From “Hot Girl Pickles” to “Dude Wipes,” gender-coded branding has taken over consumer packaged goods with surprising intensity. Brands are leaning hard into hyper-specific identities, sometimes as parody, sometimes as sincere targeting. There’s even “Girl Beer” now, and as a woman who drinks beer, I can’t help but feel slightly insulted by the implication that I needed a label to validate it. Talea, a brewery founded by two women, manages to speak to female beer drinkers without labeling it. It’s inclusive without being obvious.

But what exactly is fueling this rise in gendered branding? And is it harmless fun, a clever marketing tactic, or something more telling about the state of culture and commerce?