Sorry to Kill Your 4th of July Buzz
Partying on the 4th is an inalienable right passed down from our Founding Fathers. That used to mean parades, fireworks, strawberry shortcake, and beer. The celebrations have gotten more potent, though, featuring vast numbers of 30-racks and large tubs of punch made with Everclear. They’re also starting earlier in the day, with the drinking underway by noon for many young people.
Now, you know I want you to have a really good time. I just don’t want you to get stupid. And drinking to blackout is really, really stupid. You’ll probably make totally unnecessary drama. You may well have sex with someone you don’t even think is cute. Your mascara will be all over your face, and you’ll throw up in the bushes.
Attractive!
OK, I know I’m not persuading you, so how about this:
A new study shows that guys think you’re gross when you’re drunk.
When it comes to drinking, college men not looking for a “girl gone wild”
College women may be drinking to excess to impress their male counterparts on campuses across the country, but a new study suggests most college men are not looking for a woman to match them drink for drink.
A survey of 3,616 college students at two American universities found an overwhelming majority of women overestimated the amount of alcohol a typical guy would like his female friends, dates or girlfriends to drink. The results can be found in the March issue of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, published by the American Psychological Association.
“Although traditionally, men drink more than women, research has shown that women have steadily been drinking more and more over the last several decades,” said the study’s lead author, Joseph LaBrie, PhD, associate professor of psychology at Loyola Marymount University. “Our research suggests women believe men find excessive drinking sexually attractive and appealing, but it appears this is a giant misperception.”
For this article, the researchers invited the participating students, ages 18 to 25, to complete an online survey during the 2007 fall semester. The students were at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles or the University of Washington. The women answered several questions to determine, on average, how many drinks they thought a typical college man would like his female friends to drink at a typical event, as well as the maximum number of drinks they thought the men would like their female friends to drink. They then had to say, on average, how many drinks they thought a woman would have to consume for a guy to consider being friends with her, consider dating her or consider her sexually attractive. The men were asked their actual preferences.
The researchers also asked the women to estimate how much they drank in any given week or month, and how much alcohol they thought the average woman at their university drank in any given week.
- The results showed 71 percent of women overestimated the men’s actual preference of drinks at any given event.
- The women overestimated by an average of one-and-a-half drinks.
- When the researchers looked at the different subgroups, 26 percent of women said that men would most likely want to be friends with a woman who drinks five or more drinks and 16 percent said that men would be most sexually attracted to a woman who drank that much alcohol. Both estimates were nearly double what the men actually preferred.
- They also found the women who overestimated the men’s preferences were more likely to engage in excessive drinking.
. Some other interesting research findings:
- Women college students have seen their rates of binge drinking increase dramatically — nearly 40 percent — since the introduction of the national drinking age of 21 in the U.S. 25 years ago. At the same time, the ‘gender gap’ between male and female drinkers has been closing. Women are drinking more, and their rates of binge drinking have risen over the last 30 years.
- More than 696,000 people between the ages of 18-24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking.
- More than 9,700 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape.
- 400,000 have unprotected sex and more than 100,000 report having been too intoxicated to know if they consented to having sex.
Pace yourself. Watch out for your friends. Don’t make the mistake of not eating (and I’m not talking about watermelon injected with vodka). Have fun, but not too much fun.
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Women like everything else it appears think that behaving like men is attractive.
On a side not, I have not thought, or even heard mentioned Everclear since highschool, so sadly, it had a nostalgic feel, when I saw the name here. How sad it that?
I have been in search the last couple of days for some 4th fun, food the fireworks, and I hope it is better for others, but I have found, no one is really doing much of anything to celebrate this year. In fact, everyone's mood was quite somber.
Searchingwithin, hey, good to see you! I'm old enough that we didn't have Everclear – it was straight grain alcohol plus KoolAid to make Purple Passion or Frog Juice. Oh, boy, those were some serious hangovers.
Interesting that people are celebrating less this year – here in Boston many, many days of rain and thunderstorms are definitely damping both moods and plans.
I'm loving these social science wonders cited. I can see the reasoning. I certainly know & am aware of the many unfortunate sad consequences of over indulgence with people you do not know or can not trust.
But really? Questionnaires to discover these things? How much alcohol does the average bloke want to see his 'date' imbibe? Silly! The same as always. Just enough to 'get the job done' (and make seduction easier or seem so for both parties) and not much more, just for efficiency's sake . Any more will be needlessly more costly and endanger the character of the encounter with the hazards well known to drunks & sex & various combos of same. So ideally? We'd all like it if everyone was well 'socially lubricated' with a bare minimum of 2-3-4 drinks. And indeed, you might find that the well known 'light weight' gals are a bit more popular in some circles than are the heavy drinkers who can and will pride themselves on drinking many guys under the table. That clearly is too much of a challenge for many, and will take too much time and effort for the time invested towards the seduction play. If you have to wait all night to get your gal just 'drunk enough', well she's going to be a lot of work. Before, during & after.
Now where the hell is this common sense when it comes to such social science 'research'? This is one more reason I'm a recovering academic! Too much nonsense to knock down all day long!
But surprisingly enough, most adults today are wholly more sober than were our forefathers say of the 18th & 19th centuries. Water was nearly poisonous in most settled places & cities, and everyone thus drank cider, ales & beer. All day long. Presumably for their health. Children & younins' alike. Gallons of it on a per capita & & daily basis.
So as ever youth are want to abuse intoxicants. Old age relies upon them for comfort still, but is more quite about it all. That's the difference today. The energy expended to be getting your high & socialization. Youth=more often public. Age=more often & carefully hidden & disguised.
But as ever alcohol is the handmaiden of seduction. And that's not changed, well since wine was discovered. The Romans and the Greeks knew this, and spoke of it . So does the Bible. Some of the earliest known English songs are yes, old medieval college drinking songs. They enjoyed the same dynamic too. Ask them the same question, and they'd give you the same answer: 'Enough! Not a gill more!' It is ever thus. Happy 4th Everyone & Cheers, 'VJ'
Haha, VJ, well said. Still, I do think there's been a shift towards binge drinking. I drank a lot in college and had some pretty bad hangovers from time to time. Today it's quite typical for college kids to drink to blackout every single weekend. Whole nights are frequently lost from memory. It leads to all sorts of mischief for guys and girls.
Oh, one more thing. I am totally not buying that you are not British. “It is ever thus?” Either you are from across the pond, or as old as Walter Cronkite!
Older. When I went to school in Boston, the trolley was pulled by horses, J. Michael Curley was in his first terms as mayor, and Harvard had a fearsome & respectable football team. Or not.
I think the only difference between now & then is the fact that more women are drinking more. That never looks good, and we somehow expect better of them. The guys we expect it from. The women always somehow warrant our extra & special 'protective' attention. But again it's their choice, and they're not forced to drink heavily. Just readily encouraged perhaps. The only thing anyone might do to curb such things is to eliminate 'Happy Hours' & deep discounts for women in bars. But that would be a disaster for the industry and they know it. But drinking until you're blotto is indeed a newer 'retrend' and has not been exactly fashionable for some time. It's never gone away, it's just been getting more common somehow.
Again, as cheap as beer was & is, way back when we could only afford a fair modicum of the brew. Now a days? You can just charge it. I was too poor as a student to often indulge my tastes every weekend, and I knew it. Perhaps that's why I was a bit more sober than the rest of my peers. And still am by the way. Sober & solvent & still pretty 'conservative' in my spending habits.
But mischief between boys & girls is largely the object of the quest. Since almost the dawn of time. Little 'Chemical vacations' is what Aldous Huxley famously called it. Everyone needs it. Drinking is just about the cheapest legal way to get there the quickest. That's not changed since the great English gin manias of the 18th century & before.
Cheers & Good Luck & Happy 4th! 'VJ'
Susan, I appreciate this post. I have a daughter 24 who graduated 3.8 from the business program at the University of Georgia. This is a school that is often sited in the top 15 business schools in the country and also known as a big party school. Her group of friends there drank to excess every weekend and some week days.
She now has a fabulous job as a business analyst and I have noticed recently that this same trend among her friends has continued. They say they are so stressed from having to perform at work that they need to unwind. However, I've seen the unwinding being what I consider binge drinking.
I'm concerned about it, have discussed it with my daughter and her friends and know that it is way more prevalent than we want to acknowledge.
I'm forwarding her this article.
Hey Peach Tart! Your daughter sounds amazing, I don't think you need to worry about her. Her friends may be another matter. I have had conversations with my own daughter about this issue too. I know it's sexist, but I'm not surprised to learn that guys don't find drunkenness attractive in women. I think all women should maintain their dignity and self-respect. Of course, we all need to unwind, and getting wasted is one way of blowing off steam in a stressful life. I just keep emphasizing that a “buzz” is more fun and less risky than getting “blackout.” I find the stats around sex while drunk especially troubling – what constitutes consent when both parties are thoroughly inebriated?
OK. I don't need any research to tell me that I am super gross when I am drunk. I almost humped this guy from high school who had “given up on hygiene” (his words). yeah. I also yelled all night in an english accent because I had apparently forgotten how to speak American English.
Hahaha, maintaining a decent English accent all night is not easy, even when sober, so you get bonus points for that. But I have to take them right back for having sex with Stinky, ew.
Guys don't always like it when you maintain a stubbornly sober mentality either. Unfortunately or them I don't care, hate being tipsy (its only happened twice). I am much more fun on a sugar high.
It's true that in general, people who drink feel that people who don't are a buzzkill. Too bad. I think it's awesome that you don't drink. After my over-indulgence last week, I've decided to take a total break. Don't know how long it will last – 6pm means a glass of wine at my house. Nothing good comes from getting drunk, though, and a whole lot of bad stuff happens.
It's true that in general, people who drink feel that people who don't are a buzzkill. Too bad. I think it's awesome that you don't drink. After my over-indulgence last week, I've decided to take a total break. Don't know how long it will last – 6pm means a glass of wine at my house. Nothing good comes from getting drunk, though, and a whole lot of bad stuff happens.