Is being a Fortune 500 CEO a "dude" thing?
Yes, according to the original intro of a Bon Appetit story about grilling. The Braiser reported that the article, which features exclusively male "grill artists," originally opened with:
It’s a cliche because it’s true: men like grilling things. Women like grilling things too, of course, but at this point in history, grilling, like crying about sports and being a Fortune 500 CEO, is firmly located in the domain of Dude.
Unsurprisingly, the lede was poorly received. Kelly Maxwell of Bust.com referred to the humor as "lazy sexism," and Laura Beck of Jezebel called it "tired gendered bullsh*t." Some readers took to Twitter, directing their responses to the magazine's editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport:
The magazine redacted part of the article's intro in response to the outcry, replacing "being a Fortune 500 CEO" with the phrase "[inadvertently sexist attempt at humor deleted]." They also issued an Editor's Note apologizing for implying that "women aren't just as masterful at the grill" as men.
Jokes about women grilling are nothing new -- just check out our slideshow of stock photos showing what happens when a female encounters a BBQ. However, many readers were more frustrated by the suggestion that being a Fortune 500 CEO is a "dude" thing than the idea that women aren't handy at grilling:
Women aren't exactly well-represented in the Fortune 500 -- in 2012, according to U.S. News, women held only 14.3 percent of executive officer positions at Fortune 500 companies. And a flippant, meant-to-be-humorous comment about said gender inequality doesn't exactly help the situation.
Here's hoping that more women make it into the C-suite soon -- and that the phrase "domain of Dude" gets retired once and for all.
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