“Tragic girls” and “crack whores”: Alcohol, femininity and Facebook

Abstract

New Zealand, similar to many other westernised nations, has a well-developed national culture of drinking to intoxication. Within this cultural context, young women are exhorted to engage with the night time economy, get drunk and have “fun” without relinquishing claims to “respectability”. More recently, the rise of Facebook and other social networking sites has coincided with shifts in postfeminism, neo-liberalism and the development of the night time economy. Social networking sites have become a mundane part of people’s everyday lives, whilst still reflecting structural constraints such as class, ethnicity and gender. This article reports on a qualitative study of young women’s drinking practices and uses of Facebook. Focus group discussions were conducted with eight friendship groups involving 36 participants aged 18–25 years. Transcripts of these discussions were subjected to thematic analysis. Three key themes were identified: “tragic girls” and “crack whores”; “drunken femininities”; and “Facebook, alcohol and drunken femininities”. The results indicated that young women experienced significant tensions in expressing their “drunken femininities” both in public and online, whilst also engaging in “airbrushing” of Facebook photos to minimize the appearance of intoxication for known and unknown audiences.

‘If I don’t look good, it just doesn’t go up’: A qualitative study of young women’s drinking cultures and practices on Social Network Sites

“…Within such neo-liberal discourse, identities are fluid and shifting based on individualism and the means to consume (Giddens, 1991;Hutton et al, 2016) and are therefore influenced by an individual's access to economic and cultural resources (e.g. consumption practices and leisure).…”

“…Young people's drinking cultures and the 'intoxigenic spaces' in which consumption and related practices are displayed and managed have now also entered online environments such as SNS (Griffiths & Caswell, 2010;Lyons et al, 2014Lyons et al, , 2015McCreanor et al, 2013;Moewaka Barnes et al, 2016). As mediated publics, environments where individuals gather publicly through mediating technology, SNS are extensions of young people's social networks and thus have social functions, providing ways of presenting the self, and gaining, maintaining and enhancing peer group social and symbolic capital through amplifying 'sociality, visibility and popularity ' (boyd, 2007a,b;boyd & Ellison, 2007;Goodwin et al, 2016;Hutton et al, 2016;Lunnay et al, 2011).…”

“…The practice of displaying alcohol-related content such as photographs depicting drinking is pleasurable for young people, and important in the creation of drinking stories, group belonging and bonding (Hebden et al, 2015;Griffin et al, 2009;Lyons et al, 2014Lyons et al, , 2015Moreno et al, 2010;McCreanor et al, 2013). However, these spaces and their place in drinking culture have been found to be gendered, and valued and participated in more by young women Hutton et al, 2016;Lyons et al, 2014;Mendelson & Papacharsi, 2010;Tonks, 2012). SNS have thus become integral features of young people's social lives and have extended the arena in which young people create, negotiate and enact gendered identities through the display of active social lives, popularity and symbolic consumerism (boyd, 2007;Cover, 2012;Goodwin et al, 2016;Lyons et al, 2014Lyons et al, , 2015Pempek et al, 2009).…”

“…SNS have thus become integral features of young people's social lives and have extended the arena in which young people create, negotiate and enact gendered identities through the display of active social lives, popularity and symbolic consumerism (boyd, 2007;Cover, 2012;Goodwin et al, 2016;Lyons et al, 2014Lyons et al, , 2015Pempek et al, 2009). Moreover, the central role of SNS in young people's drinking cultures means that the dilemmas in contemporary femininities created by drinking and intoxication have now entered online spaces Hutton et al, 2016;Niland et al, 2014;Tonks, 2012).…”

La influencia de los roles de género en el consumo de alcohol: estudio cualitativo en adolescentes y jóvenes en Asturias

“…Estas publicaciones les permiten mostrar públicamente su imagen, cuidada al detalle, y constituyen un elemento central en la construcción de la identidad femenina. De tal manera, que a través de las redes sociales muestran su participación en prácticas y espacios tradicionalmente masculinos, pero buscando en lo posible no comprometer su feminidad (Hutton, Griffin, Lyons, Niland y McCreanor, 2016).…”