“Pushing an addictive drug as a solution onto a vulnerable highly stressed group of people”: sober women’s feminist resistance against the feminised marketing of alcohol and cultural representations of women’s drinking practices.

Background: Alcohol is marketed to women through the feminisation of alcohol products and the portrayal of women’s drinking practices as a glamorous and empowering reward for juggling the demands of work and family life. The recent emergence and growth of online sobriety communities suggests that women are increasingly resisting these gendered marketing practices. This essay explores the ways in which women, who do not drink, reject the feminisation of alcohol and drinking practices, and frame this rejection within discourses of feminist resistance. <br /><br />Methods: This essay draws on findings from a mixed-method ethnographic research project that investigates women’s use of, and participation in, online sobriety communities. From a radical feminist standpoint, transcripts of 25 semi-structured interviews with UK-based women, online ethnographic observations from eight sobriety communities, and Instagram posts from 14 sobriety influencers were thematically analysed and coded.<br /><br />Findings: Women who lead or utilise online sobriety communities have considerable awareness of the feminised marketing of alcohol and some express strong ideological opposition to it. It is positioned as a predatory force that takes advantage of women’s exhaustion as mothers, and one which perpetuates the double standards associated with women’s drinking. Sobriety may prompt a feminist awakening regarding the connections between the feminisation of alcohol and women’s inequality within society, and in turn, disrupt women’s identification with post-feminist cultural representations of women’s drinking practices.<br /><br />Discussion & Conclusion: Products, marketing content, and cultural references of the feminisation of alcohol provide relatable, tangible representations with which women can critically engage and thus demonstrate anti-consumption and feminism, which are often rendered invisible identities. Through the public identification and critique of this marketing content women seek to raise awareness and build a community based on shared values. Women may also experience a shift in their feminist positionality in sobriety. Future research should continue to investigate the diversity of ideological and experiential motivations for women’s contemporary alcohol refusal and explore the extent to which online sobriety communities serve as potential sites of exclusive or inclusive feminist resistance.<br />