Sexuality and stigma: the alcoholic woman

Alcohol Health & Research World,  Spring, 1991  by Sheila B. Blume

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Public perceptions associating alcohol use with sexual promiscuity in women contribute to the stigmatization of alcoholic women and may result in their physical and sexual victimization.

The negative consequences resulting from societal sterotypes of the alcoholic male have long been known: the public equation of alcoholics with skid row derelicts has been a deterrent to early intervention and treatment for males who have higher income or higher educational achievement (Schuckit 1987). Is there a corresponding stereotype of the female alcoholic that also causes harm? If so, are there special ways in which women suffer as a result?

In this article, I shall summarize historical, anecdotal, and scientific evidence describing a societal stereotype that leads to the stigmatization of alcoholic women. This stereotype differs from that of the alcoholic male in that it contains a culturally ingrained expectation of hypersexuality and sexual promiscuity. I shall discuss research that describes potential consequences of such societal perceptions for women who drink, and reseach that examines whether the stereotype can be supported in terms of real physiological and behavioral changes that result when women drink. Finally, I shall consider strategies for altering negative attitudes and ameliorating their potentially harmful consequences.

Historical Perspectives

Many societies permitting alcohol use have prescribed drinking standards for women that differ from those for men (Sandmaier 1980). These separate norms have been based on deeply held cultural beliefs about the different effects of alcohol on the two sexes, among them the belief that alcohol use by women leads to promiscuous behavior. For example, in ancient Israel, rules restricting women's drinking were based in part on the idea that alcohol acts as a sexual stimulant and promotes adultery; the Talmud, as quoted by Gomberg (1986), expresses this view:

One cup of wine is good for a woman; Two are degrading; Three induce her to act like an immoral woman; And four cause her to lose all self-respect and sense of shame.

A similar attitude was held by the ancient Romans, who strictly forbade all alcohol use by women (McKinlay 1959). A law of Romulus imposed the death penalty for women found guilty of drinking. The same law imposed the death penalty for adultery by women, thus equating the seriousness of the two offenses. Historical records document the logic justifying this prohibition: wine causes women to be lustful and leads them to debauchery (McKinlay 1959).

Attitudes of 14th century England are suggested in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, as expressed by the Wife of Bath:

Whenever I take wine I have to think Of Venus, for as cold engenders hail A lecherous mouth begets a lecherous tail. As lechers know from long experience.

Chaucer's piece exemplifies the thinking of the time: alcohol was perceived to stimulate women sexually and to make them promiscuous, and their drunkenness was seen as an invitation for men's sexual advances.

In 1798, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote about the relative paucity of alcoholism among women. He stated that women avoid drunkenness because their special place in society is based on the belief that women adhere to a higher moral code, and that "intoxication, which deprives one of cautiousness, would be a scandal for them" (quoted by Jellinek 1941). This view of a "woman on a pedestal," together with traditional cultural beliefs about the consequences of a woman's drinking, help explain the "fallen woman" stereotype of the female alcoholic.

Contemporary Perspectives

That the aforementioned societal attitudes toward alcohol use and alcoholism among women continue in the present is indicated in current media and literature, and is documented by scientific research.

For example, contemporary biases concerning women with alcohol problems have meant that even within Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), women were not initially welcomed as members. In her book about AA, Robertson (1988) states that one of AA's founders "opposed the admission of women alcoholics into the initially all-male AA. In those days, 'nice' women were not supposed to be drunks" (p. 37). However, women have since become an integral part of AA, and now account for about one-third of new members (Alcoholics Anonymous World Services 1990).

Attitudes toward women's drinking also are revealed in Hollywood films. In his review of how alcoholic men and women are portrayed in commercial American movies (made during the years 1945-1962), Robin Room (1989) observes:

Through the whole gamut of films in this study, there is a clear gender differentiation on the relationship between drinking and sexual behavior. For women, drinking goes along with sex; for men, it replaces its.... "Days of Wine and Roses" exemplifies the double standard concerning the effect of alcohol. Kirstie's drinking bout send her off to make advances to her father, while Joe is simply impelled out into the potting shed in search of more booze. No other women are involved in Joe's drinking bouts, whereas for Kirstie, "there would be lots of detours, but I never looked at them" (p. 376).