The gendering of alcohol in consumer magazines: An analysis of male and female targeted publications

Despite evidence suggesting some convergence between the drinking practices of men and women in recent years, alcohol-related behaviour appears to remain significantly gendered in the UK, with males being more likely to drink alcohol and to drink greater quantities of alcohol than females for instance. The authors of this paper view alcohol-related behaviour as one particular sphere of practice through which gender may be performed and normative gender identities accomplished. The authors ask where the next generations of alcohol consumers learn to ‘do’ gender in relation to alcohol. We argue that the depictions and treatments of alcohol-related behaviour to be found in the magazines that young people claim to read may function as one very important cultural resource in this respect. The paper subsequently offers an analysis and discussion of the ways in which alcohol and alcohol-related behaviour is depicted within a range of magazines read by 11–18-year-olds in the UK. The analysis presented herein illustrates that the treatment of alcohol-related behaviour in these magazines is indeed highly gendered and gendering. Males and females are depicted as engaging in different drinking practices, for different purposes, in different contexts, and to different consequences/effects for instance. Furthermore, the way in which the alcohol-related behaviours of males and females are treated in these magazines varies considerably between those magazines targeted at males and those targeted at females. It is thus acknowledged that these magazines might have a crucial role to play in the reproduction of gender in relation to alcohol-related behaviour specifically.