The Women's Prize for Fiction – formerly known as the Orange Prize, announced its new sponsor yesterday: Baileys. Mobile brand Orange ended its fifteen years of sponsorship last year, leaving the prize to continue temporarily with the support of independent donors including Cherie Blair, Joanna Trollope and Martha Lane Fox. But yesterday not everyone saw cause for celebration.

There was sneering from some quarters, with a handful of online comedians dragging out tired quips about a certain type of boozy woman, and others such as author and reviewer Jenny Diski displaying genuine anger, calling the partnership 'doubly patronising'. 

This all seems like a nasty case of first world problems. At a time when teenage girls such as Pakistani Malala Yousafzaisuch as are being shot in the head for seeking out an education, fretting about associating yourself with the wrong sort of liquer seems an absurdity. Keeping literacy issues in the media seems a priority over flavoured cream.

"This seems like a case of first world problems... Keeping literacy in the media seems a priority over flavoured cream"

After all, has there ever been a case of a man being sneery about a Stella Artois sponsored film event because they deem lager insufficiently manly? Or one who doesn't drink gin spurned one of Hendricks' many fine literary events at being offered a cocktail? 

While I do have reservations about alcohol brands sponsoring arts events when in 2011-12, there were more than twice as many alcohol related A&E admissions as a decade ago, I am in no doubt that the Women's Prize is a good thing. We need to have a little more faith in our ability not to be defined by what we drink and focus on what we write.

Above all, we should dwell not on what Baileys is giving the prize, but what the prize is giving Baileys: an association with world class writers who win prizes across the board. Frankly, the brand is lucky to be able to touch the hem of Hilary Mantel or Kate Atkinson and we'd all do well to remember that.