Molson Coors is introducing Animee, a new "beer for women"

Molson Coors is introducing a "female-friendly" beer called Animee in the U.K. this fall, hoping to swell the ranks of British beer-drinking women, which currently hover around seventeen percent. (By contrast, twenty-five percent of American women drink beer.)

The "light, sparkling, finely-filtered beer" will be available in three varieties: clear filtered, crisp rose, and zesty lemon. Molson Coors communications partner Kristy McCready said, "We need to repair the reputation of beer among women by launching products that meet their needs. The brand plan and the product design are feminine and sophisticated without being patronizing."

So there's your corporate speak. You can't blame the company for trying to accommodate different palates. We've seen this reaching out to women before with beers like Carlsberg's Copenhagen and Eve. But does this sit right with women? Molson Coors marketing director Chris McDonough says, "It's important when launching a female beer not to be too patronizing." But isn't it indeed patronizing?

Research by Molson Coors has revealed that factors responsible for such a dearth of suds-pounding women include a lack of education, a surfeit of "gassy rubbish," and unattractive glassware. But the elephant in the brewery, so to speak, has been the disenfranchisement of women from the beer market due to sexist advertising over the past few decades. It's become so deeply ingrained in our culture that it's just accepted, and then beer companies wind up at an economic impasse, and have to concoct these embarrassing beer versions of wine coolers. And it works both ways. What if a manly man likes the sound of an ice-cold, crisp-rose Animee? He either has to deal with the stigma, or joke about being in touch with his feminine side. The whole thing's ridiculous.