Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol

No matter what you're having, you can toast knowing that women had a part in its it's history. Saying that some types of alcohol are better, more noble, more masculine to drink than others is just outright silly. . . . All drinks are girly drinks.

In recent years, an interesting ideal has developed, probably in response to centuries of straight whiskey being considered a man's drink: the whiskey-drinking woman. . . . many women bought into this idea, that cool drinks and girly drinks were mutually exclusive categories of beverages. She's not like other girls because she drinks whiskey. And yes, whiskey is cool. Whiskey is awesome. But drinking it doesn't make you cooler or more awesome than someone who drinks wine or beer or, yes, even vodka. Don't let the patriarchy influence you drink choices. Drink what you want!

Well into the 1960s, the supposed threat of B-girls was used to justify excluding women from bars. Better ban an entire gender to protect those fragile male egos! Better to deny women access to a public space than have a man realize that the only way a woman would listen to his stupid work stories is if she's being paid!

In both England and America, women were expected to be the angels of the home. Not only were they to practice strict moderation for themselves but they were also responsible for the moderation of everyone in the house. Victorian ideals created an impossible situation for women: have none of the power, yet all of the responsibility.

By the time the Victorian era began in 1837, women enjoying almost anything at all was associated with sinfulness. They were seen as the weaker sex who were more prey to temptation, so it was better for everyone involved if they just stayed at home. Maybe even closed inside a stockings drawer or hatbox. Just in case.

It's commonplace today to make fun of women-centric book clubs, where there's more wine drinking than book discussion, but for hundreds of years, the only place women could gather, drink, relax and socialize was in a neighbor's kitchen, surrounded by other wives and mothers. There is a long-standing tradition of driving women to some sort of behavior, then mocking them for it. (Sort of like making beauty a women's most powerful and important currency, then laughing about how long it takes her to get ready.)

Boys will be boys, yet girls partying like boys might bring down all of society.

Why would you let a woman have a drink? She might start the apocalypse or something!

If you want to know how a society treats its women

In the wake of Octavius’s victory, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire. The East was seen as a feminine, wild, sensual place that needed to be conquered by the masculine, civilized, intellectual West.

The middle class of 1920s America loved a cocktail party. Stores began selling tools and accessories for home mixology, like shakers, serving trays and cocktail glasses. Since middle-class Americans didn’t have the money for a bottle of champagne, they usually drank lower-quality bootleg liquor. These spirits really needed to be mixed into a cocktail to be palatable, a cocktail being the best way to mask the harsh flavor.

The whiskey decanter, today the symbol for sophisticated masculine drinking, started out as a marker of feminized alcohol.

Thomas Jefferson had a well-regarded brewery on his estate at Monticello, but it was his wife Martha who was in charge of it. She was a beer enthusiast. Before it was even up and running, Martha was involved in the planning and architecture of the building. Eventually, her daughter (also named Martha) took over and became an accomplished brewster.

In 1692, the first woman to die as a result of the Salem witch hysteria was a tapster (a female taverner). Her name was Sarah Osborne, and she owned and operated the Ship, which was considered the best tavern in town.

Hildegard wrote in Physica that hops increased the melancholic in your system (too much of which could give you a melancholy mind). She was the first person to write scientifically about this, and she was correct. Today, we know that hops can relax the nervous system, have a calming, sedative effect and promote sleep. Hops in beer, however, had a much more important job to do. Hildegard wrote that “...its bitterness inhibits some spoilage in beverages to which it is added, making them last longer.” Again, she was correct. Hildegard was the first person to write scientifically about this, as well. The preservative property of hops was about to become the biggest beer innovation since Ninkasi’s hymn.

Ireland was never conquered by the Romans, so their commitment to beer was never interrupted by an obsession with wine.

There was a common practice at the time for women to kiss their relatives so that the relatives could sniff their breath and make sure they hadn’t had any wine.

The two started their own drinking club with some close friends called the Inimitable Livers.

The women who did join in the convivium were also not drinking the wine that the men were. They were drinking something called passum, a wine made from raisins. It was a sweeter wine and had a lower alcohol content. Passum was the world’s first girly drink. This was the moment that types of alcohol became gendered.

Old wine became a status symbol, right around the fourth century BCE.

When Mesopotamians wanted to celebrate beer itself, they did not dedicate their toasts to a god but rather a goddess. Her name was Ninkasi. Ninkasi was a Sumerian deity, the goddess who ruled over beer. This divine being knew how to party. It was believed that beer was imbued with the spirit of Ninkasi herself. The elated buzz you feel after a few beers? (Or if you’re a lightweight drinker like me, halfway through your first glass?) That was thought to be the essence of Ninkasi.

They made at least eight different styles of brew from barley, eight from wheat and three more from mixes of different grains.

Women of the Vine and Spirits,

Advances in women's rights have marched forward, only to be dragged back by governments and systems that were frightened of their power and determined to oppress them. Women are still fighting and winning and losing and fighting again. The one constant is their resilience.

. . . just as alcohol is not the cause of capitalism's problems, it is also not the cure. Wine does not alleviate wage inequality or the lack of affordable childcare. If people mocking wine moms on Instagram were truly concerned about their health and welfare, they might instead try working toward getting women the support they desperately need.

Maybe someday, companies shilling skinny drinks will realize that the last thing a woman needs after a long day is to pick up a bottle that is going to body-shame her. Instead they might start using their enormous marking and manufacturing power to sell women a drink that isn't infused with self-hatred.

. . . Hoffman-La Roche [the manufacturer of Rohypnol] declared that alcohol was the number one date-rape drug. . . . they put the onus on women to protect their own drinks and avoid assault. There was an air of 'Well, if you left your drink unattended. . .' or 'Well, if you didn't go out drinking. . .' as if sexual assault was not an intentional crime but rather some kind of arbitrary force of nature, like a heavy rain, that could be avoided with good planning. Spiking someone's drink sounds innocuous, but it is nothing short of evil.

Ladette culture formed in response to lad culture, which was formed in response to men feeling threatened by feminism, which spread in response to sexism. You'd think it would be easiest to just cut to the chase and get rid of the sexism, but here we are.