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Harpoon Brewery president resigns post at Harvard boy's club
By adamg on Sun, 04/17/2016 - 11:25pm
The Crimson reports that not only did Charlie Storey resign his post as graduate president of the Porcellian Club, he apologized for his initial apology, saying his original comments about women maybe getting sexually attacked if they were admitted to the club were just wrong and he feels terrible he ever wrote them.
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Sorry, Charlie
Not long ago, I tried some Harpoon beer for the first time. I found it rather mediocre — better than Rolling Rock, but not as good as Genessee Cream Ale. If I found it on sale, I might have bought it again, but not now.
With so many beers to choose from, it helps to whittle down the selection now, by simply removing Harpoon from consideration.
No more Harpoon for me
I like Harpoon IPA, but I wont be drinking it anymore after this incident, unless Storey resigns from Harpoon.
I sent an email to Harpoon telling them just that, and received a response from a PR person thanking me for my concern, and including the following information.
They obviously dont get it.
Serious question
He resigned his post. He apologized. He's probably very sorry he made whatever remarks he made.
How much punishment is enough? Go Game of Thrones on his ass? Really, he was dumb. I get it. Move on.
Anyway, it's 65 outside and I have a bunch of hops that need crowning.
Serious Answer
I don't believe the guy misspoke. From his initial letter it seems he really does think the only way to keep guys from raping woman is to keep woman away from guys. That's a philosophy which I find disgusting and as a result I won't support his business further.
I'm fully aware millions of people share his beliefs including the owners of plenty of other business I go to. Should one of them be so bold as to print their views in a prominent publication I'd also boycott their businesses.
He has every right to think it's OK to victim blame for rape. But if he encourages others to have the same beliefs I'll do what I can to show my disapproval.
You make a valid point
I never claimed he mis-spoke. I claimed he was an idiot. It's easy to not rape women. Just be a normal, decent human being.
My point is why take it out on the employees of one of the not-too-many successful employee owned companies?
OT - What variety?
My da-in-law grows several barrelled Cascade vines in his large Framingham garden, and over the years I've distributed cuttings to several friends here in Boston - at least two of those are still growing more than ten years later.
With the price of hops going up so sharply the last few years - and projected to continue, I wonder if there'll be a noticable upswing in hops grown in the northeast (either home-grown or commercial). If I had the room, I'd grow them myself.
Two, really
I have Cascade and Chinook growing in several places. They're doing great in Maine, of all places. New England was once known for hops. They weren't resistant to a few problems like downy mildew and pretty much got wiped out. The Pacific Northwest is the place a lot is grown now. It's illegal to import hops into several of the states to avoid diseases. The Cascade I have is mature, some plants a dozen years old. It's a good flavor hop. The Chinook has a crazy alpha acid profile, stuff is bitter, great bittering hop. Huge cones.
I've never had a problem with anything but aphids and those are easily controlled.
I have a friend that grows hops between a couple of houses in Dorchester. They look fine. If you have any room at all, try a couple. I have a shitload of rhizomes, they just take over. I should go into the rhizome business.
no
hes sorry that people called him out.
thats the beauty of capitalism. i can vote with my dollar. your "wont make a dent in sales" argument is you just being a cynic. any dent in sales is a dent in sales, and will get the board talking.
The whole "employee-owned" argument is a cop out, because the employees arent enslaved, and dont have to continue working for this clown. I dont know about you, but if the owner of my company said women get raped because they're not segregated from men, i'd be on Indeed pretty fucking quickly.
"better than Rolling Rock"
There's damning with faint praise, and then there's this. Just vicious.
I've noticed magic hat has
I've noticed magic hat has been cheaper lately at my grocery store...also sam adams has improved in the past few years. Plenty of other options as well too.
Sam Adams owner Jim Koch no better after 2002 sex stunt
I haven't bought a Sam Adams since Koch's 2002 anti-Catholic sex stunt.
Seriously?
Apples and oranges here
Not sure what goes on in that head of yours ...
... but I bet the MRI would interesting to see.
Fish, you should know better.
That stunt was extremely crude and sacrilegious. It was probably worse than the highly acclaimed art masterpiece 'Piss Christ'. Jim Koch deserved to get all kinds of grief for it.
This is on a different level. This was someone saying something that people don't like.
Thank You — That Gave Me Another Reason To Like Sam Adams Better
No word on whether
His brew carries possibility of infection with foot-in-mouth disease.
Um...
...if you boycott Harpoon, two things will happen. First, you will probably not make much of a dent in their sales, which are significant, second, you will only hurt the workers of the company.
See, Harpoon is actually owned by the workers. You know, as in workers of the world unite. The company is set up to contribute shares to their retirement pension fund.
I would suggest not trying to punish them for dumb statements made by someone that really should have known better.
Disclaimer: I've been at this a while.
www.clubcarbrew.com
Employee owned
I am aware that Harpoon is employee owned. I am aware that withdrawing my own personal Harpoon consumption, large at it is (or used to be, after this incident), wont make a dent in their sales.
However, I do believe that Storey should resign and I wont drink any of their product until and unless he does resign.
Sexual assault is a real problem and Storey's attitude (only amplified by weak attempts at an apology) helps to perpetuate the problem. I for one wont tolerate that kind of attitude in the leadership of companies I support.
Not to mention ...
... that many of the employee-owners in his organization are women. I guess if one of his brewers or taproom workers is attacked on the premises after hours by a male employee-owner or lurking patron it will just be because she was there, right?
That's the sort of toxic nonsense that has no place anywhere.
And those women
Are still not allowed to use the men's room!
Anybody claiming that unisex bathrooms need not be mandated must be pilloried!
Unisex Bathrooms
Pretty much every household has one.
You're right
And that's obviously much safer. I expect you will take the lead in bravely integrating bathrooms everywhere. No men's room will be safe from sexual assault until there is at least one woman in it, and vice versa. I applaud your commitment.
Please...
"... that many of the employee-owners in his organization are women. I guess if one of his brewers or taproom workers is attacked on the premises after hours by a male employee-owner or lurking patron it will just be because she was there, right?
That's the sort of toxic nonsense that has no place anywhere."
I make the eminently reasonable point that you are only hurting the employees of an employee-owned company. If someone is attacked, it's assault, plain and simple.
To suggest that maybe not boycotting Harpoon, is not the same as condoning assaults on women. It's not 'toxic nonsense', it's actually a not very unreasonable position to hold.
So
Are you going to go work in a convenience store? I guess if you did, would it be your own fault if you got killed?
Same mentality - somebody who holds so much toxic sexist victim-blaming crap as this between his ears that he can't keep it from leaking out is not going to be the sort of proprietor who gives a shit about the safety of people in the workplace.
Women "fantasize being raped by three men simultaneously."
I hope those boycotting Harpoon are also boycotting Bernie Sanders for his equally despicable comments. Truly barbaric.
And I hope those trying to derail discussions
With comments that have nothing to do with the matter at hand are also boycotting Donald Trump:
Truly disgusting.
I thought the matter at hand was women being sexually assaulted
I thought the "matter at hand" was women being sexually assaulted, no? The allegations against Trump are garden variety, unsubstantiated hearsay, whereas Sanders words are his own.
Nope
The issue at hand was a discussion of a letter by some local guy about a He Man Woman Hater's Club at Harvard. I realize you have a serious conspiracy theory thing going on in your head, but this doesn't have anything at all to do with presidential politics (but since you bring up Trump, it's kind of sad you don't see the misogyny in the Trump allegations, but in any case, surely even you've read about Ivanka Trump's it-was-only-sort-of-rape allegations).
Typo or error?
It was IVANA, the ex-wife, not IVANKA, the daughter, who made these allegations.
Error
Thanks. Ivana was the wife, Ivanka was the daughter he said he'd go out with if he could.
Pro Tip
Less conspiracy theory, more facts, evidence, and context.
Since you asked
Sen. Sanders wrote that 40 years ago and has been disavowing it every since.
The Harvard/Harpoon guy is NOT disavowing his position that woman be kept out of the social club for everyone's safety. Instead he's apologizing for wording those views in such a transparent way.
See the difference?
Ha ha ha don't be stupid
Of course he doesn't see the difference.
Furthermore
Context is EVERYTHING: http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/05/29/410606045/the-bern...
Notice what's outside the quotes
Can I try putting different words outside the quotes too?
Ooh, I've got it. O-Fish-L "fantasizes being raped by three men simultaneously."
Yes, it was very naughty of Bernie to say that about you.
I Still Don't Get It
I'm not in favor of finals clubs and other all-male bastions but I think I understood what he meant by his remarks even if they were ham-handed. I think he was saying that bringing men and women together in finals clubs would not significantly change their culture or the male club members' attitudes, which is arguable. Unfortunate, unpleasant, pessimistic, but probably true. Allowing women into the clubs is not likely to change these guys and women should not have to assume the responsibility (and risks) of reforming the men's behavior and attitudes. (Who raises and educates these monsters, I wonder — to be sexual predators and Harvard elites at that same time?)
Storey seemed to be saying that, since women are being sexually assaulted in clubs, why invite more women into the clubs, to be among men who don't want them there and refuse to treat them as equals? As I understood him, he was just drawing a logical conclusion while recognizing that admitting women will not automatically turn his guys into gentlemen. He wasn't being at all complimentary or forgiving to his clubmen with that statement, at least as I understood him.
On the other hand, he didn't say what he should have said: that clubs like his should be disbanded because of the grievous damage they have caused through criminal acts in addition to their exclusionary rules. Opening them to women is not the answer. The clubs are disgusting and women aren't going to fix that, nor should they be expected to shoulder that burden.
I wonder if ham hands taste better than feet
He meant that, as women were being sexually assaulted in some other clubs which allow women into them, it is not a logical supposition that forcing his club to allow women into it would reduce sexual assault. A reasonable argument can be made that requiring clubs that allow women at parties to allow women to be members could reduce sexual assault, but that logic excludes his club.
The incidences of assault were all reported at clubs that bring women into them to attend parties; his doesn't allow non-members to enter the club. Nobody has ever alleged that a woman has been abused at the porky club; nobody has even alleged that a woman has been inside said club. It's simply not possible to improve on zero. Negative numbers? How would that work?
He spoke extremely poorly. He must be the most ashamed he's ever been in his life. In more than 200 years there is no statement to the press, and then this? Derp of the century. He has disgraced himself in front of his old boys' club, and in their name.
The pig club should absolutely stand by its policy of not allowing non-members to enter the club. It has worked so far to maintain a safe club. And they should really invite some women to become members... who would also not be allowed to bring non-members into the club.
Problem is, what woman would accept? Answer is, I suppose, the type of woman they'd like to have as a member.
lmfao hahahah
you are all dumb as heck and its great, <3
He resigned from the wrong position
He should have resigned from Harpoon and kept the Porcellian office. Now he's doing ongoing daily damage to the Harpoon brand.
yeah, harpoon will be just fine.
all 30 people that are outraged on the internet, serious damage.
lets be honest. no appreciable damage will happen to harpoons sales or image. people are going to vote for candidates to be president that have said much worse about women.
Employees are Owners
They will likely sack him if they are disturbed by his mouth running.