Kerry Howley | October 24, 2006
A "unique study" finds that women aged 17-30 in Ireland and
England are the world's
biggest binge drinkers. The numbers are pretty pathetic: Four
drinks in one night, once every two weeks, qualifies a woman as a
heavy drinker, and only one woman in three can meet that
standard. But it doesn't take much to motivate a government
advertising campaign across the pond. The theme this time around?
Nice young ladies who drink get sexually assaulted. And in the
event that women continue to drink after the alcohol-means-rape
warnings, doctors want bar owners to stop marketing to
children women:
Doctors also blame the drinks industry for deliberately targeting women with female-friendly drinks and decor. They want ministers to exercise more control instead of allowing the industry to self-regulate.
Ah yes, female-friendly decor. Little known fact: All women become incapable of resistance at the sight of shiny pink interiors. It's the rohypnol of bar design.
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"Four drinks in one night, once every two weeks, qualifies a
woman as a heavy drinker, and only one woman in three can meet that
standard."
Lightweights!
I worked on the DSM-IV coding back more than 10 years ago. We
were aggregating data on alcohol usage and comparing it by
nationality. When the results showed Germans averaged 12 beers per
week one of the PhDs on the project, an uptight pseudo-hippy,
stated "everyone in Germany is an Alcoholic!"(you could hear the
capital A in her voice).
This woman, who was a mental health professional, just couldn't get
her mind around the fact there are cultural differences in alcohol
use.
My part-Irish wife claims that studies have shown that the Irish are not anywhere near the heaviest drinkers in western Europe. Germans are much bigger sots. In my personal experience, Yugoslavs have a truly frightening capacity to drink. Fun people to get drunk with, actually.
If female-friendly marketing worked, you'd still see Remy Red around. Not only did those ads cater to women, the women looked completely trashed. So it's both female and trashed-friendly.
ChrisO: very true. I am not sure anyone can hold a candle to
people of Slavic descent when it comes to drinking
If I were Irish I would be classified as a heavy driner. I'm of
Slavic descent, and therefore just normal in my drinking
habits.
I vacationed in Ireland several years ago, and I do remember a
certain amount of distaste for my drinking habits in public. I was
told, very politely, but told nonetheless, that it was not
considered proper for a woman to drink a whole pint (proper, polite
women only drank 1/2 pints). Nor was I supposed to join the boys in
singing drinking songs or shooting pool. I do not know if attitudes
have changed much since then (7 years ago), but it seems not.
Why don't we just simplify the warnings proposed for alchohol, HPV, morning after pills, etc., into a broad warning against female sexuality (male sexuality is fine, of course)?
Hold on, folks. I've known quite a few women that get drunk from merely ordering a drink.
quite a few women that get drunk from merely
ordering
Drunk on power. That's something else.
Four drinks in one night, once every two weeks
I think this is an impressive stat. Think about it, that's 26
fights a year for Irish women.
In my personal experience, Yugoslavs have a truly
frightening capacity to drink.
True. This is part of the reason why I virtually never drink
anymore. I could down drink after drink after drink and not get
drunk.
And it's usually pointless and a waste of money to have one or two,
unless I'm really in the mood for the taste of
beer/liquor/wine.
Yes, siree, you'd have to pull all the stops out to date-rape
me...giant rohypnol injections might do it.
Fun people to get drunk with, actually.
Also (generally) true, since we're stereotyping.
"Why don't we just simplify the warnings proposed for alchohol,
HPV, morning after pills, etc., into a broad warning against female
sexuality (male sexuality is fine, of course)?"
Hmm... but how can male sexuality be fine, if both female sexuality
AND homosexuality are bad, unless we're talking about masturbation?
But porn is bad too, so it has to either be imaginitive
masturbation, or masturbation with classic erotic
literature...
Hmm... yeah. Okay, all sexuality except masturbation is bad.
Problem solved.
The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
defines binge drinking as a pattern of drinking that brings a
person's blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 grams percent or
above. This typically happens when men consume more than 4 drinks
and women consume more than 3 drinks in about 2 hours. -
da gubmint.
The researchers don't mention a time-frame in their definition of a
"binge." What's a "session"? All afternoon? An evening?
Lunch?
The revised U.S. definition of a binge is enough tipple, drunk so
fast that you'd get a DUI if you drove and got caught. Stretch the
same amount of hooch over 4 hours and you aren't as dangerous to
yourself or others.
Kevin
(Any Irishman knows you don't binge. You "go on a spree.")
My part-Irish wife claims that studies have shown that the Irish
are not anywhere near the heaviest drinkers in western Europe.
Germans are much bigger sots. In my personal experience, Yugoslavs
have a truly frightening capacity to drink. Fun people to get drunk
with, actually.
Well, Yugoslavs aren't technically WESTERN European, but they
certainly can hold their drink. I dated a Serb for a while and I
never had to worry about her father thinking I drank too much. I
could barely keep up with him. There was literally a shot glass of
travarica next to my place at the breakfast table every morning.
And beer was treated the way we drink water throughout the day. Let
me know if you should become single, smacky.
In my personal experience, Yugoslavs have a truly
frightening capacity to drink.
Never underestimate the Swedes.
Scariest line in the article: "The Government is considering
tighter laws so that even when a woman has consented to sex, men
can be prosecuted for rape, if she was drunk at the
time."
Uh... miss... now that you've given me both your verbal and written
consent, would you mind blowing into this breathalyzer so that I
can verify your sobriety before we proceed.
I plan on pursuing a class-action suit against Red Bull and every vodka producer I can find.
"The Government is considering tighter laws so that even
when a woman has consented to sex, men can be prosecuted for rape,
if she was drunk at the time."
Oh, alright. They should have just come out and said this was a
population control thing.
Based on my own experience, the Finns are the top drinkers in Europe. Able to drink the Russians under the table.
Don'cha love the "Woman + Alcohol = Date Rape/All Men Are
Predators" mentality?
US Air Force basically breaks it down like this:
Fellas, Don't drink and screw. No matter how smashed both partys
are and/or how concentual it seems at the time, you are guilty even
if proven innocent. "No" means no, and sometimes "yes" means
no.
Forget about asking a female co-worker to lunch or complementing
her new haircut. Zero Tolerance for treating a woman like a lady,
she (or another woman in the area) MAY take it as harrassment, and
it's that individual's perception that counts.
If a women cannot give consent while intoxicated it logically follows that a man can" either. It is amazing how many times I've been raped by wanton women.
"Uh... miss... now that you've given me both your verbal and
written consent, would you mind blowing into this breathalyzer so
that I can verify your sobriety before we proceed."
That's no breathalyzer!
"If a women cannot give consent while intoxicated it logically
follows that a man can" either. It is amazing how many times I've
been raped by wanton women."
Happens to me all the time, without my consent. I usually wake up
in the morning, alone and naked in my bed, and I don't even know
her name. Can I prosecute her?
In my college orientation, it was explained that someone who was drunk could not give consent for sex. If both parties are drunk, the first person to file a report would be considered the victim.
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