Last November, a group of entrepreneurs in Wisconsin launched Chick Beer — “a beer just for women,” they boasted. What makes this beer just for women? Well, each bottle is dressed in a label printed with a little black dress and the pink-handled carrier is designed to look like a woman’s purse. The name is inscribed in a curly font that makes the whole pink-and-black mess look like the work of a drunk Claire’s employee. Women love that!
And that’s not all. The beer itself also caters to the needs of the grown American woman, in that it is a light beer with only 97 calories, and tastes “soft” — “the taste most women prefer.” In surveying the needs of the American female beer drinker, Chick Beer managed to identify the requirements of just-for-women brew as “non-fattening” and “doesn’t taste like beer.”
As unflattering and frankly sexist as Chick Beer is, I agree with the problem it wants to address: The beer industry, particularly its exploding craft-brew component, is stubbornly male-dominated, primarily made by and for men. In advertisements, women haven’t progressed much past their 1980s status as bikinied props in a beer-filled men’s paradise. Miller Lite responded to accusations of sexism by releasing its line of popular “Man Laws” commercials; Canada’s Dude Beer is inspired by “the everyday dude.” Hell, beer is practically equated with the male anatomy: In 2009, cancer survivor Rick Lyke founded Pints for Prostates to raise awareness about regular medical screenings. “Beer is a universal thing for men,” he said.
So yes, there’s a vacancy for the industry to target the growing number of women who have begun to drink and enjoy beer. And Chick Beer is scarcely the only contender. Molson Coors released Animee for women — “less gassy and lighter tasting,” in flavors like rose and citrus — back in July. In March of 2010, Carlsberg made an attempt with Eve, a berry-flavored brew that, with an anemic 3.1% ABV, scarcely made it out of the soda category.
Come on. The type of woman who will be drawn to these ridiculous bachelorette parties of a beer is the type of woman who was perfectly happy with a sixer of Bacardi’s low-carb cherry-flavored malt pop. This doesn’t appeal to the growing percentage of women who genuinely like beer, who aren’t looking for a substitute for their Diet Coke and rum, and who aren’t looking for scattershot pandering gestures. Products like Chick, Animee and Eve are the Sarah Palins of the brewing industry. Nice try, guys — but that’s just insulting.
The attempt is a sign that things are moving in some sort of direction, even in ignorance. The industry is acknowledging that women are legit drinkers, and these sparkly pink attempts are vague stabs at solving the problem of why women don’t buy beer.
But why don’t more women buy beer? Maybe because the advertising, when it’s not just men sipping their beers in the shade of an enormous rack or turning to beer to escape a shrewish girlfriend, is condescending. Maybe it’s because breaking into educational beer circles as a woman is difficult. Maybe it’s because the beer industry, in building a way for men to identify with and universalize their product, has simply created an environment that marginalizes, if not excludes, female beer drinkers. But I don’t think it’s because beer isn’t pink and sugary enough, or that the bottles aren’t designed like fashion accessories.
I love beer. My personal favorites include the grapefruit-and-pine-resin taste of Green Flash’s West Coast IPA, the brawny punch of Stone’s Arrogant Bastard (another dude-named brew), and the rich, raisiny phenomenon that is Lost Abbey’s 10 Commandments. I’m not a beer snob, probably because the bro-populated beer forums take particular pride in the manliness the drink embodies. But I am one of the women who buy and consume a quarter of the beer in the United States every year — not Mike’s Hard Cranberry Lemonade, not bottled cosmopolitan mix. Real, honest-to-God, bitter, malty, hoppy beer.
Quit outsourcing your women’s-beer marketing to tampon companies, beer execs. You don’t have to throw a baby shower in a separate room for us. Just invite us to the party.
