Men “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 flavor, and the broken chips in the bottom,” Indra Nooyi, the CEO of global giant PepsiCo said in an interview with WNYC’s "Freakonomics," regarding the ideas her company are coming up with to make Doritos more friendly for women to eat.
She continues to say that “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 flavor into their mouth.”
My first reaction to this was that it must be a joke; this can’t be real. As it turns out, it isn’t real. Doritos has already announced that they are not, in fact, making a product of Doritos that are aimed for women consumption, contradicting what Indra Nooyi had to say, because it got such a bad backlash from women everywhere on the Internet and social media.
In any event, this idea was real and alive in Indra Nooyi’s mind. If I could ask her one question, it would be, where are you getting your evidence, your research that women do not lick their fingers, and do not tip the bag to get the last bit of crumbs, and do not like to crunch too loudly in public? Because I for one, a woman, love to do all those things, and I, having female friends who eat chips, never once heard any of them complain about any of the above things that only men supposedly enjoy.
I just can’t believe that this was even an idea to dabble with. After all the messages women are demanding through marches and movements, this is what we get? Low-crunch Doritos? As if that will silence us.
And to think that this idea came from a woman herself – an educated woman at that.
My follow-up question to Indra Nooyi would be, if I like to enjoy my Doritos like men do, does that not make me a woman? Would I, a woman, not be able to purchase the crunchy Doritos? Or would I be forced to leave the store with my designated sex's chip?
In a time where women are fighting hard against the system and society, still demanding recognition as equals, how can one, anyone, possibly think that this was going to be a good idea? Just having this idea out there, even though it was contradicted, is embarrassing. I thought we were making our message loud and clear, but apparently, I was wrong.
Apparently, all women really need is less crunchy Doritos, so we can enjoy them in public.
It was a good call on Doritos' part to release a statement saying they are not releasing a product of Doritos aimed at women. If this idea actually went through and this product was released, I have a strong prediction that the Doritos company would have taken a loss from it, if they haven’t already.
I know I’m not the only one when I say that I am truly disappointed. Through this incident, it’s sending women a much bigger message, which is that we are still being ignored; we are still not getting listened to.
Indra Nooyi, we are demanding equality. By giving us low-crunch Doritos, it’s pushing us in the opposite direction. Stop trying to separate human beings. We are all the same, so therefore, enjoy chips all the same.
