Public perceptions associating alcohol use with sexual promiscuity in women contribute to the stigmatization of alcoholic women and may spring in their physical and sexual victimization.

The negative issues resulting from societal sterotypes of the alcoholic male have in extent been known: the public equation of alcoholics with skid tumult derelicts has been a deterrent to early intervention and treatment for males who have higher income or higher educational achievement (Schuckit 1987) Is there a corresponding stereotype of the female alcoholic that also causes harm? If with equal reason are there special ways in which women tolerate as a result?

In this article, I shall summarize historical, anecdotal, and scientific evidence describing a societal stereotype that leads to the stigmatization of alcoholic women This stereotype differs from that of the alcoholic male in that it contains a culturally ingrained expectation of hypersexuality and sexual promiscuity. I shall discuss research that describes potential ends of such societal perceptions for women who drink, and reseach that examines whether the stereotype can be supported in bounds of real physiological and behavioral changes that come when women drink. Finally, I shall consider strategies for altering negative attitudes and ameliorating their potentially harmful consequences

Historical Perspectives

Many societies permitting alcohol use have prescribed drinking standards for women that differ from those for men (Sandmaier 1980) These separate norms have been based forward deeply held cultural beliefs about the different issues of alcohol on the sum of two units sexes, among them the belief that alcohol use according to women leads to promiscuous behavior. For example, in ancient Israel, dominations restricting women's drinking were based in part onward the idea that alcohol acts as a sexual stimulant and excites adultery; the Talmud, as quot by means of Gomberg (1986), expresses this view:

individual cup of wine is convenient for a woman; Two are degrading; Three induce her to act like an immoral woman; And four cause her to throw away all self-respect and sense of shame.

A similar attitude was held through the ancient Romans, who strictly forbade all alcohol use through women (McKinlay 1959). A law of Romulus imposed the death penalty for women construct guilty of drinking. The same law imposed the death penalty for adultery by the agency of women, thus equating the seriousness of the brace offenses. Historical records document the logic justifying this prohibition: wine causes women to be lustful and leads them to debauchery (McKinlay 1959)

Attitudes of 14th hundred England are suggested in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, as uttered by the Wife of Bath:

Whenever I take wine I have to think Of Venus, for as cutting engenders hail A lecherous inlet begets a lecherous tail. As lechers know from lengthy experience.

Chaucer's piece exemplifies the thinking of the time: alcohol was perceived to stimulate women sexually and to make them promiscuous, and their drunkennes was seen as an invitation for men's sexual advances.

In 1798 the German philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote about the relative paucity of alcoholism among women He stated that women avoid drunkennes because their special place in society is based in succession the belief that women adhere to a higher moral digest and that "intoxication, which deprives united of cautiousness, would be a scandal for them" (quot according to Jellinek 1941). This view of a "woman onward a pedestal," together with traditional cultural beliefs about the effects of a woman's drinking, help explain the "fallen woman" stereotype of the female alcoholic.

Contemporary Perspectives

That the aforementioned societal attitudes toward alcohol use and alcoholism among women continue in the instant is indicated in current media and literature, and is documented from scientific research.

For example, contemporary biases concerning women with alcohol puzzles have meant that even within Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), women were not initially welcomed as members. In her main division about AA, Robertson (1988) states that individual of AA's founders "opposed the admission of women alcoholics into the initially all-male AA. In those days, 'nice' women were not suppos to be drunks" (p 37) However, women have since become an integral part of AA, and now account for about one-third of recent members (Alcoholics Anonymous World Services 1990)

Attitudes toward women's drinking also are revealed in Hollywood films. In his review of to what extent alcoholic men and women are portrayed in commercial American movies (made during the years 1945-1962) Robin extent (1989) observes:

within the whole gamut of films in this inquiry there is a clear sex differentiation on the relationship between drinking and sexual behavior. For women drinking goe along with sex; for men it replaces its.... "Days of Wine and Roses" exemplifies the double standard concerning the drift of alcohol. Kirstie's drinking curve send her off to make advances to her father, while Joe is simply impelled not at home into the potting shed in search of more booze No other women are involved in Joe's drinking contests whereas for Kirstie, "there would be chances of detours, but I in no degree looked at them" (p. 376)

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