Beer, Blogs, and Bitches

Lauren Murray

Beer has been branded as a product that is available to men; we see this in popular advertisements online and on television. The heteronormatively-masculine image that is created presents a complicated rhetorical situation for women interested in beer. When searching the online community for female beer bloggers, I came across blogs that seemed to be addressing women who are alienated in the beer community with hyper-feminine rhetoric. This stark contrast to the rhetoric that we typically see in beer advertisements did not appeal to me either.

I’ve been referred to as "the girlfriend with great taste in beer" and intercepted surprised looks from bartenders while ordering a heavy stout in a bar. These situations prompted my research on the construction of the "female beer drinker," and what I found really intrigued me.

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Lauren Murray is a recent graduate of McDaniel College in Westminster, MD. She now lives in Tulsa, OK and works with Reading Partners. She's a foodie, a runner, and a beer enthusiast.

Table of Contents image credit: "beer swimming" by Mex-dragon

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