Popularist Masculinity and Beer.

I took the piss out of the pub owner the first time I saw it on the bar. I know him well enough to take the piss, I guess he's a mate and a good customer. In any case, he rips the piss regularly, especially when I'm trying to play pool, so I didn't feel much of a shred of guilt.

It went off, then came back again, so it seemed he had re-ordered, or taken more than one cask. I guess it had been a week or so since my first expression of concern regarding such an intrusion into my appreciation of what is otherwise a splendid pub.

"Really?" I exclaimed in a rather more serious tone "You feel comfortable putting Dizzy Blonde on the bar?"

"People have asked for it and it sells really well" came the apparently sincere reply. Further explanation regarding what sells well and what doesn't could very much depress me. Needless to say it was a bit of a readjustment to my world view on the subject.

He runs a good pub. I respect his business skills tremendously and he's much better at running a pub than I ever was. He sells stuff I wouldn't, because he wants to cover his overheads; if it were me I'd probably dig my heals in and suffer commercially as a result.

The imagery is all over the roads in the NW of England....

I am reminded about this exchange as a result of recent media interest in sexism in beer the beer world. I am fairly sure that I have never bought Dizzy Blonde and when I have found myself unfortunately faced with only Robinsons beers I opt for something else. Although my boycott possibly isn't going to make a jot of difference, the only way to stop this sort of nonsense is by it becoming commercially unattractive for it to continue. I cannot bring myself to support such a thing.

Robinson's are not going to stop making Dizzy Blonde any time soon, not so long as it clearly makes them money. Likewise, other companies will carry on with varying degrees of sexist imagery and beer names so long as the general public has a panache for such things. So, is it really the fault of the businesses for propagating sexism in the beer industry? Or is it more the end consumer?

I recently commissioned artwork for a project to help promote Azimuth. We started from the premise that generally folk don't get the name. Far too obscure. It relates to navigation using heavily bodies and hooks into the by now well established folklore surrounding the story of IPA¹.

I wanted to create a mythical scene of ancient mariners and imaginary sea creatures. A mermaid crept into the scene and refused to leave. She was initially far too sexy. My artist was cajoled into making her more powerful and less demeaningly sexy.

Did we get it right? I am still unsure, but hope that it is mysterious enough, and we've empowered the female character in the scene sufficiently to not raise the hackles of any potential critics. The dragon we could imagine to be male, indeed the mermaid is quite clearly in charge and is fighting to help against a relentless macho wind, which for me is symbolic of the masculinity which sadly is all too prevailing in the world of beer.



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¹With apologies to all beer historians. I am not a beer historian. I am not sure if I understand where beer history truth ends and myth begins. I do care, but just haven't got the time to keep myself properly informed on such matters.

Sexism and Beer

Last week I visited the doctor about an inguinal hernia I have been developing. This week I went to see a consultant and was immediately offered surgery. I was really surprised, as I had one side done already when we were still running the pub and there was a risk that the NHS waiting lists would cause me to have a 6 week rehabilitation period right in the middle of our busy season. Last time, completely against my principles, I elected to have it done privately so as to jump the queue. I had a parallel request in the normal NHS route but only received the letter inviting me to make an appointment to see the consultant a couple of days before my privately arranged surgery. Things have moved on and only 1 week after first visiting my doctor I am promised to be given a date for surgery which is likely to be within the next 4-6 weeks. There certainly have been some improvements to waiting lists.

However, this post is not about congratulating the NHS on improving, nor perhaps considering that the previous government did in fact do some things that were good; indeed, I'm now feeling guilty that I'm robbing some more worthwhile case from life saving surgery. As it happens, my particular condition is getting worse at an almost undetectable rate and is way off causing me any grief. I only went to the doctors early because I expected a 3-6 months wait.

This post is about the differences between men and women; I've done a small amount of research into this, as much as I've been permitted to get away with, and discovered some pleasurable physiological differences between men and women. There are also some unfortunate differences and my hernia is one; men are around 25 times more likely to develop the condition, mainly due to the significant anatomical differences downstairs.

There are psychological, emotional and perceptive differences too; women like dresses and shoes and make-up and spending far too long looking for wall paper or choosing paint or a new sofa. Men like fast cars and sport and looking at naked women and beer; life is way too short to waste time on shopping. Women are far more perceptive when it comes to fragrance or colour matching and men are better at taking cars apart and reading maps, sometimes they can even get the car back together again and occasionally they don't get lost.

I'm painting a picture using only prime stereotypical colours, I know. Looking at individuals we can find plenty that crossover the stereotyping boundaries and thankfully our reasonably liberal society of the western world continues to break this down. This begs the question of how much the very real differences between men and women are due to social conditioning and how much are due to real XX verses XY chromosomes, I believe a little of both; for me the debate is not that these differences exist and arguing about whether it is nature or nurture, it's about understanding that there are differences and using or suppressing them as appropriate.

But really, what has this got to do with beer? Well, I often watch adverts on TV with a critical eye. I often declare that such and such an advert will never make me buy that product; the advert insults my intelligence. Sometimes I think that the product is shit, but well done on an entertaining advert, it was better than the tripe that was supposed to be the main feature. When it comes to beer adverts I take a little more notice. Most beer adverts are for the mainstream brands I wouldn't be seen dead drinking¹ and sadly BrewDog and Thornbridge are yet to place prime time TV ads, but perhaps there is a future?

Most of the beer adverts amuse me, sadly due to the fact that I'm a male chauvinist. Sometimes I do a good job of hiding that chauvinism, sometimes not, it surfaces with great gusto when many of the major beer brands feature in the increasingly frequent and extended commercial breaks that populate² the television. The Heineken ad made many of us poor testosterone ridden, deoxyribonucleic acid deficient mutants rock with laughter. Personally, I think it's a bit of a fight back against female chauvinism that results in much of our hard earned cash³ being frittered on rarely-to-be-worn fashion accessories.

Comments about this resulted in Kristy writing about such male targeted marketing. It certainly can't help us to make beer more accessible to women, and I'd like that to happen just as much as Kristy does. But is it ever going to work so long as society is the way it is? Gender orientated advertising is not just limited to beer; it features in many adverts. We are, as a society getting better, but there is an underlying proverbial principle that it's a pint for the bloke and a fruit based drink for the lady.

For me, the Heineken advert simply points up the existing mainstream established gender divide that exists in society. Worrying about the fact that major brand beer is keeping this sometimes frightening gulf between the sexes alive is like worrying that Heinz are perpetuating the belief that good food is made better with ketchup. Major brands work because they have synergy with mainstream society, brands that try to buck that trend tend to become marginalised.

And anyway, blokes would never openly discuss medical issues relating to downstairs, only women have that sort of problem.

If the reader is thinking this sounds all a bit defeatist then take heart; it is my experience that in the beer world there are a significant and growing number of women who are involved in beer. Looking at CAMRA, beer bloggers or beer twitter there is a healthy and increasing number of women who are active and there is good reason for this, but I think that is the subject of another post.

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¹My twitter followers will know that there are moves afoot to make me do just that and compare some major brands in a blind tasting. Why not? It'll be a hoot.

²I also notice the products change depending on the style of program being shown. When there are a large number of adds for sanitary products, soap powder or things you have to buy for your kids because otherwise you are a parent from hell, I start to suspect I've inadvertently started watching a chick flick.

³To be fair, Ann cannot be labelled a slave to fashion, so I'm lucky there.