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When I first arrived as a language assistant at my French school last year, I was subject to a very probing question and answer session with my future pupils. One of the most precocious - and pertinent - questions they asked me was, “Meez, are you a beenge dreenkeur?”.
Mon Dieu. “No no no. No. I’m not part of that silly culture,” I replied, and quickly went home to set my Facebook to private so that the little brats couldn’t see the thousands of photos that proved otherwise.
The stereotype accusations didn’t stop there. On one occasion, whilst with a group of British female friends, I was approached by a French man: “Oh! You are Breeteesh! That means you will drink a lot and sleep wiz me!”. “Absolument pas”, I responded. At that point I started to consider what had happened to our national identity.
Sadly, the only conclusion I could come to is that the stereotype is true. You just have to witness any average Tuesday nights at Tru or Wednesday nights at Ziggy's to find numerous examples of the Great British Female Binge Drinker. Recent studies also claim that, on the average night out, female students consume more units of alcohol than their male counterparts. But it doesn’t stop, or start for that matter, with students. 16 year olds are at it, graduates are at it, and even middle-aged professionals are at it (the government spent a lot of money last year on an advertising campaign aimed at the 40-50 year old woman trying to encourage her not to turn to drink when stressed).
So why do we have such a problematic relationship with alcohol? Why is the British lack of self-control or self-discipline when it comes to drinking so marked against that of other European countries, for example? Drawing from personal experience, our love affair with the alcopop starts young mainly because other people are doing it. A bad excuse which doesn’t really answer the question, I know, but the only reason that truly rings home. At university, in Freshers’ Week, we drink to ease social tensions and make life-long friends, then continue for the next three years because it’s jolly good fun. As for the living-for-the-weekend culture of young professionals, it is as much a relaxation technique as a reminder of their student hey-days, or at least according to my grown up graduated friends.
However, viable explanations as to why the over-drinking trend is now suddenly more predominant amongst girls are more difficult to find. Some say it’s simply a question of Dutch courage; we go out, we drink, we forget all our anxieties and become the beautiful social animals that we are. Others say it’s because the lines between men and women have become so blurred that the rowdy, adventurous benders once only enjoyed by males are now acceptable for females. I say I don’t know.
Another part of me also says, “I don’t care”. Granted, cirrhosis of the liver does worry me a little. But when we take into account the dressing up, getting together with good friends, dancing, meeting new friends and dancing some more, we forget that what we’re doing has a serious consequence socially, and just have good fun. What’s more, we’re not unintelligent people, if the consequences of our drunken antics were so serious surely we’d question them more… Or we’d just be too hung-over to give it a second thought. Hmmm.
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