Beards, beer and the Great British Beer Festival
I was at the Great British Beer Festival on Tuesday (it runs until Saturday at Olympia) and it was an enjoyable experience.
My brief thoughts are here:
In past years media coverage of the event has tended to focus on pictures of large men with beards drinking pints of beer. Fortunately that has changed thanks to the efforts of CAMRA:
I’m the organiser of the Beard Liberation Front, which campaigns against irrational prejudice against those with facial hair.
To be clear however the BLF welcomes CAMRA’s policy of not promoting beers with sexist names, pump clips or imagery.
Wearing a beard or not wearing one is all about the right to a diversity of appearance and sexist beer clips stand for the reverse.
Furthermore images of men with beards necking pints (no doubt some do) do not promote a positive image of the hirsute but rather a stereotype of the hirsute as beer monsters.
Let’s hope the example of the Great British Beer Festival this week influences further positive change
Leave a Reply