Drinking as a Feminine Practice: Post-Feminist images of women's drinking in Swedish women's magazines

Abstract

Previous feminist analyses have pointed out how the news media demonize women who drink, labelling them as irresponsible, disturbing or behaving "like men." Popular media such as women's magazines, however, construct alternative representations, that frame women's drinking encouragingly and as part of a successful and "modern" femininity. This study carries out an analysis of fashion reports from six Swedish women's magazines, published between 1984 and 2008. It concludes that despite the fact that women's magazines create an alternative to problematizing portrayals of women who drink, this does not necessarily make them unproblematic from a feminist point of view. While the prevalence of positive and encouraging images may be interpreted as indicating a change towards more gender equal or gender neutral depictions of drinking; this article argues instead that these images should be regarded as parts of a discourse that celebrates stereotypical femininity and reproduces gender difference. As such, the present article brings new perspectives to the complex discourses that give shape to ideas about gender and alcohol in general, and women's drinking in particular.

‘Pretty in Pink’ and ‘Girl Power’: An analysis of the targeting and representation of women in alcohol brand marketing on Facebook and Instagram

“…Drinking was framed as a key component of the various social roles women occupy in contemporary society, and associated with all aspects of their everyday lives. They were depicted drinking with and alongside men, including in public spaces, implying that women's visibility in once male dominated spaces provides evidence of gender equality (Månsson, 2014;Törrönen, 2014). In contrast to depictions of men, the importance of all female friendship was drawn upon in post-feminist and feminist ways (e.g.…”

Women's Responsibilities, Freedoms, and Pleasures

“…In general there is a scarcity of research into how alcohol advertising produces and reproduces gendered performances (cf. Elinor Månsson [2012] on fashion reports). Theoretically, research on alcohol advertising has been dominated by post-positivist designs focused on the effects of advertising (David Moore 2002) and by post-structuralist or constructivist approaches focused on how representations of advertising construct different kinds of realities (Jane Cherrington, Kerry Chamberlain, & Joe Grixti 2006).…”

“…Månsson 2012). These are fashion conscious, successful, flexible, slim, middle class women who want new consumer goods and who are increasingly relaxed about being the focus of the male gaze (Julkunen 2010, 242).…”

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“…15 Discourses regarding women's alcohol use and alcohol use during pregnancy have been investigated in other forms of media, including print news, [16][17][18][19][20][21] broadcast television news, 22,23 and magazines. [24][25][26] However, to the authors' knowledge, no previous work has bridged these two areas to investigate the portrayals of alcohol use during pregnancy on television.…”