Diary of a snarky queer woman: Wanna go out and hold a beer with me sometime?

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Wanna go out and hold a beer with me sometime?

We've talked a lot in class about what's acceptable for men, and what's acceptable for women. As I contemplated what to compare in advertising in this blog post, and my current stress load, all roads lead back to drinking.

I was going to post a picture of myself, but then I couldn't ever show my face in class again. Close enough.

Drinking is, of course, one of the greatest, most forbidden acts when under 21, and a regular feature in most tv shows and movies. Being teased for ordering "girly" drinks is something I know I've seen on both Scrubs and How I Met Your Mother.

"Oh poor me! I get to order yummy pink drinks with chunks of real fruit that guys secretly like but can't order because they'll be made fun of!"

I decided to narrow down my search to beer drinking, the manliest of cheap drinking. As I googled images, I wasn't terribly surprised there was a difference between photos of men and women, but I was surprised that even the stock photos reflected that difference. I thought I'd be greeted by german barmaids and hooters tank-tops, but the stock photos were set up in the same basic way. With one major difference.

Business men don't use solo cups #swag

In almost every photo, the man is seen just drinking his beer. The woman, however...

When my female friends and I drink together, we just like to hold each other's beers for extra excitement!

And again:

I definitely typed "drinking" not "holding coyly"

I thought maybe I'd expand to see what women look like drinking whiskey, the manliest hard alcohol ever, next to scotch.

"I'm savoring the flavor!" said no one, ever.

I got this when I looked up scotch. Evidently, women don't like to be photographed drinking scotch.

There it is. Far more accurate.

Every picture of a woman drinking seems to focus more on her face and how she's looking. The pictures of men aren't supposed to be sexy. And none of them are looking directly into the camera. Most of the women's photos are.

Except for this guy. He's breaking gender norms!

Even the males infants photographed with beer bottles weren't facing the camera. Not surprisingly, the focus remains on a woman's appearance, and a man's actions, even when taking part in something designed to make a person lose control of inhibitions. How deep does our gendered society go?