Working at Pleasure in Young Women's Alcohol Consumption: A Participatory Visual Ethnography

Abstract

This paper reports on a participatory ethnography conducted with undergraduate students. It examined the rituals and habits through which they constructed their intoxication culture. Students used video recording devices such as smartphones to collect data about aspects of their intoxication experiences. They were then interviewed about emerging analytical themes. In this paper we focus on one aspect of intoxication culture, the place of pleasure in women's accounts. We build on previous research that showed that pleasure was present but not always dominant in women's accounts of leisure focused drinking. They experienced the predominant, neo-liberal concept of pleasure as a demand which had to be navigated alongside their own desires which could include a preference for a more situated, intimate, sociability. Pre-drinking occasions were especially significant as places where bonds could be built up and body and self prepared to enter the public night-time economy. For many, this preparation became the main, enjoyable event in contrast to sometimes fraught and demanding public drinking spaces, where women could find themselves subject to various critical judgements about their femininity. Their activities on these occasions focused on achieving a ‘good drunk’, a manageable state of group intoxication. We use these findings to comment critically on the gendering of the night-time economy, the narrow framing of ‘pleasure’ in it, and the commodification of student experience in the UK.

Defining “drinking culture”: A critical review of its meaning and connotation in social research on alcohol problems

“…Indeed there is a considerable body of sociological and anthropological work in particular that argues for the need to include pleasure in analyses of individual and collective decisionmaking about using alcohol and other drugs (e.g. Bancroft, Zimpfer, Murray, & Karels, 2014;Bunton, 2011;Duff, 2008;Moore & Measham, 2012;O'Malley & Valverde, 2004;Ritter, 2014). Without appreciation of the pleasure of alcohol use and other factors, attempts to change drinking cultures are likely to be unsuccessful.…”

‘It's kind of like weaning. I had to wean myself off of wine’: Navigating no‐ and low‐alcohol drinks as potential harm reduction tools and relapse triggers by women in recovery in the UK

“…At her friend's hen‐do and wedding Tina was provided with no‐ and low‐alcohol drinks in order that she could participate in the shared practices of friendship, femininity and female bonding that are often associated with women's drinking practices [15, 16]. In cases such as these, Tina navigates the situation by asking a friend to taste the no‐ and low‐alcohol drink first, to confirm that the drink is non‐alcoholic:…”

“…In turn, the evolution of the no-and lowalcohol product category was interpreted by some women as evidence that they are part of an important, growing group and alcohol refusal is becoming more normalised; increased no-and low-alcohol drink availability in public venues was perceived as vindication and validation of their sobriety. At her friend's hen-do and wedding Tina was provided with no-and low-alcohol drinks in order that she could participate in the shared practices of friendship, femininity and female bonding that are often associated with women's drinking practices [15,16]. In cases such as these, Tina navigates the situation by asking a friend to taste the no-and lowalcohol drink first, to confirm that the drink is non-alcoholic:…”

Risk perception in young women’s collective alcohol consumption

“…The binary construct of celebratory/mundane confines the Alcohol Consumption Journey within the temporal, contextual, spatial and social limits of the edgework. Celebration was often a reason given for going out to escape the mundane life (Bancroft et al , 2014; Bancroft, 2012). Entering the NTE, the young women negotiate a controlled loss of control, balancing intoxication and navigating the edge between risk and pleasure.…”

“…The binary construct of individual/collective relates to edgework practices as a communal performance, where the performers are united in drunken euphoria (Cronin et al , 2014). The bonding through collective intoxication, referred to as a “good drunk” maintained the cohesion of the group (Bancroft et al , 2014). They adopted a collective view of risk and constructed strategies to minimise the perceived risks.…”