Women and substance abuse
The purpose of this post is not to criticize women with problems with substance abuse,
but rather to suggest a certain timelessness in the problem.
First, a scholarly article:
“ ‘Mother’s Little Helper’:
The Crisis of Psychoanalysis
and the Miltown Revolution”
by Jonathan Metzl,
published in Gender and History, Vol. 15, No. 2, August 2003, pp. 240-267.
Second, a newspaper opinion piece:
by Kristen Page-Kirby
Washington Post Express, 2015-10-23
Perhaps some might find it interesting to compare the problems described by these two articles
(a matter which I am hardly qualified to do).
Here are some articles which assert that patterns of heavy drinking among women
in fact are far more prevalent in the 2010s than they used to be.
So, feminists, I thought your movement was supposed to free women from the substance abuse that supposedly existed among married women in the 1950s.
If women are now more dependent than ever on drugs of various types
for what passes for their happiness,
my opinion is that is because the feminist life style is an unnatural one.
Of course, feminists cannot accept that argument,
and will, as always, blame men for all of women's problems.
That’s dangerous.
By Kimberly Kindy and Dan Keating
Washington Post, 2016-12-23
The ads started popping up about a decade ago on social media. Instead of selling alcohol with sex and romance, these ads had an edgier theme: Harried mothers chugging wine to cope with everyday stress. Women embracing quart-sized bottles of whiskey, and bellying up to bars to knock back vodka shots with men.
In this new strain of advertising, women’s liberation equaled heavy drinking, and alcohol researchers say it both heralded and promoted a profound cultural shift: Women in America are drinking far more, and far more frequently, than their mothers or grandmothers did, and alcohol consumption is killing them in record numbers.
White women are particularly likely to drink dangerously, with more than a quarter drinking multiple times a week and the share of binge drinking up 40 percent since 1999, according to a Washington Post analysis of federal health data. In 2013, more than a million women of all races wound up in emergency rooms as a result of heavy drinking, with women in middle age most likely to suffer severe intoxication.
This behavior has contributed to a startling increase in early mortality. The rate of alcohol-related deaths for white women ages 35 to 54 has more than doubled since 1999, according to The Post analysis, accounting for 8 percent of deaths in this age group in 2015.
...
Getting away from tedious feminist versus caveman arguments,
here is a ballet depicting a rather non-feminist approach to male/female relations:
One might wonder if people having such relations
have better ways to relieve their tensions than resorting to alcohol and drugs.
By the way, the slender redheaded woman in the ballet is Melissa Hamilton.
but rather to suggest a certain timelessness in the problem.
First, a scholarly article:
“ ‘Mother’s Little Helper’:
The Crisis of Psychoanalysis
and the Miltown Revolution”
by Jonathan Metzl,
published in Gender and History, Vol. 15, No. 2, August 2003, pp. 240-267.
Second, a newspaper opinion piece:
2015-10-23-Kristen-Page-Kirby-what-truth-gets-right-about-wine-women-and-journalism
What ‘Truth’ gets right about wine, women and journalismby Kristen Page-Kirby
Washington Post Express, 2015-10-23
Perhaps some might find it interesting to compare the problems described by these two articles
(a matter which I am hardly qualified to do).
Here are some articles which assert that patterns of heavy drinking among women
in fact are far more prevalent in the 2010s than they used to be.
So, feminists, I thought your movement was supposed to free women from the substance abuse that supposedly existed among married women in the 1950s.
If women are now more dependent than ever on drugs of various types
for what passes for their happiness,
my opinion is that is because the feminist life style is an unnatural one.
Of course, feminists cannot accept that argument,
and will, as always, blame men for all of women's problems.
2016-12-23-WP-for-women-heavy-drinking-has-been-normalized-thats-dangerous
For women, heavy drinking has been normalized.That’s dangerous.
By Kimberly Kindy and Dan Keating
Washington Post, 2016-12-23
The ads started popping up about a decade ago on social media. Instead of selling alcohol with sex and romance, these ads had an edgier theme: Harried mothers chugging wine to cope with everyday stress. Women embracing quart-sized bottles of whiskey, and bellying up to bars to knock back vodka shots with men.
In this new strain of advertising, women’s liberation equaled heavy drinking, and alcohol researchers say it both heralded and promoted a profound cultural shift: Women in America are drinking far more, and far more frequently, than their mothers or grandmothers did, and alcohol consumption is killing them in record numbers.
White women are particularly likely to drink dangerously, with more than a quarter drinking multiple times a week and the share of binge drinking up 40 percent since 1999, according to a Washington Post analysis of federal health data. In 2013, more than a million women of all races wound up in emergency rooms as a result of heavy drinking, with women in middle age most likely to suffer severe intoxication.
This behavior has contributed to a startling increase in early mortality. The rate of alcohol-related deaths for white women ages 35 to 54 has more than doubled since 1999, according to The Post analysis, accounting for 8 percent of deaths in this age group in 2015.
...
Getting away from tedious feminist versus caveman arguments,
here is a ballet depicting a rather non-feminist approach to male/female relations:
One might wonder if people having such relations
have better ways to relieve their tensions than resorting to alcohol and drugs.
By the way, the slender redheaded woman in the ballet is Melissa Hamilton.
posted by KHarbaugh at 10:58
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