Part 1, disclaimers and The Customer Is Not Always Right
Right-thinking newspapers in states where same-sex marriage is legal run same-sex wedding announcements alongside different-sex wedding announcements without making a big condescending thing about it. Thank you, New York Times! I’m waiting for the day when we have (or at least FAKE) the same nonchalance for women in the beer world rather than othering the shit out of them.
There are female brewing industry pioneers who truly broke gender barriers and do deserve to be praised for boldly going where no woman had gone before. I’m not one of them. Chances are neither are you. (Though I am sometimes pleasantly surprised at who reads this stuff, so maybe you are!)
If you didn’t read yesterday’s post, take a minute to review the disclaimer: if you’re in another part of the world and/or if you got into beer when it was still crazy for women to do so then have yourself a celebratory brew. Looking at you, only female brewer in Sweden and only female brewer in Mexico. But I personally can’t understand making a big show of a beer person being OMG A WOMAN in 2013 in California.
If you call me a great woman writer I will punch you
Too much beer writing spends an awful lot of time giving women a cookie for brewing (or even liking!) beer. I’m not citing examples because I’m not here to call out well-meaning underpaid writers, but trust me, it’s excessive. I’ve often said I hope the phrase “female brewer” eventually becomes as obsolete as “lady doctor.” I suspect every female brewer would like to be thought of as an excellent brewer, not an excellent LADY brewer.
I like to do a little mental experiment and flip the genders around people’s writings and comments — and my own — to see if it would be weird the other way. Meet Joe, he’s an awesome male brewer! Wow, a man drinking a double IPA, impressive! I wonder how Frank stays so thin even though he likes beer? Wow, Jim, you homebrew…how do you lift the fermenters? You get my drift. For a different take on the “would you say that about a man?” question, read about the Finkbeiner Test in science writing. (I hate to even implicitly compare women in the beer community to women in science, but more on that in part 4 anyway).
Compliment or condescension?
Then there are the people who say women’s palates are better than men’s. They mean well, but I find this almost as grating as the phrases “chick beer” and “man cave.”
First, depending on how they put it, the compliment can have sexist overtones. Saying women’s palates are “more delicate” or “more sensitive” than men’s is obviously weird, right?
Even if you’re just saying something arguably positive and free of girly-language, like “women are better beer judges,” it’s still wack. Do you think Asians are better at math? Black people are faster runners? I’m just giving you a COMPLIMENT, what’s the problem? Hey, where are you going?
When I say women aren’t really better tasters people like to say “but there was a study!” Yes there was, and it said 35% of women are “supertasters” while 15% of men are. However, supertasters only make up about 25% of the population. You also don’t have to be a supertaster to taste, evaluate, or judge beer. In fact, if you’re a supertaster, you likely hate bitterness and therefore a lot of American beer. You can start reading more about this here.
In short, being female doesn’t mean I know less about beer, but it also doesn’t mean I know more, or that I deserve special congratulations for what I do know. Being an adult female with a hobby and/or career in beer isn’t like being a toddler learning to use the potty and I don’t need a gold star for it. When women have equal representation in Congress and we’ve had a woman president, let’s make a big deal over THAT.
Next, part 3: Selling beer to women and other humans
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