“Lady-Friendly” Doritos Are the Latest in Unnecessary and Confusingly Gendered Products
Can I just pour the broken and shameful deliciousness of the chip crumbs in my mouth in peace? The newest unnecessarily gendered product is the lady-Dorito, following the tradition of lady beer, razor boobs, lady pens, and other products that don’t understand how women can enjoy foods or operate items that men also use with their confusing and elusive lady hands. The “lady-friendly” Doritos chip will be smaller in size, “make less of a crunch noise,” and come in a packet “specifically designed to fit inside a handbag.”
Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, which owns Doritos, said:
“When you eat out of a flex bag — one of our single-serve bags — especially as you watch a lot of the young guys eat the chips, they love their Doritos, and they lick their fingers with great glee, and when they reach the bottom of the bag they pour the little broken pieces into their mouth, because they don’t want to lose that taste of the flavour, and the broken chips in the bottom … Women would love to do the same, but they don’t. They don’t like to crunch too loudly in public. And they don’t lick their fingers generously and they don’t like to pour the little broken pieces and the flavour into their mouth.”
Now, an irritating part of these new Doritos is that there are situations where a quieter, smaller bag could be useful: maybe you’re at a movie theater and want to be considerate about your food, or you want a smaller portion, or you’re traveling light—but none of that should be gendered as a “lady” chip. While this is a totally ridiculous and laughable product, it’s reproducing existing notions of who’s allowed to take up space and make noise. In general, women are perceived as talkative and more noisy than men, even though research shows that is not true at all.
Women aren’t encouraged to speak; they’re taught to accommodate others and to prioritize others to the extent that we aren’t even allowed to enjoy a freaking bag of chips? Can we not even have our snacks without society shushing us with a stale and less delicious alternative?
Excuse me while I angrily eat a family-size pack of chips in protest.
(via The Independent, image: Shuttershock/Alan Poulson Photography)
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