Burger King Had a Terrible International Women’s Day Tweet

Burger King UK attempted to celebrate International Women’s Day in perhaps the worst way possible by tweeting “women belong in the kitchen.” Not a good look, chaps. The burger brand made a right mess of a misguided joke about inclusion and sexism.

After decades, maybe even centuries, of women’s rights activists fighting to get women out of the kitchen and for society to allow us to lead full, active lives, telling women that they belong in the kitchen is a bad look, even if it’s “well-intentioned” or a joke. Here it was technically an attempt at a joke, offered as part of a larger thread. Burger King seems to have been trying to highlight the fact that women make up an embarrassingly small percentage of actual chefs and their attempts to change that, but they said it in the worst way possible.

Here’s the rest of the thread.

It is infuriating that in terms of the unpaid labor of cooking for families, women still do the bulk of that work, but when that same work is translated to a professional level, they are shut out. This happens in all sorts of industries and it’s a real problem. But it’s still not a good look to start out that your thread on that subject with maybe one of the most pernicious sexist sentiments of the last century.

Burger King was instantly and pretty rightly dragged for the bad tweet.

(Side note did anyone else think that the Burger King and the Dairy Queen were married as a kid? Just me? Okay then.)

Even though BK is getting charbroiled over this tweet, they’re not apologizing. They’re even defending themselves, including in a response to the KFC Gaming twitter. (And yes, I know, you may be asking “the KFC what now” and … you can start here to begin to understand.)

And again, the issue that the King of Burgers is trying to bring attention to is an important one, but … this isn’t the way to do it. Now, who wants some tacos?

[UPDATE, 5:00 PM] Burger King UK has issued an apology for the tweet.

(images: Twitter)

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Jessica Mason

Jessica Mason (she/her) is a writer based in Portland, Oregon with a focus on fandom, queer representation, and amazing women in film and television. She's a trained lawyer and opera singer as well as a mom and author.

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