Drinking Like a Man: the Paradox of Excessive Drinking for Seventeenth-Century Dutch Youths

Abstract

In the early modern period, drinking alcohol was an integral part of Dutch social and cultural life. Toast were made to the health of unborn babies, for job nominations, and at funerals. Young people started to consume alcohol at an early age. However, within this culture they had to learn how to drink in moderation. Excessive drinking was not only a cardinal sin, it was also a paradox in the realm of gender. For males, the act of getting drunk and losing control was a flaw on their masculinity. They in fact became like women who were believed to be incapable of controlling their mind and body. On the other hand, the ability to drink great quantities of alcohol symbolized an age-old form of masculinity. Imbibing in "wine, women, and song" were liminal rites in becoming men and how young men demarcated themselves from being boys.

The place of drink: Geographical contributions to alcohol studies

“…Studies have also looked at masculinity, femininity and ethnicity (Cochrane & Bal, 1990;Heim et al, 2004;McKeigue & Karmi, 1993;Shaikh & Nax, 2000), women who drink and expose themselves or fight (Day et al, 2004;Hugh-Jones, Gough, & Littlewood, 2005), men and violence (Benson & Archer, 2002), drinking amongst various black and minority ethnic groups (Share, 2003;Stivers, 2000), rural identities and drinking in the USA (Rooney & Butt, 1985) and alcohol culture in the Scottish Hebrides from the sixteenth to the twentieth century (Dean, 1995). Research has also focused on Irish drinking cultures and the proliferation of Irish theme pubs (McGovern, 2002), alcohol-related tourism in the Tyrol during the eighteenth century (Haid, 2003), adolescent drinking and family life in Scotland (Shucksmith, Glendinning, & Hendry, 1997), pub life in eighteenth-century Switzerland (Guggenbuhl, 2003), Czech men's drinking and the political climate from 1983-93 (Kubicka, Csemy, Duplinsky, & Kozeny, 1998), drinking amongst young people in seventeen-century Holland (Roberts, 2004), drinking and family relations in early modern Germany (Tlusty, 2004), drinking and masculinity in rural New Zealand (Campbell, 2000) and drinking and constructions of Britishness (Clarke, 1998).…”

Gender differences in drinking: why do they still exist?

“…According to them, gender differences in alcohol use have been important ways in which societies have symbolized and regulated gender roles. Cultural differences in normative drinking patterns help to reveal how, and to what extent, societies differentiate gender roles, for example, by making drinking behaviour a demonstration of masculinity (Driessen 1992; McDonald 1994; Campbell 2000; Roberts 2004) or by requiring women to abstain from alcohol or curb their consumption (Nicolaides 1996; Willis 1999; Martin 2001). Therefore, better understanding of how men's and women's drinking patterns differ is an important key to answering broader questions of how and why and to what extent societies try to encourage women and men to behave differently (Wilsnack & Wilsnack 1997).…”

Genderedness of Bar Drinking Culture and Alcohol-Related Harms: A Multi-Country Study

“…Recent studies in Botswana, Taiwan, and China suggest that bar drinking in predominantly male bar going cultures may not be about drinking a lot to show masculinity as much as it is about having time with other men (Suggs 1996) for friendship or work-related purposes (Bedford and Hwang 2011; Uretsky 2008). Further, in predominantly male bar environments, research in New Zealand, Taiwan, and the Netherlands suggest that men may actually prove masculinity by demonstrating restraint in amount drunk, level of drunkenness displayed, and sexual desires expressed towards female servers (Bedford and Hwang 2011; Campbell 2000; Roberts 2004). The sexual banter and even occasional sexual contact men engage in with servers in Taiwan, China, and Japan (Allison 1994; Bedford and Hwang 2011; Uretsky 2008) may in some cases be accepted by men's wives rather than be seen as a threat to marriage (Allison 1994).…”