Erin+Editorial

The Gender Glass The opening shot reveals a man in a blue collared shirt sitting at a table in a nightclub. He has a beer in one hand. There is a wipe to black and the sound of a woman’ s voice filters through the noise background noise until it is the only sound. This time as the scene changes a tight shot of a woman is shown ranting to what we assume is her bored disinterested boyfriend. The camera pulls back and we see that the woman is complaining not to the boyfriend but a bottle of Coors Lite. Another wipe to black and the tag line appears in red text with the deep voice of a man saying, “ Here's to the This kind of trivialization of women in alcohol advertising is nothing new. It used to be that boys consumed more alcohol than girls. But adolescent girls are catching up to teenage boys – and fast. Recent studies have found that girls in high school, especially those in lower grades, now drink almost as much as high school boys. In Ontario, close to seven out of ten students in Grades 7-12 have tried alcohol over the past year, with close to one in three having participated in binge drinking. Why is it that the percentage of girls who begin to drink before they’ ve graduated is increasing so rapidly? Part of the answer Alcohol advertising has much to say about relationships between men and <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">women. In the world of booze, women are sexual prizes that can be won by drinking <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the right beverage; or they are the ball and chain that men and their buddies escape from <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">through alcohol. Happy couples do exist, but only in a fantasy world of yachts, beaches <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and exotic locations. Casual sex in a party setting is presented as the norm, with taglines <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">such as "names optional." Author Jean Kilbourne notes that sex in the media is often <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">condemned "from a puritanical perspective – there's too much of it, it's too blatant, it will <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">encourage kids to be promiscuous, etc." But, she concludes that sex in the media "has far <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">more to do with trivializing sex than with promoting it. The problem is not that it is sinful <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">but that it is synthetic and cynical. We are offered a pseudo-sexuality that makes it far <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">more difficult to discover our own unique and authentic sexuality." <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There is no shortage of ads that use sex to promote beer and liquor. In countless <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ads, girls and boys alike are bombarded by messages that build and reinforce positive <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">associations between drinking and sex appeal, as well as independence, rebellion, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">maturity, fun, success about drinking, these highly engaging ads also deliver messages <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">about gender roles. Because most alcohol ads are primarily targeted at young males, <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">women in them are generally portrayed within the limiting stereotypes of "sexpot," "man- <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">eater," and "party girl." The ideal "beer babe" is highly sexualized and impossibly <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">attractive. She, or even sometimes a specific body part, is sold to consumers along with <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the beverage. Being a babe, she's non-threatening, sexually available and subservient. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Girls in alcohol ads are permitted to be rebellious, as long as they do so in a cute and <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">flirty manner. They are allowed to be naughty, but not bad. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When do these commercials go to far with their image advertising? Many young <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">girls cite feelings of inferiority as one of the reasons for their drinking. In a world in <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">which buxom female archetypes are the ideal, standard and norm there is little wonder <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">that many girls feel that they come up short. It is not just females who are affected by <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">this oversimplification of the human condition but males as well. According to these <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">commercials we are all pigeon holed in a category that dictates how we should behave <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and act. The only means of transformation provided is alcohol and not just any type but a <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">certain brand. One is either a “ Molson Man” or a member of the “ Captain Morgan Club” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">everyone who drinks is fascinating and attractive, those who do not partake are boring <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">and ugly. This is the world that advertisers are trying to sell to our youth and it appears to <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Word count: 706 <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">D. McKenzie. "Under the Influence? The Impact of Alcohol Advertising <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">on Youth," 2000. Association to Reduce Alcohol Promotion in Ontario. http:// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">www.apolnet.ca/resources/pubs/rpt_AdImpactYouth.pdf <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jean Kilbourne. Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight the <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Addictive Power of Advertising, 1999. New York: The Free Press. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">K. Bucholz, G. Banks, and S. Ryan, "Descriptive Epidemiology of Alcohol <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Use and Problem Drinking During Adolescence: Data From a School-Based National <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sample," Missouri Alcoholism Research Center. Washington University School of <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Medicine.