Women need to be educated about alcohol.
I’ll admit it: I enjoy a drink or two every now and then. Wine is amazing (especially moscato) and I am old enough to legally partake in drinking it. That being said, there are some hard truths about women’s relationship with alcohol that often go under-discussed — and of which young women should be aware early on.
Two-thirds of American women consume alcohol regularly. An increasing number of us, however, are overindulging: Binge drinking, which is defined as consuming four or more drinks in one sitting, is on the rise in the U.S. What’s more, this is hardly limited to women of legal drinking age: High school-aged teens are doing their damndest to keep up with their college counterparts.
But why are so many women particularly throwing back more drinks than ever before? We drink for a variety of reasons — reasons that are both positive and negative as well as inextricable from our gender.
First, there are the typical reasons. We have special occasions to celebrate, social situations to liven up, and relaxing to do at the end of a long day. Many women also feel compelled to self-medicate when we suffer from stress, emotional difficulties, and/or mental illness.
Teen girls have their own reasons, too, including experimentation, partying, or relieving tension. While peer pressure will always be a factor, the increasing strain of academic responsibilities certainly isn’t helping. What’s more, our society is relatively booze obsessed. There are television, magazine, and YouTube ads that glorify drinking — such as valorizing the exploits of the most interesting man in the world — and hardly present the consequences of doing so. Even social media has a marked effect on how much teens will drink.
While women’s biological makeup is hardly inferior to men’s, we are undeniably different. The fact is alcohol affects women of any age far differently than it does men and a few biological factors make women more vulnerable to its effects. For example, our bodies contain less water and more fatty tissue than men’s, and fat retains alcohol whereas water dilutes it. This means that alcohol remains at higher concentrations for longer periods of time in our bodies, which exposes our brains and other organs to more alcohol. Women also have lower levels of two enzymes — alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase — which break down alcohol in the stomach and liver and cause us to absorb more alcohol into our bloodstreams than men. This is why women generally become intoxicated more quickly than do men. Women’s unique biological makeup also means we tend to develop alcohol-related diseases sooner than men, and after drinking smaller cumulative amounts of alcohol.
Additionally, the health effects of alcohol abuse and alcoholism are serious. The likelihood of developing liver, heart, or brain disease is far higher for alcoholics than for non-problem drinkers. Teen girls should especially be aware that alcohol abuse at a young age interferes with the brain’s ability to grow and mature. Women should also be aware that drinking while pregnant can harm unborn babies: Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is marked by low birth weight, abnormal facial features, and brain damage resulting in lifelong learning disabilities.
In addition to failing to discuss these biological effects and dangers, we often overlook the way alcohol is used to perpetuate sexist attitudes towards women. In February of 2016, for example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a remarkably tone deaf warning to women. They warned women to stop drinking if they aren’t on birth control because they could become pregnant at any time and harm their baby, put themselves at risk for getting STDs or become victims of violence. In doing so, they suggested that women’s bodies are essentially valuable in terms of being vessels for children and that we are responsible for preventing any violent attacks that may be waged against us.
This argument is similarly invoked when it comes to sexual assault. The assumption is that if women avoid getting too drunk, men won’t prey on us. This assumption needs to die a fiery death. Alcohol is simply one tool rapists use to facilitate assault. The majority of sexual assaults are planned and committed by someone known to the victim, so it follows that if alcohol isn’t available an assailant will likely just use a different tactic. Women already live lives marked by caution, but the expectation that we remain hypervigilant is impractical, sexist and ultimately ineffective. Putting the burden on women to prevent rape won’t keep it from happening: The responsibility lies entirely on assailants, who must learn not to rape in the first place.
Ultimately, whether or not a woman chooses to drink is her choice. Ideally, young women won’t break the law and drink before doing so is legal, but we all know that this isn’t the reality for many women. What’s most important for women of all ages to know, therefore, is that there are health risks involved and that drinking is generally a unique phenomenon for women. Women of any age should feel comfortable reaching out for help from friends, family or professionals if they need it and must know that they are ultimately in control of making the best decisions for themselves. That’s something I can raise a glass to.
