glass ceilings. Because the way I get touched by men all the time, and it’s supposed to be okay.
And lastly, because craft beer labels! I don’t feel the need to list all the beers with questionable labels. Just Google “sexist beer labels” and be prepared to be embarrassed. So much improbable, gravitationally-challenged cleavage! So many cringingly gross sexual acts alluded to!
Come on, guys! Brewers: the majority of you are youngish white males with creative facial hair who give the distinct impression of being both fairly liberal and just awkward enough to want any chance with a woman you can get. In the same way talking about an ex-girlfriend on a date is a serious faux pas, recommending to me a bottle with a busty blond pin-up is really a turn-off. All that does is remind me of those lecherous old men at truck stops picking up magazines in black plastic. Men who prefer their women plastic, as well.
Dudes, I drink beer (quite a bit of it!)…and I am a woman. There are lots of us ladies who drink beer. Putting a half-naked lady on your label does nothing but grate on a good third of your potential buyers. I, as a brewer with female reproductive bits, would never put an image of a strong-chested, thick-dicked, virile young man on my label. Why? Because you would be embarrassed to be seen drinking it. Why am I supposed to not be embarrassed by half-naked women on my beer? Oh, right. Because I’m supposed to drink so many of them I get drunk and have hot girl sex and let you watch. Because that’s something women do.
It’s always been my impression that craft brewers and I were like-minded: community, local, quality, etc. Which is why this deviation from my own values feels so shocking. I thought we were on the same team. I thought we were playing the same game. But when I see women referred to in degrading sexual acts on a beer label, I think perhaps craft beer is not only playing a different game but stuck in a time warp. They’re playing Abner Doubleday baseball. And I, over here in my bloomers, am not allowed to play.
So what needs to happen? Dudes in marketing need to use their imaginations a little bit. I can watch big boobs bounce all day long in macro beer ads, so do something new, set yourself apart, be smart. If your beer is so damn good, you don’t need scantily clad women to sell it. Make me like you. Make fun of yourself. Make your mother proud.
Interesting take there.
I have always enjoyed good pin up style art, like the stuff on the sides of WW2 bombers, pulp novels or Betty Page stuff. If I got some beer with a neat pin-up illustration on it, I’d probably like it.
But I get it that this sort of thing is not for everyone, and is not appropriate all the time. I’d probably feel the same way as you do in that “this is not for me” if I wanted to drink some beer but there was a hunky dude on it.
Also, the examples you included in your post are very poorly drawn, which is the first thing I’d notice. If you’re going for a sexy beer wench sort of thing, can’t you at least do it well?
This makes me think of ALL facets of popular culture: You can have brave heroic super hero women, or you can have slutty looking super women in underwear looking spandex designed to appeal to horny teenagers.
You can have TV ads that are meant to appeal to everyone, or ads featuring sexy bikini babes eating burgers or trying to sell me internet services. This “buy it for the boobs” attitude is embarrassing, even as a guy, and usually makes me think huh? Did they really think I’d buy that because there was some T&A in your ad? I use GoDaddy internet hosting in spite of those ads, not because of them.
I’d like to think that people are getting more conscious of this stuff as time goes on, and there are more diverse products out there for consumers of all types and not just stuff for lecherous male gazes. DC comics was called out for comics with Starfire posing in a string bikini for no good reason, and about a year later reintroduced the character in a comic that could have more universal appeal and less side-boob.
The beer and wine isles are full of fun labels of all types now, and not just St Pauli girl clones. So, hopefully that stuff is a smaller % of what is out there.