The Inside Story from Italian Wine Merchants

Of Wine and Women

Posted on | March 11, 2010 | Written by Janice Cable | 3 Comments

Vinography: A Wine Blog has a really fascinating compendium of posts about the recent research that suggests a correlation between lowered obesity and light-to-moderate alcohol consumption. This study, based on research conducted by the Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and published on March 8, 2010 in the Archives of Internal Medicine had generated quite the impressive list of articles and blog posts by March 9, when Vinography put up its list of links. In fact, Vinography lists 86 articles on the subject. Which is, let’s face it, a lot.

As a woman, a drinker, and a feminist, I’m interested in what kinds of things make news about women and drinking. It’s always good news when studies, such as this one connecting women’s drinking and obesity, center specifically on women’s health. It’s a recent phenomenon to look at women’s health as something distinct from men’s health and important on its own right—and this change is excellent. However, not all the news is good, and I find the results of what comes up when you search for “women drinking wine” in Google News over time.

When you search “men drinking wine” for the years 2000-2009, you get a wide variety of results: wine increasing life spans, wine lowering heart disease risks, wine and blood pressure, even women drinking more wine. When, however, you search “women drinking wine” for the same time period, you get a very different range of results, and most of them are alarmist. For example, there’s less about wine adding to a woman’s lifespan and more about fears that women are drinking too much, too often and too competitively.

I know that my Gloria Steinem panties bunch easily. I was raised with Ms Magazine by a woman who marched for women’s rights. I can’t help my feminist leanings, nor do I want to. And yet I can’t help but wonder if this apparent alarmism isn’t suggestive about our society’s fears that continue to surround women and drinking—that somehow it remains better, more acceptable and less frightening that men drink, and that women’s drinking is somehow, well, bad. Moreover, while I applaud and celebrate medical findings that suggest that it’s actually good for women to drink, I wonder if we really have to tie it to weight loss. Often what we study, how we study it, and why says a lot about what we value. There’s no denying we as a culture value skinny chicks.

In the meantime, however, I’m going to take a deep breath and talk myself down. I’m also going to relax with a glass of wine. Not because it’s good for me. Not because it’ll make me lose weight. But because I like it.

Category: Italian Wine Merchants
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Comments

3 Responses to “Of Wine and Women”

  1. Nicola
    March 11th, 2010 @ 8:24 pm

    This is an interesting post. In the US, more so than in other countries I think, we have a difficult time simply enjoying something for no other reason than we enjoy it. We try and rationalize our behavior to have some other productive value. This is yet another example of that.

  2. Shannon
    March 11th, 2010 @ 9:42 pm

    I’ll drink to that! (and same: not because it’s good for me or will make me lose weight, but because I like me my Syrah, dammit.) Great post!

  3. Janice
    March 12th, 2010 @ 12:53 pm

    Hey,

    Thanks so much. I was thinking this morning that probably part of the alcohol alarmism is tied to the Victorian idea that women are somehow the arbiters of morality. Can’t have drunk angels in the house, even though that does sound like quite the party.

    cheers,
    jec

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