Is alcohol a feminist issue?

[mirialis]

I don't frequent the board much so I did do a quick search but couldn’t see a discussion on this - apologies if this has already been done to death.

It’s Dry January time and during the last week or so I’ve listened to a few audiobooks/podcasts about women and alcohol. One that is not available in the UK on audio seems to be:

In Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol, award-winning journalist Anne Dowsett Johnston combines in-depth research with her own personal story of recovery, and delivers a groundbreaking examination of a shocking yet little recognized epidemic threatening society today: the precipitous rise in risky drinking among women and girls

With the feminist revolution, women have closed the gender gap in their professional and educational lives. They have also achieved equality with men in more troubling areas as well. In the U.S. alone, the rates of alcohol abuse among women have skyrocketed in the past decade. DUIs, “drunkorexia”, and health problems connected to drinking are all rising—a problem exacerbated by the alcohol industry itself

Battling for women’s dollars and leisure time, corporations have developed marketing strategies and products targeted exclusively to women.

I’ve heard her talk before about how women's metabolic and hormonal difference makes us more prone to addiction after prolonged drinking, to alcohol-related heart disease and cancers (particularly, of course breast cancer), to drink alcohol as a result of anxiety and depression (which is ultimately counterproductive) and so on. Her problem began with her being out at work all day and then coming home and being the one to prepare the family's dinner and oversee the homework and that having one or two glasses of wine helped her make that transition, equally true of SAHM who view it as a relaxation tool after a relentless day of childcare and housework that does not stop at 5pm but continues well into the evening. And of course childfree women in careers where part of networking and keeping up with the boys involves drinking as much - if not more - than the men, but ultimately this can lead to women sabotaging their full potential.

The (male-dominated) drinks industry made a concerted effort to specifically target women and it has worked out extremely well for them (and the government’s tax intake which far outstrips the NHS cost) but seems to be having a devastating effect on women. On top of it all, women - particularly mothers and pregnant women - tend to experience a lot of shame around drinking and so hide it more, preventing them from asking for help when they need it.

Gloria Steinem apparently dismissed Dowsett Johnston’s claims saying, "drinking is not a women’s issue" but the more I read and listen, the more I think it IS a women’s issue and whilst I reject the idea that women shouldn’t drink so much because it’s not ladylike, makes us somehow more irresponsible then men, or we ask for sexual assault and so on, we have reached a point where women need to help and support each other to stop being sucked into the idea that alcohol is "the modern women’s steroid, enabling her to wear so many hats" because it’s both harming us and holding us back.

I think feminism must just turn out to be the thing that actually inspires me to become mindful of drinking.

IcedPurple

I've done the same. And last January, I bought a 12 pack case of my favorite IPA. I still have 10 bottles left. That and a glass of spiked eggnog for Christmas is my total consumption for the year.

Drinking alone is a warning sign that you might have a problem. It's not proof you have a problem.

Fun fact: during my years of hard partying, I used to do 30 days clean period every 6 months, no alcohol or other. (3 members of my immediate family being alcoholics made me do that). That occasional period of not drinking led people to assume I did indeed have a problem.

C'est la vie, I guess,

The term ‘agency’ masks structural inequalities, of course. Women have agency but men have power. If you exercise agency, it is what you have to do in a set of social and economic constraints to not be totally suppressed or oppressed.

So to say women exercise agency in whether or not they drink, yes of course, women exercise agency in all sorts of decisions in a capitalist patriarchal society. But does that change the structural inequalities they face? Does that change the reasons why women, at a population level, are the fastest growing group of people with alcohol issues? Does that change the gendered perceptions of women who drink?

I grew up in a household where my father was an alcoholic and experienced secondary poverty as well as related trauma. Alcohol, to my mind, does huge social damage, but is accepted because of the idea that a certain amount in moderation and the right setting is positive (I don’t mean Mummies unwinding, I mean the Mediterranean diet idea, for example). It has absolutely been marketed that way, but it does damage.

Does it do damage regardless of the sex of the drinker and the gendered expectations around that? Yes of course. Does this mean that it cannot be looked at through a gendered and/or feminist lens? No, of course not, that would be bizarre. We know that alcohol affects women in different ways, not least because women bear children. We know that male violence is made worse when alcohol is involved. And so on.

KindofGeek - if you would like to try it another way because I don't understand, please try some substantiated facts rather than repeating your view.

12 steps and faith based programs are in the hands of the pharma/insurance monopolization. It's a capitalist venture which has no regard for women or our liberation

yes this seems to be something I am coming across a lot from US women - I also seem to hear that UK women are very reluctant to go near AA because of the "faith based" element ( a category I would fall into were I considering AA). Until posting here I had not heard of the predatory men aspect, which is appalling.

So to say women exercise agency in whether or not they drink, yes of course, women exercise agency in all sorts of decisions in a capitalist patriarchal society. But does that change the structural inequalities they face? Does that change the reasons why women, at a population level, are the fastest growing group of people with alcohol issues? Does that change the gendered perceptions of women who drink?

Quite.

KataraJean

Yes, there are additional issues involved with alcohol and women drinking. There are also male waiters who make a deliberate point out making sure the wine ordered for the table isn't for the pregnant woman, but serves the drunk known to beat his wife with a happy smile.

miralis

If you don't understand it, you don't understand it.

You are focussing on mummy walking around with a few under her belt, and not why she does that or offering alternatives.

What is misogynistic about the 12-step programme?

My mother never actually admitted to being an alcoholic or joining a recovery programme, despite ending up in hospital and nearly dieing on more than one occasion, so I don't really know what they say. Gin very literally was "Mother's ruin" in her case, although she had apparently started with heroin back in the '60s, so alcohol was probably seen as the lesser of two evils. Another misogynistic term there - don't think I've ever heard whiskey or special brew or anything being referred to as "father's ruin".

KindOfAGeek the waiter you describe, should he exist and no doubt he or she does in various guises, does not act in a vacuum. He makes whatever judgements he makes and enacts because of the cultural and social values of the society he lives in.
The issues with pregnant women and alcohol were one of the first epidemiological issues to be recognised and subject to a public health campaign (foetal alcohol syndrome). These are things which permeate public consciousness, and fit with much longer ideas about female respectability and morality. Whereas male pay packets being spent down the pub and women being both beaten up and seeing the family money disappear on alcohol has a longer history in the other direction.

The point about mother’s ruin is really interesting and I think fits with these longer historical ideas about male and female behaviour. Women being seen through the lens of reproductive capacity and responsibility for children, but also adding in ideas about morality and respectability (the idea of being ruined through drink has a parallel in being ruined through pre-marital sex in the nineteenth century). Whereas as long as a man could turn up for work and meet his responsibilities there (even if the wage got spent down the pub on a Saturday night), he was meeting his societal obligations. Add that men could legitimately chastise their wives (cruelty was not a grounds for divorce in England until 1937, I think), then domestic violence after drink was routinely excused on grounds of provocation (for example, the wife legitimately complaining about the drinking or any minor thing).

That said, I certainly think Temperance material played on the idea of drink being the ruin of men and by association, their families. And even before that the Gin Lane picture (cannot remember the painter, early nineteenth century) shows the whole community in tatters. But more recently, where I grew up at least, men binge-drinking on pay day and drinking in between was culturally accepted.

I have departed from the point I think. It is difficult because on one hand, I think my father had a choice not to drink (he did eventually stop in his sixties when his health was badly affected) and on the other, the social and cultural values around masculinity made that choice harder. I wish he had stopped or not started, because he was an alcoholic for decades. He is lucky to still be alive.

And even before that the Gin Lane picture (cannot remember the painter, early nineteenth century)

1761, Hogarth.

*The (male-dominated) drinks industry made a concerted effort to specifically target women

Evidence for this? Alcohol advertising is strictly regulated in the UK. I go to the cinema regularly.. I can't think of any advert which was targeted at women or was promoting a "women's drink". The adverts for Foster's lager in fact seem to be directed at men*

Has anyone mentioned the 'culture of pink' lately? Pink fizz, pink Moscato, pink bottles, pink gin - all marketed at women? My local had a Rose tasting afternoon and the employee who knew me well (very rarely buy anything pink) suggested I attend. I said to let me know when they were opening the single malts and I'd be there.

Drinking alone is a warning sign that you might have a problem. It's not proof you have a problem

Especially if you live alone and happen to like wine with your meal and a nice malt before bed.

Excellent post KataraJean

After reading “The unexpected joy of being sober” I agree with you OP. The way alcohol is advertised to women as glamorous, as necessary, as rebellious, as empowering, is a co-option of feminism of sorts.

Another feminist aspect is the reason for the increase in women-specific drinking. Of course there is the “keeping up with the lads” at drinks after work but there is also the regular insidious drinking of isolated, lonely mothers coping with young children and finding themselves without the support they need.

After leaving the independence and freedom of working behind for four walls and a sleep deprived existence with a baby who demanded my time but gave me no intellectual return, this is how my drinking turned from odd night out to regular nights in and became a problem.

No longer, thanks to the marvellous Catherine Gray.

Drinking alone is a warning sign that you might have a problem.

So is drinking with other people, potentially.

You've got a problem if you can't function without alcohol. Whether you prefer to drink alone or with others is neither here nor there.

I''m still slightly aghast at the pp who said that they didn't think that there was advertising aimed at women...

Babycham, with its little cute deers served in little glasses?

All the various pink drinks, as a pp said?

Cocktails (including in cans in shops with swirly pastel writing on them)?

The huge rise in popularity of prosecco, along with the "wine o'clock" and assorted merchandise (usually in pretty, swirly writing with a dose of glitter)?

Is someone really trying to claim that this isn't gendered?

Does anyone else remember the coloured cigarettes that were marketed to women?

The different physical and addiction effects on women are interesting, but I don't have much sympathy for those who are suckered in by 'glam' gin and prosecco advertising. Surely that has more effect on what you drink rather than whether or how much you drink?

Is someone really trying to claim that this isn't gendered?

Of course it's gendered. But why are women any more suscebtible to female-targeted advertising than men are to male-targeted advertising (laddish beer adverts, aspirational whisky adverts etc)?

It's also interesting that young people are drinking less and less alcohol. Maybe young women are more swayed by the hipster health guru, yoga bunny influencers rather than the swirly, glittery prosecco sellers.

Menthol cigarettes were almost exclusively aimed at women.

Yes, but these were pastel coloured and came in a nice box. Our neighbour used to smoke them as a luxury cigarette and I always wanted one - they were so pretty!

It's a feminist issue because it's a women's health issue.

The detrimental effects of heavy drinking affect women's health years before it affects men's health.

Aiming products and advertising at women, I find harder to criticise when alcohol advertising for decades has been aimed at men. To an extent providing pink gin recognised that women are consumers with disposable income. It is an achievement that we are finally useful.

The problem is not the drug women use to self medicate; its the fact that their lives under capitalist and patriarchal rule are unnatural and unsatisfying. Its the symptom not the dis-ease

oh good grief.

Of course it's gendered. But why are women any more suscebtible to female-targeted advertising than men are to male-targeted advertising (laddish beer adverts, aspirational whisky adverts etc)?

I don't think they are and drinking is a problem for both sexes.

The point is that female drinking and more to the point - female problem drinking - is on the rise irrespective of current trends for young people of both sexes to drink less than previous generations.

Women are drinking stronger alcoholic drinks (wine and spirits) despite the fact that their bodies can handle less. Part of the issue is a narrative around female drinking that involves having something adult/glam/luxury to take the edge off the tedium/isolation/sleep-deprivation of childcare/wifework, drinking at home as part of everyday life on a habitual basis rather than out socially with friends.

By the way Rita and pumpkin - huge congratulations on kicking the booze!

Hogarth's print "Gin Lane", depicting the effects of gin on the poor, was published in 1751

Gin Lane wasn't an anti-drinking poster. It was actually an advert for booze! Not gin, clearly. But Gin Lane was one of a pair, the other was Beer Street (on the left in the picture) which showed a happy scene of people merrily drinking beer after a hard day's work.

There was a public debate about gin at the time.

At the time, beer was about 1 or 2% alcohol and was routinely drunk in vast quantities by workers as it was safer than well water, having been boiled as part of the production process.

Was that 'small beer'?

Contented people don't self medicate. In the past women have used booze, then valium, and cigarettes. Now its booze again.
The next generation are having their breasts surgically removed and taking testosterone.