The Twitterverse went into meltdown the other day when it was announced that PepsiCo was looking to develop women-friendly Doritos that didn’t leave flavor residue on fingers and had a less audible crunch.
According to PepsiCo’s longtime CEO, Indra Nooyi, these were two traits of its chips that women don’t like.
“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 flavor, and the broken chips in the bottom,” Nooyi told Freakonomics.
She said: “Women I think 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.”
As I mentioned, Twitter was having none of it, rightly accusing the company of being slightly tone-deaf.
Good news, ladies. We got a female Colonel Sanders and Doritos that don’t crunch, so feminism is cancelled. We’ve achieved equality.
— OhNoSheTwitnt (@OhNoSheTwitnt) February 5, 2018
Cheer up, gals! We may not get a lady president, but we do get lady Doritos!
— 𝕁𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕖 𝔻𝕖𝕒𝕟 (@NicCageMatch) February 5, 2018
Now that Doritos has delivered us from sexism, what are we gonna do instead of a women’s march next year, gals, should we just hang out quietly eating chips?
— OhNoSheTwitnt (@OhNoSheTwitnt) February 5, 2018
Has anyone at Doritos ever met a lady
— Danielle Sepulveres (@ellesep) February 5, 2018
WE DO NOT WANT: #LadyDoritos
Lady Laxatives
Lady Power Tools
Lady Shavers
Little Lady Lego
Lady WagesWE DO WANT:
Lady Prime Minister
Lady Leaders
Lady Pope pic.twitter.com/7W8nmvIhfd— Julia Baird (@bairdjulia) February 6, 2018
What if Lady Doritos are just regular Doritos but when a woman buys a bag she only gets 77% of the chips a guy would.#LadyDoritos
— Geraldine (@everywhereist) February 6, 2018
Said other commenters:
“I see your Lady Doritos and raise you my ‘Manpons’ . Tampons for men. Stick them in your mouth and shut the f—k up,” one angered commenter wrote.
and
“Lady Doritos sums up sexism in one chemically-flavored, chewy package. Women are not to be heard. Men can be heard. Women are not to be messy. Men can get as messy as they like. Women are to settle for less. Men have no need to settle.”
All of this led PepsiCo to backtrack on Nooyi’s statement, saying today:
“We already have Doritos for women — they’re called Doritos,” the company said in a statement Tuesday.
So….. Not happening. Chill out. Tempest in a teapot. (via CBS)