Smashing the Patriarchy With A Martini Glass

New York Magazine dives into the curiously "newsworthy" idea that women like to drink (alcohol) in a rather misguided article titled, "Should Gender Equality Extend to Drinking?:

That more women are drinking, yes-more than 48 percent acknowledge having had at least one drink in the past month (up from 42 percent in 1992). But beyond that, the women who drink are drinking more. The number of women who identify as moderate-to-heavy drinkers has risen in the last ten years, while the number of women who say they are light drinkers has declined. At the same time, men are reining in their drinking, meaning that the gender gap of alcohol consumption is narrowing all the time.

While I'm still scratching my head over these statistics (since when did one drink a month make someone indulgent?) what is even more bizarre is the spurious argument that the author, Alex Morris, makes in the piece by blaming the trend on- yep, you guessed it - those saucy feminists:

The onslaught of criticism that followed, however warranted, failed to take into account the fact that, for better or worse, drinking has become entwined with progressive feminism.

It's a more maverick form of feminism, sure, and perhaps misguided-something akin to the type of reasoning that paints Girls Gone Wild participants as sexually liberated. But the paradox of a woman exerting her power by making herself, to one degree or another, incapacitated does not read as a disjunction to most of the women I spoke with. On the contrary, a woman's control over her life-and the decision of when and how to lose that control-seems to be the point.

Hmm. Well that certainly doesn't seem fair - correlating the feminist movement's quest for equality with alcohol abuse? That screams "scapegoat" to me. There is a whole slew of other factors that could potentially cause anyone, male or female, to overindulge in alcohol and yet the article seems to focus on one cause: feminism. (Instead of a hammer, this time, I'd like to smash the patriarchy with my martini glass. But wait, would that mean I had to drink something from it first...ironic).

Jessica Valenti shares her discerning thoughts on the piece over at Feministing:

The thing that pisses me off most about this article - besides the fact that it perpetuates a well-loved lie about what young feminist are (Girls Gone Wild! I choose my choice!) - is that drinking is a serious problem for young women and men. But instead of serious, nuanced media coverage on what to do about the drinking culture among American youth, we get article after article hawing about the consequences of equality.

And frankly, Morris' argument is the exact same one used when conservatives and anti-feminists talk about"hooking up" or casual sex - that young women now "act like men" sexually. (Equality: the slutmaker!) Seriously - it's tired. Not to mention incredibly sexist : the underlying message is that gender equality is bad for women.

Jill at Feministe chimes in as well saying:

So no, third-wave feminism did not encourage women to become alcoholics (neither did second-wave feminism; and since some have tied first-wave feminism to prohibition, I suppose we can blame feminists for all alcohol-related ills, including yesterday's hang-over). You want to write about binge drinking? Fine. Want to write about the increase in female binge-drinking? Fine with me. But there's a way to do it that isn't paternalistic and hand-wringing. That's where this article thoroughly fails.

Jill and Jessica make great points that I agree with entirely, but I'd also like to add that the stipulation that advertisers are at fault for the increase is equally as shallow as saying that feminism is to blame for binge drinking:

The change could not have happened without a calculated effort. At a time when the number of cable channels and their appeal mushroomed, alcohol ads appeared during thirteen to fifteen of the most popular shows among teenagers and increasingly in women's magazines, where according to Jernigan, in 2002 girls 12 to 20 saw 95 percent more ads for alcopops than women 21 and above.

Advertisers will always try to find a new audience for their brands. It's a natural extension of the market economy. Where there is a demand, a supply will follow. However, whether or not someone is influenced by that advertising is different story. If only we could target women to "overdose" on productive things such as education, technological advances or finding a cure for AIDS - that would be an article I'd be interested in seeing.

Instead, this piece tries to co-opt the feminist language: a girl can [insert verb here] like a boy or better! And then goes on to blame marketers, a stressful career or higher education degrees as other possible conspirators in the journey from women as prohibitionists to sexualized alcoholic exhibitionists.

The labeling never stops does it?

And unfortunately, despite this nine page brouhaha of journalism it still fails to address the real questions that need to be answered:

If women want to get ahead in certain careers - do they have to drink with the boys to get there?

If women do abuse alcohol, what are the deeper psychological reasons behind it and how can society help them?

Why don't women, especially young women, feel comfortable being themselves without alcohol?

How do we teach women to have fun and engage in responsible drinking habits without imposing the idea that women have to be vestal virgins?