different substances and settings are used
to produce, perform, and negotiate experiences and perceptions of gender, sexuality,
and power. The data and analyses presented
by Gundelach et al. should provide a useful
source of comparison with studies of other
scenes and settings for teenage drinking and
other substance uses among teenagers. Hopefully, they will also inspire further empirical
investigation and analysis of how different
groups and generations use and experience
specific substances in specific settings, and
how these uses and settings relate to both individual experiences and broader social and
cultural contexts.
Ellen O. Millar, social anthropologist,
Advisor, University of Oslo,
Office of the University Director
Postbox 1072 Blindern, 0316 Oslo
Norway
E-mail: [email protected]
Notes
1) Peter Gundelach (ed): Professor of Sociology
at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Research interests include values, social development, collective actors and national identities.
Margaretha Järvinen (ed): Associate Professor
of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen
and the Danish National Institute of Social
Research. Research interests include alcohol,
marginalization and marginalized groups, substance abuse and treatment strategies.
Jakob Demant (contributing author): PhD
Scholar in Sociology at the University of Copenhagen and Research Assistant at the Center
for Drug and Alcohol Research, the University
of Århus, Denmark. Research interests include
alcohol, gender and identity issues, music
scenes and lifestyles, and qualitative research
methods.
Jeanette Østergaard (contributing author): PhD
Scholar in Sociology at the University of Copenhagen and Research Assistant at the Center
for Drug and Alcohol Research, the University
of Århus. Research interests include youth and
alcohol, youth and work, perceptions and communication of risk, and quantitative research
methods.
2) The concept of “governmentality” was originally proposed by Michel Focault, but has been
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further explored and elaborated on by others.
See for instance Wikipedia for a useful introduction and overview: http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Governmentality. In the context
of teenage drinking “governmentality” and
related concepts can be used to explore both
teenagers’ expectations of, and strategies for
self-government and parents’, schools’ and the
states’s attempts (or lack of attempts) to govern
Outlining gender and
substance abuse
Bogren, Alexandra
Female Licentiousness versus Male Escape. Essays
on Intoxicating Substance Use, Sexuality and Gender. Acta Universitatis Stocholmiensis. Stockholm
Studies in Sociology. New Series 26, Stockholm,
2006, 168 p.
T
raditionally the analytic space given to
gender and sexuality has been quite limited in the social research on intoxication.
Either the research has been focusing on
men or gender (meaning sex) has been used
as a background variable. Both are problematic. The self-evident focusing on men forms
a theoretical agenda that ignores the experiences and the different realities that women
who use alcohol and/or drugs face. On the
other hand, the use of gender as a category
based on biological differences creates a situation where gender is important only when
the research results show some statistically
relevant differences. It ignores the way gender is linked with other differences and how
the sameness between men and women can
also be of importance and needs an analytical explanation. This context was why we
started to read Alexandra Bogren’s book
with great expectations. A book that promises to speak directly about intoxication and
gender! Great, but what does it have to offer
readers who are interested in substance use,
sexuality and gender?
Four self-contained studies
Alexandra Bogren’s book is a doctoral thesis
in sociology. It consists of a relatively long
introductory chapter (50 pages) and four articles. These provide the framework of the
book.
The first study The Rational and the Capricious: An Analysis of an Alcohol and Drug
Information Campaign for Teenagers’ Parents analyses how the FMN (Föräldraföreningen Mot Narkotika (Parents’ Association
against Drugs)) talks about youth, alcohol
and drugs in the context of their campaign.
The material for the research report is derived from texts on FMN’s website and from
the Book on Drugs, which was delivered to
125, 000 households in Sweden. Despite the
mention of alcohol and drugs, the study is
focused mainly on the way ‘normal teenage development’ and the use of drugs are
discursively constructed in the texts. The
researcher names Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis as her most important analytical tool. However, the results describe the
basic tendencies and metaphors of the texts,
and leave out the most important aspect of
the critical discourse analysis – the question of outcomes and power in relation to
discourses. The results show how a normal
teenager and the drug user are constructed as
separate categories – because of the ‘abuser
personality’ of the latter.
The texts did not deal with gender directly, only teenage development was somehow
described as gendered. This study shows
how difficult it is to analyse gendered meanings and symbolism from apparently genderneutral text.
The second study The Competent Drinker, the Authentic Person and the Strong Person: Lines of Reasoning in Young People’s
Discussions About Alcohol is also an example of discourse analytical research but it
concentrates on young people’s discussions
about alcohol. The material comes from the
chat room maintained by the TV programme
PS. The research depicts four different forms
of reasoning about alcohol: the ‘teetotaller
argument’, the ‘age-distinction argument’,
the ‘moderate drinking argument’ and the
‘getting drunk argument’. Each of these arguments portrayed some group either as ‘the
other’ or as some ideal. According to the teetotaller argument the ‘strong person’, who
shows his/her strength by maintaining sobriety, is the ideal. According to the moderate
drinking argument the ‘competent’ drinker,
who knows his or her limit and is a social
drinker is preferred while according to the
getting drunk argument the ‘authentic person’ is the ideal. Even though the rationale
of the argument can vary, the representation
of ‘the other’ is common to them all: she/he
is the ‘fjortis’ (14 years old), too young, immature, tries to be adult and cool but does
not succeed.
The “… discussion of gender is rare among
the young people, not absent, but just implied”, says the researcher. Intoxication
might produce an unwanted pregnancy for
a girl – that’s about all there is about gender
differences in the material. The conclusion
is interesting. We, however, wonder, whether young people’s discussion of alcohol is
really so ungendered. The large body of research on interaction has previously shown
the various, subtle ways in which gendering
can take place. Is the image of ’the fjortis’
really without gender? Or is the impression
that the research offers more simply due to
the analytical choices?
The study The Relationship Between
Sexuality-Related Alcohol Expectancies and
Drinking Across Cultures differs clearly from
the other studies that share its interest in understanding the cultural aspects of alcohol
and/or drug use in Sweden. This is a piece
of quantitative cross-cultural comparative
research, the purpose of which is to examine
the link between positive expectancies about
the effects of drinking on sexual feelings, and
drinking practices in different countries. It is
also concerned with the question of whether
people who expect drinking to have positive
effects on their sex life do drink more and
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227
how far this varies across different countries.
Even though the cultural comparison shows
some interesting findings, for example the
fact that in Sri Lanka, India, Nigeria and
Uganda there are few women drinkers, that
the largest proportions of women drinkers
are to be found in the Czech Republic, Sweden and Japan, and that in some countries
women and men differ over whether drinking makes sexual activity more pleasurable,
the results consist mainly of ‘statistical description’ while the interpretation is left to
the reader. Also gender is analysed in very
traditional terms. The article sums up the
results from a gender perspective by saying
that they "found indications of both similarities between women and men within several
countries and indications of differences between women and men within several countries.”
It is actually disappointing to note that
– despite the promises of the title – three
of these studies analyse the relationship of
gender and substance abuse only in very
vague terms. The fourth study, the theoretical study entitled ‘Out-of the –Ordinary: An
Exploration of the Concepts of Sexuality and
Intoxication’ on the other hand, tries directly
to analyse and outline the problems posed
by positing any relationship between gender
and substance abuse. The purpose of the
study is to, in theoretical terms, elaborate the
question of why women who drink are considered ‘bad’ not only because their drinking
leads to intoxication but also because it is
also supposed to lead to sexual promiscuity
or licentiousness. For an explanation, the
research proposes a model that is based on
Weber’s and Maffessoli’s discussion of ecstasy, brotherhood and transcendence and the
links between nature and gender.
Female licentiousness versus
male escape
The basic idea of the theoretical model is to
combine women’s double status: they are
taught to be closer to nature because of their
role in reproduction, and to be guardians
of the culture because of their social role as
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mothers and caretakers of the family.
“... I try to integrate cultural alcohol research and feminist studies on gender and
sexuality by discussing the fact that, in cultural alcohol research, it has been suggested
that men are closer to nature through their
drinking and, in feminist studies on gender
and sexuality, it has been argued that women
are perceived to be closer to nature through
their (sexual) bodies. The understanding of
how these ideas – that, at first, seemed contradictory – can exist together is facilitated
by separating them into different levels: the
level of what is (perceived to be) and the
level of what should be. In conclusion: it is
more dangerous if women ‘let themselves
go’ through intoxication than if men do the
same, because women are expected to be
controllers, to stand for respectable culture.
At the same time, there is the understanding
of women as in fact being closer to nature
through their sexuality. Given this understanding, it becomes even more important
that women stay where they are, in culture,
and do not come any closer to nature than
they already are perceived to be. When
women drink and become intoxicated, a discrepancy between what is and what should
be appears.” (p. 33.)
This account that combines the natureculture distinction in relation to gender and
individuality, with the cultural meanings
and use of alcohol, is very interesting. From
the perspective of the whole book, the problem for the reader is, however, that the idea
is not elaborated further. Neither is it used as
a perspective for understanding the findings
of the studies. The introduction is a collection of ideas from different kinds of feminist thinkers: from Judith Butler and poststructuralist theories, from Sara Heinämaa
and the phenomenology of the body, from
anthropologist Sherry Ortner, who is a sexrole gender theorist with a symbolical perspective, and the thinking of Camille Paglia,
who is known for her essentialist theories on
women’s closer link to nature, female sexuality and identity. Camille Paglia’s reasoning
is considered to be an example of culturally
possible stereotypical thinking in relation to
femininity and masculinity. Well, that may
be so, although her ideas are often considered eloquently radical and they cannot be
taken as generally shared.
So, what does the book have to offer readers who are interested in substance use, sexuality and gender? The first answer is: a lot
of interesting ideas and observations. Also
the book starts to construct a perspective,
which sees gender as embracing ‘embodied
ways of relating to the world’ and is consistent in claiming that it is not so important to
take a stand in relation to what gender is, but
to take seriously what people think it to be.
Meanings, that are cultural but subjectively
experienced, form the reality embedded in
the embodied lived experience. Therefore,
despite our criticisms, we do consider that
the book is a genuine contribution to the discussion of gender and intoxication.
Suvi Ronkainen, professor
University of Lapland,
Department of Research Methodology
E-mail: [email protected]
Sanna Väyrynen, researcher
University of Lapland
Department of Social Work
E-mail: [email protected]
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229
Norwegian Institute for
Alcohol and Drug Research
10th International Symposium on Substance Abuse Treatment
– Reforms, ideology and best practice
1–3 October, 2007
Radisson SAS, Oslo
The treatment field for substance abusers has during the last years, especially
in Scandinavia, been subject to important political reforms, in which systematic scientific reviews and evidenced based practise are inherent. Do we really
know what is the best treatment practise for different groups of substance abusers? Are our treatment systems based more on incidental research and political interventions than on sound and useful knowledge? These are some of the
questions we want to address during this conference.
O
n this background we would like
to invite both researchers and prac-
titioners to participate on this confer-
T
his symposium is a collaboration between European Working group on
Drug Oriented Research (EWODOR) and
ence. Interested persons are also invited
the European Federation of Therapeutic
to submit, by June 1th 2007, an informa-
Communities (EFTC). The conference will
tive abstract of a paper, maximum of 250
be hosted by the Norwegian Institute for
words, to be considered for presenta-
Alcohol and Drug Research (SIRUS) and
tion at the Symposium. Please put the
Unit for Addiction Medicine, University
title of the paper, names of authors, and
of Oslo.
their institutional affiliation at the top of
For conference-registration, please se our
the abstract and send it to Nada Halabi,
conference web-page:
e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.med.uio.no/ipsy/skr/ISSAT/
Mainpage.htm
For more information, please contact
prof. Edle Ravndal, +47 22 34 04 42,
e-mail: [email protected]
or
Bjørnulf Arntsen + 47 23 36 89 32
e-mail: [email protected]
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