This holiday season, there are plenty of ads thatplay up the same old narrative we’ve come to expect about whisky as aman’s drink: guy wins over the disapproving father-in-law with Johnnie Walker, guys bond like brothers over a bottle of Bushmills. But between all of them, there’s a Christmas miracle of sorts: a whisky ad aimed at women.

Spike the Cookies, a new campaignby Jack Daniels, encourages women to host whisky-themed holiday partiesthat feature both baking and cocktails (the campaign provide recipesfor both Jack and Ginger cookies and Jack and Ginger gimlets). It’srefreshing to see a campaign that addresses the fact that women mightlike whiskey, too—and it's dissapointing that it's such an anomoly.After all, women have been drinking whisky for years—and some of themeven leave the kitchen to do so.

With it’s heavy, smoky flavor, and dark, heavy coloring, whisky (andrelated drinks, like Scotch and rye) still carries the connotations ofAmerica’s early attitudes toward liquor—mainly, that women shouldn’thave any. “The association with manliness is related to a deep culturalappreciation of alcohol's dangers; having the strength and wisdom toconfront and withstand those dangers is at the root of the associationwith manliness and of the 'male bonding' associated with drinkingtogether and shared intoxication,” says James S. Roberts, an associateprofessor of economics at Duke, in an email to NEWSWEEK.  "And all thisscales with the beverage consumed, with whisky at the pinnacle.”

Still, if it’s not pink and sugary, it’s not often considered a“girlie drink”—even if it’s imbibed by lots of girls. “It’s not thatwhisky isn’t thought of as a whisky drink, but that sweet drinks likecosmos are considered for women." That’s changing, too: whisky cocktailsare now popular menu items in trendy urban bars. 

That's good news for whisky fans and cocktail fans, but it’s not a necessity to get women to imbibe. While “Women and Whisky” events are currently making headlines,Ruderhausen has been hosting similar events for years. Then, as now,the crowd is mixed but enthusiastic, often a hundred women strong. “Youget women who have never tasted whisky before, those who have tasted iton occasion but don’t really understand it, and then those who arereally passionate, who love a good Scotch.”

And that’s how it should be—gendering drinks as “male” or “female “creates arbitrary distinctions about how people should respond tocertain situations, based on stereotypes. “It’s all about people’spersonal taste,” says Ruderhausen. “Just as there are men who don’t likea big, smoky whisky, there are women who do.”

Make no mistake. having hard-liquor ads targeted at women is hardly atentpole of the feminist movement. It’s not progress, it’s marketing: away to get more people to pay more money for a product that can bedangerous if used to excess. But still, as Christmas Day approaches,it’s useful to remember—especially for those totally panicked,last-minute shoppers out there—that the right woman in the rightcircumstances might enjoy a hastily purchased, wrapped-in-the-car bottle of whisky just as much as a man does.