The Intersection of Wine and the #MeToo Movement

After receiving two tweets accusing it of fostering fear among women due to a message on one of its wines, a British Columbia winery has pulled the offending wine from the shelves that had the following message on its label: “BOYS WILL BE BOYS”.

This story intrigued me in part for what the winery in question, Church and State Winery, chose to pull from the market and what it chose to leave in the marketplace. Church and State has a line of wine called “Lost Inhibitions”. The line has upwards of three hundred different labels with different messages printed prominently on the labels. Among the messages:

CHILL THE F*CK OUT
HASHTAG THIS MOTHER  F*CKER
YOU’RE SO F*CKING CLASSY
POLITE AS F*CK
OH BLOODY HELL
KISS MY ASS
THIS IS F*CKING AWESOME
I’D SHAVE MY LEGS FOR YOU
AREN’T YOU A RAY OF F*CKING SUNSHINE
PARTY ANIMAL
I FEEL EXPENSIVE
I’D LOOK GOOD ON YOU
WISHING YOU THE F*CKING BEST
I DO BAD THINGS VERY WELL
NAMASTE BITCHES
CARPE DIEM BITCHES
YOUR PLACE OR MINE
KISS ME STUPID
I DON’T GIVE A SH*T
YOU’RE ON MY TO DO LIST
HAPPY F*CKING BIRTHDAY

In commenting on the winery’s decision to remove the “BOYS WILL BE BOYS” label from the market, Danica Geoffrey, operations manager said:

“I just knew right away we had to get on top of this, it’s super sensitive. I was shocked we even had this label.”

She went on to explain:

“It was two ladies who had shared the post, so I wanted to craft a personalized message from me, as a woman, who is as equally shocked and disturbed by this.”

Meanwhile, Church and State General Manager Anthony Buree went on to say:

“This is so far removed from the new ownership. This is so reprehensible in our time, this behaviour. I can’t say enough about how it bothers all of us.”

My initial response to all this is THIS IS F*CKING AWESOME. Followed by YOU’RE SO F*CKING CLASSY!

Despite having been a boy for quite some time and having spawned a boy, I’m still not qualified to say exactly how or why boys will be boys. Nor am I qualified to say where the #MeToo movement will go other than to predict it will continue to go. However, I am qualified to say YOU DO BAD THINGS VERY WELL.

It’s also notable to discover exactly what is shocking to some these days as well as what is and is not appropriate to adorn a bottle of wine.

Posted In: Culture and Wine

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2 Responses

  1. Peter Ricci - October 2, 2018

    Those ladies better not go to Naked Winery.com

  2. Helene - October 3, 2018

    Some of those other labels shock me a lot more than the ‘Boys will be Boys’ one. How a winery with the name of Church and State can even consider using all those curse words is really rather sad, if not downright depressing! Would ‘Girls will be Girls’ have been any good?


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