What is it with ales/beers and their "hilarious" misogynistic branding?

I drink real ale, and this really annoys me.

That's really interesting mitigosi, thanks for sharing.

I don't drink alcohol either but I do find discussions like this (which are about the ubiquitous acceptability of sexism rather than complaining about alcohol) quite interesting.

I don't drink alcohol, but I don't spend all my time complaining about it.

Oh I agree it's dodgy - I was trying to suggest what I thought the makers/marketers were thinking when they used that name or imagery

That's really good about your local, unescorted

I was thinking that it sounded kind of dodgy in a different way if I'm honest - "The Opportunist" and accompanying picture looks pretty dodgy to me from a female perspective (in a pub surrounded by big men who are staring at you) - but I'm sure that the people who made the picture weren't thinking that. Which begs the question, what on earth were they thinking?

The women in the tennis outfit doesn't look like she's having a particularly good time either!

I just, I wonder with a lot of imagery (and this is more general now than just brewing pictures) whether men and women take completely different things from it. Men see whatever and think "sexy" women see the same thing and think "she looks extremely vulnerable". Sort of thing.

It also depnds on the pub - one of our locals will not sell beer that has sexist advertising images or wording. They have realised that many of their beer drinking customers are female.
Some of the breweries are also changing their descriptions from "blonde" to "pale", which has less scope for sexist cringeworthy puns. The descriptions are still cringeworthy.

Whirlpool my guess is that it's based on being a bit naughty and sniggering rather than promising any sexual potency

So you have to say "a leg spreader please" at the bar, and you can all joke about its "full body" etc

Just looked through the telegraph article and 2 of the names/pictures are kinda problematical. If you are selling beer to men, and calling it "leg spreader" or "opportunist" what is it actually saying? How will them drinking it make women more likely to have sex with them? Are they to use it to get the women drunk? What is the implication? Or have they not thought about at all really?

What is teh food / drink where they have a website and it's a cartoon of a pub and if you click on the barmaid she bends forwards so you can see down her top and winks at you? Can't remember. It might be mccoys as well come to think of it.

I don't buy McCoys or Yorkies.

It's one of those pointless boycotts like we had a thread on a while back

But I can't bring myself to buy and eat something which says on the back "this is not for you" even if I do like it.

I also wouldn't order a pint of "dim busty slut" or whatever but again I'm teetotal so I doubt the brewing trade is feeling the pain on that one

My personal experience would tally with Amethyst's. Whatever the actual numbers of sexist-named bottled beer in that list, when I have been to beer festivals and real ale pubs there seems to be a higher concentration than that of sexist names associated with the beers. And that list showed only bottled beers, and none of the logos and marketing associated - that telegraph article shows how apparently innocuous names may be associated with sexist imagery

I've looked through the list again.
There are three or four questionable names out of hundreds, so that it hardly 'so many' as Amethyst has suggested.

I don't know paxtecum - I have no idea whether that list is the sole piece of evidence that would support or confound the OP's post wrt beer names. I just did what you suggested and looked through the list (albeit briefly) and those names jumped out at me.

So there are three questionable sexist names out of several hundred?

I think if they have a nude chick or whatever on the beer/ale more men want to buy it because it is hot.

But surely beer is best served cold? with the obvious caveat for the British who tend to enjoy there's lukewarm

From a very brief scroll through a number jumped out at me including "bitch please" and "old slapper on the quayside". Obviously this doesn't include the images and marketing the OP also refers to.

I suspect that much of them are like cocktail names, where part of the "fun" is in having to ask at the bar for a long slow screw against the wall (believe me for bar staff it is less hilarious the second or third time, let alone the 1000000th time)

Koala, yes, I agree with those examples, but can someone look through the list of several hundreds of beer names and come up with something to support the original op.

There are lots of products that have very sexist advertising.

McCoys: 'man crisps'
Yorkies: apparently they aren't 'for girls'

And this energy drink...

I've just looked through Boney's list and can't see why any names that support your discussion.

Iirc CAMRA were criticised last year re v sexist marketing for recruitment to their young members section

Some real ale names do indeed have awfully sexist names, but I don't think the use of sexist language/imagery to promote alcohol is restricted purely to real ale.

That said, I think more and more women are drinking real ale these days, but I do wonder if the sexist branding and the 'male' (but not necessarily macho) image of it has previously put them off.

Jackie: interesting what you said about marketing to women. I was a real ale/bitter drinker in the 1960s when a woman ordering a pint produced the sort of response you would be likely to get if you suddenly declared to a crowded pub that you were an axe murderer. You could just about get away with a half, so as a pint drinker I used to get a lot of stupid sexist remarks.

Lager was hardly ever drunk until the late 60s but when Heineken first marketed it to the UK it was targeted firmly at women as a "ladies' beer". I've always thought it rather odd that it then became the "yobbo" drink (in the days of football matches turning into mini riots) before it became more widely drunk.

I guess it was its lighter colour, blander taste and lower alcohol content that made brewers think lager was more suitable for "ladies". So it was odd that it was taken up by young men who fancied themselves as "lads" and macho types.