Women, Alcoholism and Feminism

One upsetting thing about wine and alcohol memes is that the jokes are normalizing alcohol use disorder behaviour. They will justify their drinking because everyone else is doing it and they do not want to be seen as abnormal. The desire for acceptance and connection among peers is also a reason someone might not address their relationship to alcohol. Memes perpetuate the idea that alcohol is the easiest and fastest way to connect with others. I was once part of the wine meme culture myself, often sharing them among friends and laughing at the relatable content.

It was a cry for help.

Wine memes are keeping women trapped in addictive behaviour while society cheers them on. Social media has also helped target a new demographic of drinkers: The internet can be a great place for mothers to connect to other mothers. Sometimes you need mom friends that you can share the ups and downs of motherhood with.

This is great, until the wine starts making its way into the conversation. I have heard from many sources that parenting is no easy feat. In fact, some would say it is the hardest job in the world. One company snagged the name and began selling bottles of wine under the label MommyJuice Wines. The message I am receiving here is that to stay sane while being a mother you must drink alcohol, that you deserve a break and the best way to get one is by drinking poison.

I reached out to some mothers who told me that most events for moms are centered around drinking, including play dates with their children.

The glorification of women drinking alcohol is not only happening on social media, it is the main theme in many movies, TV shows, and stand up comedy acts. She also did a mini docuseries focusing on four different topics she was to explore, one of which was drugs. She talks explicitly about her alcohol and drug use, and I remember finding solace in the large quantities she claims to consume every day. I still think she is hilarious, and she is talking about some important things regarding politics, but constantly joking about getting wasted is no longer cute or funny in my books.

It is proof of the problem. Often times the characters that drink are portrayed as the cool characters, and the ones that are sober are called boring prudes. The message this sends women, especially young women, is that without alcohol you are boring. How often is the shame, illness, anxiety, stress, and humiliation, as a result of drinking, portrayed in the media?

The health effects of alcohol are somewhat known but widely ignored, especially among women. According to the CDC, women absorb more alcohol into the blood stream than men, and it takes longer to break it down and remove it from their bodies. There are also health issues that apply strictly to women, such as disruption of the menstrual cycle and an increased risk of infertility Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Another major health concern for women that drink alcohol is an increased risk of breast cancer. Women often justify their daily wine consumption with the myth that there are health benefits. First of all, the amount of wine thought to be beneficial to health is one drink per day.

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One drink is five ounces of wine. Most people consume considerably more than that, even if they stick to one glass.

This disdain and mockery existed while they casually chatted about alcohol consumption or the abuse of alcohol by their male friends or male partners with nonchalance and acceptance. Most people enraged by my alcoholism never shared similar feelings about their male friends or male partners who were doing the same. When the men in their lives drank they would share a drink with them or talk about it with a sense of ease and normalcy. But my drinking was a point of contention and lost me quite a lot of friends.

People who easily associated with men who abused alcohol without giving it a second thought found it extremely difficult to associate with a woman who did. Men drink — we are taught that from when we are very young.

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I have never once heard someone call a man immoral or call him promiscuous because he abuses alcohol, but I was often subjected to slut-shaming. It was a testimony, a cautionary tale, about the promiscuous, immoral woman who we should all stay away from. Who we should all view as examples of what not to be and not as people who are suffering. Addictions are just as bad, the gender of the addict notwithstanding.

Is Our Approach To Alcoholism In Women Sexist? | Feminism In India

Women who abuse alcohol require the same help as men who do. It should be our reality. One example tells the whole story immediately:. Pretty openly they admit that alcohol marketing has been sexist until now.

• Time’s Up For Big Alcohol Exploiting Feminism.
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They, too, have discovered that the gender equality topic helps them sell more alcohol:. The female branded whiskey is just the latest example for an alcohol industry push into feminism. This temporary rebranding is an obvious attempt to hook more women to whiskey. An alcohol company can hardly expose itself more obviously as out of step with the real feminist movement.

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This is another cynical attempt to usurp positive values of women empowerment for corporate profits. A century ago women fought the liquor industry as a menace to public health, accusing the booze business of putting the welfare of women and families in danger by selling so much alcohol to their menfolk. As women fought more than a century ago to protect themselves, their families and communities from raging alcohol harm, so are they fighting today.

These days similar campaigns are being fought in India, Kenya and Brazil.

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• Alcohol: A Feminist Issue – Diary Of A Teetotaler?
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• Is Our Approach To Alcoholism In Women Sexist?.

Same fight, different places, and same foe — the alcohol industry. The companies and their brands listed here, all have a dirty and appalling track record of sexist alcohol advertising.