Femininities of drinking among Finnish and Swedish women of different ages

Alcohol and the Constitution of Friendship for Young Adults

“…Hence, women particularly emphasized their reliance on friends when they were out at night. Reflecting a finding in Scandinavian research on gendered drinking patterns (Simonen et al, 2014), Edith (19) believed that women were much more likely to look after their same sex friends than men were: 'Everyone's watching out for each other when it's all girls. But when its guys, just they don't care about you and you don't care about them'.…”

“…Sociologists and anthropologists have demonstrated, for example, how attitudes and practices concerning substance use are shared and reproduced among friends (Mayock, 2002;Pilkington, 2007;Rúdólfsdóttir and Morgan, 2009). Alcohol and drug use offer groups of young adult friends opportunities to produce and manage contradictions in classed, raced, gendered and regional subjectivities (Griffin et al, 2013;Simonen et al, 2014;Strunin, 1999;Townshend, 2013). It is widely agreed that alcohol use facilitates the initiation of sexual relationships (Abrahamson, 2004;Ferris, 1997;MacLean and Moore, 2014).…”

“Girls will be served until you have to carry them out”: Gendered serving practices in Oslo

“…Although female public intoxication has traditionally been regarded as unwanted, deviant, and stigmatized (Bogren, 2011;Montemurro & McClure, 2005;Simonen et al, 2013), our study highlights a shift away from the construction of alcohol consumption and intoxication as an exclusively male activity. In a Scandinavian gender-egalitarian cultural context with liberal norms of intoxication, bartenders perceived female intoxication as normal and nothing to worry about.…”

“…Heavy drinking among men is more often excused or neutralized, whereas similar behavior on the part of women is viewed as deviant and is criticized (Montemurro & McClure, 2005;Simonen, Törrönen, & Tigerstedt, 2013). Further tension arises in relation to public intoxication, which tends to be less acceptable for women due to connotations of promiscuity, loss of femininity, and concerns about their increased vulnerability to unwanted sex (Bogren, 2008;Plant, 2008;Young, Morales, McCabe, Boyd, & d'Arcy, 2005).…”

“Disease” of the Nation, Family and Individual: Three Moral Discourses of Alcohol Problems in Finnish Women's Magazines from the 1960s to the 2000s

“…The results typically show that, in media contexts, alcohol is mainly related to stereotypic images of masculinity and femininity. On the one hand, female drinking is represented as being a threat to women's motherhood, domestic responsibilities, sexuality, pregnancy, and social relationships (see, e.g., Simonen et al, 2014). On the other hand, male drinking is associated with transgressive behavior, group loyalty, aggression against competing groups and violence in intimate relationships (Törrönen & Roumeliotis, 2014).…”