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Is the ladette culture affecting our health?
Discount drinks appear on the surface to be a Godsend, but are we, as females ,functioning in what was once thought to be male terrain, risking our future health and credibility?
Every woman likes a bargain, but ordinarily it’s in the clothes and shoes department. However, today it seems the bargains contain alcohol. Everywhere you look bars are offering happy hours. Two for the price of one, shots for a £1, and trebles for the price of doubles.
Discounted drinks plus the convenience of cash points on the premises, are indisputably a way of encouraging the clientele to stay and continue drinking.
Bargain drinks are more readily associated with the struggling student, which in previous years brought about the connotations of pints of lager, football and men rather the worse for wear.
It was a time known as ‘the lad culture.’
Today it seems attitudes are changing. A wide variety of drinks are being consumed across the board and this ‘lad culture’ has grown and developed into what is now known as ‘the ladette culture.’
It is a concept that has been surrounded by much media hype and controversy, raising concerns that it has led to a significant increase in binge drinking.
Many argue that the alcohol industry and its outlets have done little to slow down the pace of the UK drinking habits, and go so far as to say that they actively encourage it by offering consumers bargain drinks.
It would appear that the alcohol industry found they were losing a large amount of potential consumers by only targeting one sector of the market. The drink was beer and the consumers were men.
In response to this, the industry broadened their market to gain a bigger percentage of the profits.
Could it not then be argued, that young women have been unjustly branded with this derogatory term ‘ladette’ when in actual fact they are a section of the market purposely targeted as a lucrative business plan?
Due to this recognition, young women have since been targeted with the introduction of the alcopop. Unknown to anyone at that time, the alcopop would cause a frenzy of media hype.
They were first introduced as a way to win back a slice of the market and within 18 months of being available were a phenomenal success, with some 240 similar products available.
The drinks were convenient, sweet tasting and contained a high concentration of alcohol. Aggressively targeted at women, the alcopop made way for mass media attention.
Women were being viewed as attempting to mimic their male counterparts, within this now common concept of the ‘ladette culture’.
It was a term used to describe women who were getting drunk, starting fights and having casual sex. The media has commonly epitomised this idea in the past with high profile women such as Sara Cox and Zoe Ball.
Dr Linda Papadopolus, lecturer in the Department of Psycology of the London Metropolitan University, and Big Brother psycologist comments ‘these women are attempting to discard any self of femininity, masculinity thus blurring the lines of gender and now, because of this, attitudes towards the consumption of alcohol has changed.’ Today we are a society of binge drinkers and research shows that women’s fight for equality in this social arena may have got them more than they bargained for.
Another recent term used to describe binge drinking is ‘speed drinking’ used to describe someone who consumes a significant amount of alcohol in a short space of time. Culturally the UK has always been known as a nation of drinkers, but nowadays we are branded as a society of binge drinkers.
Incredibly, this has led the government to consider extending the licensing law!
The government says that alcohol misuse now costs the NHS up to £1.7 billion a year and the cost in alcohol related crimes is estimated to be around £7.3 billion. However, it is the female drinkers who are causing the Government most alarm.
The strategy unit’s report states ‘The prevalence of drinking in excess of the weekly recommended allowance has dramatically increased in people’s drinking habits and in particular, in women’s between the ages of 16-24’
This is arguably the target audience that the alcohol industry is marketing its products at, in which case, the strategy appears to be working.
Recent research shows that during the last three years, young women’s drinking habits have got worse. One theory is that in women’s quest for equality they have tried to be equal on all levels of life.
However, the fact remains that the two genders are very different.
They are built differently and, in regards to alcohol, men are physically made to consume more.
It could be argued that advertisers set out to create a battle of the sexes, making women think they are able to consume as much as men, and with bars offering these discounted drinks, what’s to stop us?
But it now seems that these discounted drinks come at a price, that being our health.
Research shows that frequent drinking past the bounds of sobriety can cause serious health problems and not just in later life.
It seems that in the UK a socially constructed myth is prevalent, this being that the affect of alcohol is only found in middle aged people who have had years and years of alcohol abuse.In fact, this is not the case.
According to research, women are physically the more susceptible to the damage of alcohol abuse.
A specialist in this field has commented that ‘because of this ‘ladette’ mentality within our society, the girls keeping up with the boys, we are in fact harming ourselves.’
Short-term the side affects of a night on the tiles may seem bearable.
Even the most horrific hangover lasts but a few days, but the long-term damage you may be inflicting is irreversible. No amount of Ibuprofen will cure it.
The recommended weekly allowance for women is 14 units. As a 25ml spirit is equal to 1 unit, on the surface this would appear to allow young women to drink 14 drinks a week, which doesn’t seem so bad. However, it is surprising to find that recent research reveals that between the ages of 16-24, one in three women drink over the recommended amount.
Most people’s response is simply , ‘I’ve heard it all before.’ But with the risk of possible serious ailments like liver disease, breast cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis and even death as a real threat, are a few good nights out worth it?
The youngest person to die of alcoholic liver disease to my knowledge was 19; she died of what’s known as Oesophageal Varices, which means she bled to death.
The media representation this of ‘lads vs ‘ladettes,’ girls vs boys, is a concept which is being blamed for attributing to the binge drinking culture within Britain today.
Comments are often light heartedly bandied about such as ‘I could drink you under the table’ between members of the opposite sex, which most would not give a second thought to.
However, it is serious to think that, if this really is a battle of the sexes, then we could be risking our health.
Medical evidence has suggested that men are designed to consume a larger amount of alcohol than women, a liver specialist comments ‘this constant fight for equality, particularly when concerning alcohol, is harmful to us. Women may want to keep up with men in the drinking arena, but physically their bodies won’t allow it.’
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