The Alcohol Industry Chose Profit Above Women’s Human Rights

As we start another year in the 20th century, 2023, we realise how much women have become the image for alcohol, for wine and champagne drinking, for being joyous because they have alcohol, for being sexy because they have alcohol, for being trendy and ‘in’ for having alcohol. I mean, having a drink in hand, having a drink at home, keeping the best wines and champagnes available for drinking, for being good hostesses and inviting friends and colleagues around for alcoholic evenings, and more!

Look at the adverts for alcohol: https://blogs.uoregon.edu/womeninalcoholprintads/images/

Women are portrayed as sexy and glamorous and slaves to men!

Big Alcohol Chooses Money over Health and Reputation

The alcohol industry could choose to support women — women who are abused, who are downtrodden or who suffer in life. They are rolling in money and that money has been made by keeping people drinking. The alcohol industry could have chosen to support men who have problems, or NGOs dealing with human rights and human social issues.

But what did big alcohol do instead? It chose to dehumanise women, to portray women as needing alcohol and as their sexy advocates of all alcohol and to provide a message to society that alcohol is something all women desire and need. This has nothing to do with women’s rights or human rights. Even children will see these adverts and accept that women, and mommies, drink alcohol and it makes them better looking, sexier, better, and slaves to that drink. It makes drinking seem even more acceptable as women are the nurturers and now, if they are seen to be enjoying alcohol so much, then the sick message is that our nurturers need and desire alcohol. It makes them better carers, lovers, and mommies! Huh?

The women’s movement is always there, gaining traction in a technologically dominated society and climate change threatened. Women are trying very hard to save children, save other women, run their own households, run their own businesses, work in huge organisations and prove themselves by applying for what were always men’s jobs. Women are constantly multi-tasking and trying hard to overcome all odds. Meanwhile, women are ALSO increasingly abused, murdered, raped and hurt in every other way you can imagine — and so are their children.

Society is Environmentally Sick Too

In addition, our societies are threatened with waste overflows in the form of pollution of every kind — plastic, air, water, soil and ocean waste. Sewers are overflowing into rivers and oceans and our children are getting sick. Humans are carrying microplastics in their bodies and indoor pollution is now so bad we cannot escape outdoor and indoor pollution, sickening ourselves and our planet.

And yet, big alcohol still refuses to put its money here either, to save the planet and convince people that we need to cut back on waste production such as consuming alcoholic drinks! Big alcohol refuses to put its money where women and the planet need it — it continues to dehumanise women in a man’s world, and to promote drinking, which then creates more waste of cans, bottles, plastic and transport therefore pollution. And still, most leaders of most countries and cities remain males with huge egos who still look upon women as the weaker sex!

Statistics show that women are buying a lot of alcohol at the moment. And the advertising industry is part of this ongoing dilemma. Big alcohol and the advertising industry are in cahoots to call women their ‘emerging market’ and their eyes glint with dollar signs as they have meetings together to create the next brainwashing ad using celebrities to sell their lies to the ignorant public.

Women are Drinking More!

Women have been drinking much more than usual and according to Dawn Sugarman and Shelly Greenfield in Harvard Health, “you only need to glance at social media to get the message that there is a “cure” for pandemic-related stress: alcohol. Social media sites are rife with memes of moms drinking to relieve their stress. And alcohol is now easier than ever to obtain through delivery sites and apps. Therefore, it is not surprising that we are seeing a disproportionate effect of the pandemic on women’s alcohol use. Rates of alcohol use, heavy drinking (defined as four or more drinks on one occasion), and related disorders in women were rising even before the pandemic. Between 2001 and 2013, , there was a 16% increase in the proportion of women who drink alcohol, a 58% increase in women’s heavy drinking (versus 16% in men), and an 84% increase in women’s one-year prevalence of an alcohol use disorder (versus 35% in men).”

I can feel this weird energy since the two terrible Covid years we had — there is so much drive for people to get out and have fun and to ride roughshod over everything else and everyone else to make sure they get this fun and have this fun — and make as much noise as possible and do as much outrageous stuff as possible.

There are huge groups of people out in cars, on bikes, on buses, on planes, on ships, trains and trucks, all trying to get somewhere to have fun. Usually having fun means consuming food and drink, consuming resources like water and air, and taking up soil space to be in a group somewhere. Many groups are heading to the great outdoors where they then leave all their waste behind in the soil, in the plants and in the rivers and oceans. I see it every day, I know. And much of this waste is alcohol residues such as bottles, cans and plastic wrappings.

What is Feminism Again?

I decided to remind myself about the meaning of feminism and how and why it all came about. Do YOU remember? Well, feminism is that social movement that began hundreds of years ago in the 1700s at least when Mary Wollstonecraft wrote her A Vindication of the Rights of Woman in 1792. Then women started a movement to be able to vote as this was a male privilege and women were supposed to be seen, pretty and feminine, and not heard. By 1950, women were asking for equality in the workplace in the USA and the UK and now, in the present era, women are demanding fairness and equity in all spheres of society and to stop women and child abuse in all spheres of society. It is sad, however, that women die at the hands of men every day and that verbal abuse is causing ongoing depression and mental issues in society between women and men.

I like this description of feminism from the Women and Gender Studies Unit at the University of Kentucky in the USA:

Feminism is an interdisciplinary approach to issues of equality and equity based on gender, gender expression, gender identity, sex, and sexuality as understood through social theories and political activism. Historically, feminism has evolved from the critical examination of inequality between the sexes to a more nuanced focus on the social and performative constructions of gender and sexuality.

Feminist theory now aims to interrogate inequalities and inequities along the intersectional lines of ability, class, gender, race, sex, and sexuality, and feminists seek to effect change in areas where these intersectionalities create power inequity. … Anytime stereotyping, objectification, infringements of human rights, or intersectional oppression occurs, it’s a feminist issue.

Where is Big Alcohol and Advertising?

We have all these definitions and rights but where is the alcohol movement and alcohol big business? They are out to make money and they want women to be their spenders! They force instead of encourage, they undermine instead of uplift and they lie instead of telling the truth. All to see who can win the money race with which alcoholic drink! There is now so much alcohol marketing out there, especially since Covid, convincing everyone that alcohol cures all ills, depression, health and more. Alcohol is your go-to panacea to feel happy and sound in this life of stress! Huh? Women are targeted whether they notice it or not.

Kristina Sperkova gets it right when she says that women’s rights are being jeopardised. She notes that “ the success of Big Alcohol’s effort to “hunt down” women and girls for profits comes at a high price. Studies show that women now consume as much alcohol as men, and it’s a problem: Binge alcohol use is rising. Mental ill-health and addiction crisis among women. Liver disease epidemic. Accidents, injuries, violence, including sexual violence and premature deaths. Marginalization of alcohol-free lifestyle choices. Stigma about female alcohol use and intoxication in the media. Big Alcohol’s relentless push for women and girls to take up and consume more alcohol has worked — for Big Alcohol, but not for women and girls, their families, communities, and societies. We see it, for example, in the liver disease epidemic among young women, with university degrees. On the cusp of an emancipated, self-determined and empowered life, they end up in hospitals for treatment of diseased livers.”

Take Note and do Your Research!

So, what I am trying to say is that we all need to take note of how we are manipulated by big alcohol to drink and to drink more, and not to feel bad about it because everyone is doing it and if you don’t do it you are not in and you are boring and everything. Big health is also benefitting from all the sick women now, who are getting cancer and heart disease and many other illnesses thanks to alcohol!

Listen to this Podcast about how big alcohol hijacked the feminist movement and make up your own mind.

There is plenty of evidence out there that women are being constantly manipulated by big alcohol so do sit up and take note! I leave this article with you as there is just too much evidence and too much to write about this sickening subject.

If you are a woman, and you are reading this, then please educate yourself, wake up and smell the roses — a sober life is IT. Alcohol is not cool and even the alcohol-free trend is merely a money-making racket that makes ex-drinkers feel better but no one needs a replacement for a drink when they have quit. All they need is water, tea, health, friends and love!

Please read this article and Google how Big Alcohol Exploits Women!

https://movendi.ngo/blog/2018/03/07/times-big-alcohol-exploiting-feminism/

And read this article too and see the sickening images!

https://blogs.uoregon.edu/womeninalcoholprintads/images/

All images are taken from this website.