My penchant for ordering take-out Thai has been duly noted here (although to be fair, I think it's just that I mention what I'm eating when it's Thai - today I ate a Waldorf-esque salad and kept mum about it because it wasn't all that inspiring). However, equally high on my "things Alice adores" list is New York Magazine. I read this magazine nearly cover to cover every week and, of course, complete its' crossword puzzle. I know it's crazy from a financial standpoint, but I don't actually subscribe to this magazine. Every Monday, on my way to the bank to make the deposits for work, I plunk down the $3.99 for my copy. The articles provide a good distraction while Narissa at Chase bank counts the tens of thousands of dollars spent at Vento and Level V over the weekend. I think that magazine does a beautiful job of matching the "intellectual" with the light and fun. I find the writing to be some of the best, because it's rarely lofty and pedantic (which, you really can't say without sounding lofty and pedantic - ah, irony); opting for honesty and even employing the use of first person. Anyway, longest intro ever. The moral is: read New York Magazine.
That whole big windup was for an article that I'm not entirely sure how to respond to. I will say it evoked an extremely strong emotional and intellectual reaction for me. The article is called "Gender Bender" with the stirring subhead: "More women are drinking, and the women who drink are drinking more, in some cases matching their male peers. This is the kind of equality nobody was fighting for."
This is an article that was written about my peer group of women - or at least the peer group I'm growing into: Young, educated, professionals. The woman who wrote the article is herself a part of this group:
"Most of [my female friends] do drink - and not just in a glass-of-wine-with-dinner way. Drinking is our go-to activity. Meeting a friend implies going to a bar. Having a meal implies a round of cocktails beforehand. A party implies a serious hangover. Drinking feels like our prerogative - if we want to get blasted at the company Christmas party or nurse a bottle of scotch through the holidays, no one should, or can, stop us."
What the article incited in me, besides a lot of terrifying self-reflection, was a desire to discuss its' contents. Perhaps this is the true indication of a great article. So, here it is: my feeble attempt to turn the naval-gazing of my blog into a discussion board. I would love it if people read this article and could share their thoughts, if any, here. This may be wholly unsuccessful, but here's my attempt. If nothing else, I really encourage everyone to read the article.
(Photo stolen, without permission, from Stephanie Layton. Check out more of her work here.)
2 comments:
Ok, so I spoke with the esteemed blogger about this but I will re-express the sentiment that I found this article really fear-mongering and junk sciencey.
There is nothing particularly convincing about studies on how much people drink, it's a fact hard to verify and something people are prone to lie about.
Also the article makes it seem like the girls shouldn't be playing "hard" with the boys. That there are certain areas where equality is "dangerous." I think that's a bad precedent to set.
Okay, you wanted discussion... and so here's my two cents (spur of the moment and not very well thought out.)
First off, I have to say that I agree quite a bit with Mark. The article had some facts, but really it seems as if the author just went out to a bunch of bars and talked with drunk women about drinking... way to pick your audience.
Second, the article talks about closing the gender gap, but it doesn't really take the time to realize what it is saying.... yes, the exec who was interviewed now drinks way more than she was, now that she has started "going out with the guys"- so the question should be why is there a connection between fast paced business and booze in the first place? why wouldn't she be doing the same things after work things that her co-workers were? because women are supposed to have some sort of innate sense of dignity and restraint? the author seems to assume that we all believe this, or at least that we feel this should be the case. The article talks about how more americans are drinking more since the end of World War II, and then wants us to be shocked that a large proportion of recent gains has been with women. um, well of course this is the case! Women are leaving the house more, and in those voluntary surveys it is less and less socially frowned upon for a woman to say that she does drink. The article mentions ad campaigns and popular culture in passing but the author seems to think that a discussion of our societies over-indulgences as a whole are not really needed in the assessment- which I think is just the author trying to make it into a big sensational gender issue, rather than muddy the thesis with a discussion of over-all cultural norms. The fact is that we are a culture of excess, if the author need some real choice quotes from overly intoxicated men I could find those too (and plenty of them).
Look, I drink, and I drink more than my mother ever did, but this is much more clearly a product of my working late at restaurants and bars than anything else. Most of my social interactions do involve alcohol... at least the interactions in the evenings, and really, I am not too concerned. For one thing I really don't get drunk that often (who can afford it with the present economy?) certainly less than I did in college (which i see as more of a trial and error period teaching me about what and how not to drink than a conditioning period for alcoholism) and for another thing, I just don't buy into the devil drink idea. I think that there is a big difference between having a drink (or two or three one night, and none another night) and being an alcoholic.
This isn't to say that I don't think there are plenty of women who drink too much, that alcoholism isn't a serious issue for many women, but I do think that binge drinking might be more of a symptom of something else rather than the disease itself, something that affects both women and men, and which women used to escape from through other addictions which were more acceptable at the time, or just more private and hidden(hello morphine and prescription pain killers).
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