“Pushing an addictive drug as a solution onto a vulnerable highly stressed group of people”: sober women’s feminist resistance against the feminised marketing of alcohol and cultural representations of women’s drinking practices.

Background: Alcohol is marketed to women through the feminisation of alcohol products and the portrayal of women’s drinking practices as a glamorous and empowering reward for juggling the demands of work and family life. The recent emergence and growth of online sobriety communities suggests that women are increasingly resisting these gendered marketing practices. This essay explores the ways in which women, who do not drink, reject the feminisation of alcohol and drinking practices, and frame this rejection within discourses of feminist resistance.

Methods: This essay draws on findings from a mixed-method ethnographic research project that investigates women’s use of, and participation in, online sobriety communities. From a radical feminist standpoint, transcripts of 25 semi-structured interviews with UK-based women, online ethnographic observations from eight sobriety communities, and Instagram posts from 14 sobriety influencers were thematically analysed and coded.

Findings: Women who lead or utilise online sobriety communities have considerable awareness of the feminised marketing of alcohol and some express strong ideological opposition to it. It is positioned as a predatory force that takes advantage of women’s exhaustion as mothers, and one which perpetuates the double standards associated with women’s drinking. Sobriety may prompt a feminist awakening regarding the connections between the feminisation of alcohol and women’s inequality within society, and in turn, disrupt women’s identification with post-feminist cultural representations of women’s drinking practices.

Discussion & Conclusion: Products, marketing content, and cultural references of the feminisation of alcohol provide relatable, tangible representations with which women can critically engage and thus demonstrate anti-consumption and feminism, which are often rendered invisible identities. Through the public identification and critique of this marketing content women seek to raise awareness and build a community based on shared values. Women may also experience a shift in their feminist positionality in sobriety. Future research should continue to investigate the diversity of ideological and experiential motivations for women’s contemporary alcohol refusal and explore the extent to which online sobriety communities serve as potential sites of exclusive or inclusive feminist resistance.

Agabio, R., and Sinclair, JMA. (2019). 'Mother's Ruin' - Why Sex and Gender Differences in the Field of Alcohol Research Need Consideration. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 54(4), 342-344. https://doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/agz053.
Ahmed, S. (2017). Living a Feminist Life. London: Duke University Press.
Atkinson, A., Kirton, A., and Sumnall, H. (2012) The gendering of alcohol in consumer magazines: An analysis of male and female targeted publications. Journal of Gender Studies, 21(4), 365-386. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2012.681180.
Atkinson, A., Meadows, B., Emslie, C., Lyons, A. and Sumnall, H. (2021). 'Pretty in Pink' and 'Girl Power': An analysis of the targeting and representation of women in alcohol brand marketing on Facebook and Instagram. International Journal of Drug Policy, 101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103547.
Atkinson, A., Meadows, B., Nicholls, E., Sumnall, H. (2023). 'Some days I am a lunatic that thinks I can moderate': Amalgamating recovery and neo-liberal discourses within accounts of non-drinking among women active in the 'positive sobriety' community on Instagram in the UK. International Journal of Drug Policy, 112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2022.103937.
Banister, E., Piacentini, M., Grimes, A. (2019). Identity Refusal: Distancing from Non-Drinking in a Drinking Culture. Sociology, 53(4), 744-761. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038518818761.
Bogg, D., and Bogg, T. (2015). The social model in alcohol treatment services: the impact for women. In P. Staddon (Ed.), Women and Alcohol: Social Perspectives (pp. 229-245). Bristol: Bristol University Press.
Braun, V., and Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3:2, 77-101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.
Bushnell, C. (1996). Sex and the City. New York: Grove Atlantic Inc.
Caldeira, S. (2021). "It's Not Just Instagram Models": Exploring the Gendered Political Potential of Young Women's Instagram Use. Media and Communication, 9(2), 5-15. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v9i2.3731.
Caluzzi, G., MacLean, S., Livingston, M. and Pennay, A. (2021). "No one associates alcohol with being in good health": Health and wellbeing as imperatives to manage alcohol use for young people. Sociology of Health & Illness, 43(2), 1204-1212. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15611.
Davey, C (2021) Alternative, online treatment paths for women’s problematic alcohol use: a review of existing qualitative and quantitative research. Frontiers in Global Women’s Health.
Davey, C (2022) ‘Goodbye mindless drinking and hello mindful living’: A feminist analysis of women’s sobriety as a practice of self-care. Cultivate, 4.
Day, K., Gough, B., and McFadden, M. (2004). “Warning! Alcohol can seriously damage your feminine health”: A discourse analysis of recent British newspaper coverage of women and drinking. Feminist Media Studies, 4(2), 165-183. https://doi.org/10.1080/1468077042000251238.
Denzin, N. (2006). Sociological methods: A sourcebook (methodological perspectives). New Jersey: Aldine Transaction.
Dimova, E., O’Brien, R., Elliott, L., Frankis, J., and Emslie, C. (2022). What are LGBTQ+ people’s experiences of alcohol services in Scotland? A qualitative study of service users and service providers. Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) Report. Retrieved from: https://www.shaap.org.uk/downloads/408-lgbtq-alcohol-services-2022/v...
Dudley-Shotwell, H. (2020). Revolutionizing Women's Healthcare. Columbia: Rutgers University Press.
Emslie, C., Hunt, K., and Lyons, A. (2015). Transformation and time-out: the role of alcohol in identity construction among Scottish women in early midlife. International Journal of Drug Policy, 26(5), 437-445. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.12.006.
Ettore, E. (2007). Revisioning Women and Drug Use: Gender, Power and the Body. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Fielding, H. (1996). Bridget Jones’s diary. London: Picador.
Fonow, M., and Cook, J. (1991). Beyond Methodology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Fox, S., Berg, K. (2022). Multiple recoveries: Substance use and trauma. In S. Galvani, A. Roy, and A. Clayson. (Eds.). Long-Term Recovery from Substance Use: European Perspectives. Bristol: Bristol University Press, pp. 80-92.
Gallage, HPS., Heath, T., and Tynan, C. (2020). Adopting and sustaining responsible drinking: reconciling selves amidst conflicting messages. Journal of Marketing Management, 36(17-18), 1635-1657. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2020.1857819.
Gill, R. (2017). The affective, cultural and psychic life of postfeminism: A postfeminist sensibility 10 years on. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 20(6), 606-626. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549417733003.
Griffin, C., Bengry- Howell, A., Hackley, C., Mistral, W., and Szmigin, I. (2009). “Every time I do it I absolutely annihilate myself”: Loss of (self)consciousness and loss of memory in young people’s drinking narratives. Sociology, 43(3), 457-476. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038509103201.
Hanisch, C. (2006). ‘The Personal is Political: The Women’s Liberation Movement classic with a new explanatory introduction’. Originally published in S. Firestone and A. Koedt (Eds.). (1970). Notes from the Second Year: Women’s Liberation. Retrieved from: http://www.carolhanisch.org/CHwritings/PersonalIsPol.pdf.
Haenfler, R. (2004). Rethinking Subcultural Resistance: Core Values of the Straight Edge Movement. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 33(4), 406-436. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241603259809.
Jackson, C., and Tinkler, P. (2007). ‘Ladettes’ and ’Modern Girls’: ‘troublesome’ young femininities. The Sociological Review, 55(2), 251-272. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2007.00704.x.
Kanai, A. (2020). Between the perfect and the problematic: everyday femininities, popular feminism, and the negotiation of intersectionality. Cultural Studies, 34(1), 25-48. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2018.1559869.
Letherby, G. (2003). Feminist Research in Theory and Practice. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Mackiewicz, A. (2015). Alcohol, young women's culture and gender hierarchies. In P. Staddon (Ed). Women and Alcohol: Social Perspectives. Bristol: Bristol University Press, pp. 65-83.
Maguire, S. (Director). (2001). Bridget Jones’s diary [Film]. Universal Pictures, Little Bird, StudioCanal, and Working Title Films.
Mann, LK. (2014). What Can Feminism Learn from New Media? Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 11(3), 293-297. https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2014.926244.
Marwick, A. (2013). Gender, Sexuality and Social Media. In T. Senft and J. Hunsinger (Eds.). The Social Media Handbook. New York: Routledge, pp. 59-75.
McErlain, R., (2015). Alcohol and moral regulation in historical context. In P. Staddon (Ed). Women and Alcohol: Social Perspectives. Bristol: Bristol University Press, pp. 31-44.
McHugh, M. (2019). Sobriety is having a moment. Here come the influencers. Vox, 18 June 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/6/18/18677895/sobriety-influencer...
Nicholls, E. (2019). Negotiating Femininities in the Neoliberal Night-Time Economy: Too Much of a Girl?. Cham: Springer.
Nicholls, E. (2021). Sober Rebels or Good Consumer-Citizens? Anti-Consumption and the 'Enterprising Self' in Early Sobriety. Sociology, 55(4), 768-784. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038520981837.
Nicholls, E. (2022). “There’s Nothing Classy About a Drunk 40-year-old”: The Role of ‘Respectable’ Femininity in the Drinking Biographies and Sobriety Stories of Midlife Women. In T. Thurnell-Read and and L. Fenton (Eds). Alcohol, Age, Generation and the Life Course. London: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04017-7_11.
Ortner, S. (2014). Too Soon for Post-Feminism: The Ongoing Life of Patriarchy in Neoliberal America. History and Anthropology, 25(4), 530-549. https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2014.930458.
Piacentini, M., and Banister, E. (2009). Managing anti-consumption in an excessive drinking culture. Journal of Business Research, 62, 279-288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2008.01.035.
Plant, M., and Plant, M. (2006). Binge Britain: Alcohol and the National Response. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Portwood-Stacer, L. (2012). Anti-consumption as tactical resistance: Anarchists, subculture and activist strategy. Journal of Consumer Culture, 12(1), 87-105. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540512442029.
Portwood-Stacer, L. (2013). Lifestyle Politics and Radical Activism. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Portwood-Stacer, L., and Berridge, S. (2014). Introduction: Privilege and Difference in (Online) Feminist Activism. Feminist Media Studies, 14:3, 519-520. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2014.909158.
Robert, J. (2016). Temporary sobriety initiatives: emergence, possibilities and constraints. Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 30(6), 646-658. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2014.909158.
Rolfe, A., Orford, J., and Dalton, S. (2009). Women, Alcohol and Femininity: A Discourse Analysis of Women Heavy Drinkers’ Accounts. Journal of Health Psychology, 14(2), 326-335. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105308100217.
Rottenberg, C. (2014). The Rise of Neoliberal Feminism. Cultural Studies, 28(3), 418-437. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2013.857361.
Scott, S. (2018). A Sociology of Nothing: Understanding the Unmarked. Sociology. 52(1), 3-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038517690681.
Serrant, L. (2015). The silences in our dance: Black Caribbean women and alcohol (mis)use. In P. Staddon (Ed). Women and Alcohol: Social Perspectives. Bristol: Bristol University Press, pp. 119-137.
Skeggs, B. (1997). Formations of class and gender: becoming respectable. London: SAGE.
Smith, L., and Foxcroft, D. (2009). Drinking in the UK. An exploration of trends. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. [Online]. Available at: https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/drinking-uk-exploration-trends [Accessed 20 August 2021].
Star, D., King, MP., Melfi, JP., Bicks, J., Parker SJ., Chupack, C. (Executive Producers). (1998-2004). Sex and the city [TV series]. Darren Star Productions, and HBO Entertainment.
Taylor, J. (2011). The intimate insider: negotiating the ethics of friendship when doing insider research. Qualitative Research, 11(1), 3-22. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794110384447.
Thaler, RH., and Sunstein, CR. (2008). Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness. London: Yale University Press.
West, C., and Zimmerman, DH. (1987). Doing Gender. Gender and Society, 1(2), 125-151. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243287001002002.
Wincup, E. (2016). Gender, recovery and contemporary UK drug policy. Drugs and Alcohol Today, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1108/DAT-08-2015-0048.