On Women and Alcoholism
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 138
On Women and Alcoholism
I am interested in people’s reaction to these comments from an interview with Ann Dowsett Johnston, the author of the new book "Drink." These comments really hit home for me.
On what motivates some women to drink:
“Women feel they have a right. They feel they're entitled to drink. They're doing just about everything — everything, actually — that men are doing, and they feel they have a right to drink at the end of their very hard day, but I think it's more than that. I think it has a lot to do with what people once coined as "the second shift." And for me, as a professional mother coming home, chopping vegetables, getting ready for an evening of overseeing homework, producing a meal and so on, I found that a drink or two really helped unhitch my shoulders from my ear lobes and help me make the transition to home life. So, I think there are many of us around the world doing that. You see a highly feminized drinking culture: wines called MommyJuice and Girl's Night Out and Happy Bitch and berry-flavored vodka. These aren't pitched at men.... Men drink to be social for the most part. And women, although they drink to be social, when they get into trouble with alcohol, are often drinking to numb; drinking to escape loneliness, anxiety or depression. And women suffer a lot more depression than men do.”
On the effect of advertising on women's drinking habits:
“We're seeing a parallel ... to what happened with Virginia Slims and tobacco, where — somewhere around the mid-'90s — the alcohol industry, the spirits part of it, looked and said, "Beer is cleaning our clock, what are we going to do? Our Johnnie Walker drinkers are dying out." And they saw a huge gap of drinkers who weren't fully engaged, and that was the female gender. And they pitched with alcopops — those sweetly-flavored, pre-packaged drinks like Mike's Hard Lemonade — and they pitched those at teenagers, and it was an experiment that paid off. We now have ... on campuses, young people playing drinking games — but the young woman is doing it with shots and with vodka, and the young man is doing it with beer. It's very different, given that she's two-thirds his body weight.”
On what motivates some women to drink:
“Women feel they have a right. They feel they're entitled to drink. They're doing just about everything — everything, actually — that men are doing, and they feel they have a right to drink at the end of their very hard day, but I think it's more than that. I think it has a lot to do with what people once coined as "the second shift." And for me, as a professional mother coming home, chopping vegetables, getting ready for an evening of overseeing homework, producing a meal and so on, I found that a drink or two really helped unhitch my shoulders from my ear lobes and help me make the transition to home life. So, I think there are many of us around the world doing that. You see a highly feminized drinking culture: wines called MommyJuice and Girl's Night Out and Happy Bitch and berry-flavored vodka. These aren't pitched at men.... Men drink to be social for the most part. And women, although they drink to be social, when they get into trouble with alcohol, are often drinking to numb; drinking to escape loneliness, anxiety or depression. And women suffer a lot more depression than men do.”
On the effect of advertising on women's drinking habits:
“We're seeing a parallel ... to what happened with Virginia Slims and tobacco, where — somewhere around the mid-'90s — the alcohol industry, the spirits part of it, looked and said, "Beer is cleaning our clock, what are we going to do? Our Johnnie Walker drinkers are dying out." And they saw a huge gap of drinkers who weren't fully engaged, and that was the female gender. And they pitched with alcopops — those sweetly-flavored, pre-packaged drinks like Mike's Hard Lemonade — and they pitched those at teenagers, and it was an experiment that paid off. We now have ... on campuses, young people playing drinking games — but the young woman is doing it with shots and with vodka, and the young man is doing it with beer. It's very different, given that she's two-thirds his body weight.”
Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Bklyn. NY
Posts: 1,859
With he motivation part, I think there are a billion reasons people drink, and lots of things alcoholics like to blame their drinking problem on. The author picked a few out and focused on them.
As for the advertising, I was unaware of the marketing towards women, but it makes lots of sense to me. People want to get rich off this stuff. As do the people who market all the medications you now see advertisements for on TV. How that's not illegal, is beyond me. But that's a whole nuther thread.
As for the advertising, I was unaware of the marketing towards women, but it makes lots of sense to me. People want to get rich off this stuff. As do the people who market all the medications you now see advertisements for on TV. How that's not illegal, is beyond me. But that's a whole nuther thread.
Life Health Prosperity
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Louisana
Posts: 6,752
Alcohol and cigarette producers know that the human body is attracted to chemicals substances and they pray off of it. Add the fact that humans are extremely social animals and will do most anything to fit into a group, and you can easily dupe a person out of their money with little regard to the consequences of the individual. Addiction is a global problem and it is getting worse. First you spend all you money becoming an addict, and then you spend all your money going to rehabs. However you can overcome it. 
Grateful to be free
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Arizona
Posts: 3,680
I'm a woman. One of the things that got me drinking purposely and heavily was anger. I felt a lot of it, and felt guilty for it, afraid of it, afraid of the repurcussions on my marriage and family if I expressed it.
p***enger
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: NYC
Posts: 19,039
Interesting. I drank before the trend towards feminine drinkers -- most always drank the hard stuff straight on the rocks, like (BTW) my mother and all my aunties & grandma did.
I'm in AA and have had some conversations w/others there who find that the literature doesn't reflect women's experience well. There's a lot about anger, ambition, "the king baby" etc., but not a lot about the repression and depression that many women deal with. The extroverted drinker profile does fit some women, but I meet a lot of women that it doesn't fit.
I'm in AA and have had some conversations w/others there who find that the literature doesn't reflect women's experience well. There's a lot about anger, ambition, "the king baby" etc., but not a lot about the repression and depression that many women deal with. The extroverted drinker profile does fit some women, but I meet a lot of women that it doesn't fit.
Life the gift of recovery!
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Home is where the heart is
Posts: 7,061
I don't feel advertising affected the way that I drank any different than it affects men. I started drinking alcoholically from the start and continued that way until I stopped drinking 20 years later.
I can remember taking my first drink. I was around the age of 15, riding around with friends in a car. We all pitched in and had someone buy us a case of Mickeys Big Mouth beer. I remember after that first drink I wanted more so I counted how many there were and did the math in my head and decided what my fair share of the beer was and was determined I would drink that plus any that someone else did not drink and I was sure hoping someone would not drink all of theirs. It did not get better from there as I quickly found out that for some reason I could easily out drink most people even the men I drank with and I am talking about Marines as I married a Marine right out of high school. I drank whatever I could get my hands on be it hard liquor or wine coolers. It just took way more wine coolers for the same effect.
Maybe that is why I was only able to stay out there drinking for 20 years before finding the end of the bottle I really can not say as I don't know but I do know that in my case it wasn't advertising's fault that I drank like a fish it was because I am an alcoholic and that is what alcoholics sometimes do.
I can remember taking my first drink. I was around the age of 15, riding around with friends in a car. We all pitched in and had someone buy us a case of Mickeys Big Mouth beer. I remember after that first drink I wanted more so I counted how many there were and did the math in my head and decided what my fair share of the beer was and was determined I would drink that plus any that someone else did not drink and I was sure hoping someone would not drink all of theirs. It did not get better from there as I quickly found out that for some reason I could easily out drink most people even the men I drank with and I am talking about Marines as I married a Marine right out of high school. I drank whatever I could get my hands on be it hard liquor or wine coolers. It just took way more wine coolers for the same effect.
Maybe that is why I was only able to stay out there drinking for 20 years before finding the end of the bottle I really can not say as I don't know but I do know that in my case it wasn't advertising's fault that I drank like a fish it was because I am an alcoholic and that is what alcoholics sometimes do.
EndGame
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 4,677
There are real and significant gender differences when it comes to risk factors, physiology, reasons for drinking, drinking behaviors and other consequences related to the use of alcohol. These data are neither recent or trivial.
For example: Gender differences in risk factors and cons... [Clin Psychol Rev. 2004] - PubMed - NCBI
For example: Gender differences in risk factors and cons... [Clin Psychol Rev. 2004] - PubMed - NCBI
voices ca**y
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: St. Paul Minnesota
Posts: 4,359
What motivated me to drink was because I liked it. I didn't ever think about it as a "right". I understood her to say drinking is social for men but women do so for some underlying reason. I didn't get into trouble by trying to medicate myself.
EndGame
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 4,677
An excerpt from a review of the Documentary, Lipstick & Liquor:
LIPSTICK & LIQUOR: Powerful Documentary Exploring the Secret World of Women Who Drink to Open in Theaters Across the U.S. and Canada. - Free Online Library
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), alcoholism is the third leading cause of preventable death among women between the ages of 35 and 55. "The statistics are startling," says filmmaker Lori Butterfield, who spent the past two years researching the topic of women and alcohol. "DUI arrests of women are up 30% from a decade ago, while arrests for men are down. Binge drinking among women is also on the rise. Through this film, I have learned that there is a real double standard in our society; women drinkers are treated differently than men."
. . .
Butterfield, an Emmy award-winning producer and writer, felt compelled to create Lipstick & Liquor after reading Julie Kroll's story in the newspaper. Through her research, Butterfield discovered that many women turn to alcohol to cope with the intense pressure of juggling work, family and financial demands. "Many women become 'kitchen drinkers' and hide the fact that alcohol is taking over their lives," says Butterfield. "What starts out as a drink to take the edge off after work, or when the kids go to bed, leads to drinking even more, which can progress over time to alcohol abuse."
Psychotherapist and author Dr. Anita Gadhia-Smith , one of the experts in the film, agrees. "In my practice, I see a lot of professional women who are also mothers, they have marriages, families and careers, and they are trying to be all things to all people," says Dr. Gadhia-Smith. "They have less and less time to take care of themselves and that can show up in all kinds of ways, like alcoholism and other health issues."
LIPSTICK & LIQUOR: Powerful Documentary Exploring the Secret World of Women Who Drink to Open in Theaters Across the U.S. and Canada. - Free Online Library
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), alcoholism is the third leading cause of preventable death among women between the ages of 35 and 55. "The statistics are startling," says filmmaker Lori Butterfield, who spent the past two years researching the topic of women and alcohol. "DUI arrests of women are up 30% from a decade ago, while arrests for men are down. Binge drinking among women is also on the rise. Through this film, I have learned that there is a real double standard in our society; women drinkers are treated differently than men."
. . .
Butterfield, an Emmy award-winning producer and writer, felt compelled to create Lipstick & Liquor after reading Julie Kroll's story in the newspaper. Through her research, Butterfield discovered that many women turn to alcohol to cope with the intense pressure of juggling work, family and financial demands. "Many women become 'kitchen drinkers' and hide the fact that alcohol is taking over their lives," says Butterfield. "What starts out as a drink to take the edge off after work, or when the kids go to bed, leads to drinking even more, which can progress over time to alcohol abuse."
Psychotherapist and author Dr. Anita Gadhia-Smith , one of the experts in the film, agrees. "In my practice, I see a lot of professional women who are also mothers, they have marriages, families and careers, and they are trying to be all things to all people," says Dr. Gadhia-Smith. "They have less and less time to take care of themselves and that can show up in all kinds of ways, like alcoholism and other health issues."
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
