In line with existing policy (although not everyone appears to have known about it), at this year’s Great British Beer Festival CAMRA declined to serve any beers with what it considered to be discriminatory names or artwork. Although CAMRA’s stance here is based on its own commitment to inclusivity and diversity, it has wider support. A YouGov survey conducted for Dea Latis, the women brewers’ group, found that 68% of those female drinkers who expressed an opinion would be unlikely to buy a particular beer if they saw a sexist advert for it. Such discriminatory attitudes and images are out-of-date. CAMRA national director Abigail Newton said, “Consumer organisations like CAMRA have an important role to play in making women feel more welcome within the beer world. We have already been refusing to stock sexist beers at the GBBF for several years now, but this is the first time we’ve made such a bold statement. We need to do more to encourage female beer drinkers, who are currently only 17 per cent of the population, despite the fact they make up more than 50 per cent of the potential market. Beer is not a man’s drinks or a woman’s drink, it is a drink for everyone.”
Sadly we still have some way to go. The reaction of the Sun newspaper was to claim that CAMRA lacked a sense of humour and listed a number of beers, complete with images, which they said would ‘struggle to escape the PC brigade’. This to me smacks of the traditional bully’s retort, ‘What’s wrong with you? Can’t you take a joke?’ Well, in my experience, a ‘joke’ which is directed specifically at an individual or group is a not a joke; it is bullying. I also saw a comment to the effect that the policy was a denial of free speech. Free speech, like all rights, brings with it responsibilities which to my mind includes not gratuitously showing disrespect to others. I think that there is also the question of simple good taste.
As regards beer names in general, I have a fairly minimalist outlook here and would be quite happy if beers just carried the name of the brewery and the beer type, for example Five Points Pale. That, along with the ABV on the pump clip, tells me all I need to know. I do appreciate however that there are historically and culturally significant beer names which I would not want to lose. Hop Back Summer Lightning for instance is named after brewer John Gilbert’s favourite P G Wodehouse book.
More seriously, on the wider subject of sexism in the brewing industry, may I recommend an article by Chris Land, the Professor of Work and Organisation at Anglia Ruskin University, called ‘Beer has a sexism problem and it goes much deeper than chauvinistic marketing’. You can find it on the academic blog spot http://theconversation.com. It makes for disappointing reading, covering the barriers that still remain for women in the brewing industry, including the culture of the industry, sexual harassment, unpredictable or anti-social working hours and even the design of brewing equipment. The findings do not just relate to the larger traditional brewers. It also covers small craft brewers.
Finally, the charity supported by this year’s Great British Beer Festival was Stonewall, Britain’s largest lesbian, gay, bi and trans equality charity. I’m pleased to say that, on the whole, they were made welcome. After all, they were founded by a group of people who just wanted to use their pub in peace and I think that we can all identify with that.
Tony Hedger