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via: Shakesville


The blog The Pursuit of Harpyness (what a marvelous name) has a must read post:On Women, Alcohol, and Anti-Feminism

For weeks now, I’ve been fuming over the misogynist media pile-on that took place after a horrific car crash on New York’s Taconic Parkway, in which Diane Schuler killed herself, her daughter, her three nieces and three men in another vehicle. An autopsy showed that she had drunk 10 shots of vodka and smoked marijuana just before the crash. Despite the medical examiner’s findings, Schuler’s husband claims that his wife never had any problem with alcohol and that the autopsy must have been botched. He–and many in her family and hometown–simply refuse to believe that a caring wife and mother like Diane Schuler could have been a blackout drinker. Moms, we’ve always been told, simply don’t do that.

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That “outrage” and “bafflement” is pure, double-standard sexism. There’s nothing baffling about why women drink to excess: they do it because are in pain, they are stressed, they suffer from depression, they are genetically pre-disposed to alcoholism, they are compulsive–all of which are exactly the same reasons men drink. I would also argue that because of the injustices and expectations of our patriarchial society, women are more likely than men to be stressed, depressed, in pain, etc. Society just wants us to pretend it’s not happening, the way they want us to ignore so many of the ugly realities forced upon women. If there’s any outrage here, it’s the outrage women should feel about the chauvinist image of mothers as household saints who couldn’t possibly be tempted by demon liquor, or the even more chauvinist (and sadistic) idea that a woman’s lot is inevitably going to be hard, so she should suck it up and suffer instead of seeking comfort in the bottle.
This brings us back to the drunk driving issue, because obviously, if women have problems with alcohol, it’s inevitable that they will get in a car drunk, particularly suburban and rural women who necessarily spend a great deal of time in their cars.On Women, Alcohol, and Anti-Feminism