Women drinking alcohol: assembling a perspective from a Victorian country town, Australia

Abstract

Gender is a key lens for interpreting meanings and practices of drinking. In response to the overwhelming amount of social and medical alcohol studies that focus on what extent people conform to norms of healthy drinking, this article extends critical feminist geographical engagement with assemblage thinking to explore how the technologies of biopower covertly materialised as bodily habits may be preserved and challenged. We suggest an embodied engagement with alcohol to help think through the gendered practices and spatial imaginaries of rural drinking life. Our account draws on interviews with women of different cohort generations with Anglo-Celtic ancestry living in a country town in Victoria, Australia. Three vignettes based around emergent themes of maternal, domicile and socialising bodies help shed light on the contradictory ways gender is lived through the dynamics of alcohol consumption which help constitute everyday life in a country town.

Pregnancy as a transition: First‐time expectant couples′ experience with alcohol consumption

“…Similar to other studies, some women became strictly abstinent, while others defined their own limits of alcohol consumption [15,23]. Such responses to risk, labelled as 'responsible drinking practices' [33] by the women themselves, have been found in other studies [11,12,34]. Consistent with prior research [15], our findings underline that the responsibility of changing drinking habits rested mainly on the shoulders of women.…”

“Women of my age tend to drink”: the social construction of alcohol use by Australian and Danish women aged 50–70 years

“…Socially constructed gender norms are particularly evident in relation to alcohol and motherhood, with research highlighting the “visceral guilt” that mothers often experience when drinking (Waitt and Clement : 1126). In women's accounts of their drinking, “good” mothers are described as being sober and in control (Day et al .…”

“…In women's accounts of their drinking, “good” mothers are described as being sober and in control (Day et al . , Waitt and Clement ); within this context, alcohol consumption is seen to threaten women's duty to offer selfless care to their family (Waitt and Clement ). For example, a study with Australian women aged 22–78 years, found that an enduring identification as a mother influenced when, where and with whom participants drank, as well as how often and how much they drank (Waitt and Clement ).…”

“…, Waitt and Clement ); within this context, alcohol consumption is seen to threaten women's duty to offer selfless care to their family (Waitt and Clement ). For example, a study with Australian women aged 22–78 years, found that an enduring identification as a mother influenced when, where and with whom participants drank, as well as how often and how much they drank (Waitt and Clement ). Younger participants described how becoming a mother had precipitated a shift from earlier patterns of frequent binge drinking and getting “wasted,” to their current pattern of “responsible” drinking during irregular “girls nights” (Waitt and Clement ).…”

“…For example, a study with Australian women aged 22–78 years, found that an enduring identification as a mother influenced when, where and with whom participants drank, as well as how often and how much they drank (Waitt and Clement ). Younger participants described how becoming a mother had precipitated a shift from earlier patterns of frequent binge drinking and getting “wasted,” to their current pattern of “responsible” drinking during irregular “girls nights” (Waitt and Clement ). As one participant explained, her drinking was now influenced by the need to avoid a hangover that would compromise her capacity to care for her children.…”