As a deranged response to centuries of being treated as inferior to men, women are now determined to act like men and insist on being treated as men. This dangerous and irrational brand of feminism, in effect, demands the denial of all that is feminine (the better response would be to promote the actual strengths that women naturally possess, and encourage women to develop and have confidence in their own unique abilities). The consequent war with biology is resulting in disastrous effects, as is illustrated by the prevalence of alcohol abuse by young women, in the form of binge drinking.

There is no international consensus on what exactly constitutes binge drinking, but the broadest definition would require that a quantity of alcohol beyond the healthy limit is consumed within a short period of time. A healthy limit for women can be classified as consuming no more than 20 grams of alcohol per day on average, and no more than 40 grams of alcohol on any single day (exactly how many drinks this entails depends on the size and type of beverage being consumed). For men, the limit is higher, and this is due to their biology.

Science has shown us that women's bodies have a higher ratio of fat to water, so alcohol is less diluted when it enters the bloodstream, meaning that women get drunk faster than men. Women also have lower levels of an enzyme that helps break down alcohol. Furthermore, in the long-term, alcohol corrodes women's bodies and brains more quickly than men's. Women tend to develop liver disease 10 to 15 years earlier than men, even if women consume only a fraction of the daily alcohol that men do. Also, alcoholic women versus alcoholic men perform worse on tests of visual working memory, cognitive flexibility, and spatial planning and problem solving. Some of the immediate risks which are far greater for drunken women than drunken men include sexual assault and sexually transmitted diseases.

Yet, despite all of this, young women want to "keep up" with their male peers while out at a bar – to drink within the healthy guidelines is seen as a sign of weakness. Drinking becomes associated with power: if a woman can drink like a man she can be like a man. Young women lack confidence in themselves and think that the more they drink the more popular they will be, they often don't enjoy a night out at all until they've consumed a decent quantity of alcohol. A young woman's male peers may be impressed if the lady is able to "hold her liquor", but this will turn sour the moment she's had one too many once too often. Reputations are easily forged, and a girl who's respected as "one of the boys" can quickly become notorious as just another boozy mess, a drunk tart ready to be taken advantage of by any man around.

But then, somehow, even that hideous scenario has become more desirable than staying sober to a disturbingly large number of young women. This trend is promoted by young female role models such as Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, and is facilitated by the incredibly popular websites myspace, Facebook and YouTube. Through photos and videos, young women chronicle their drunken exploits for all the world to see. Would a young woman be just as carefree upon discovering that a stranger on myspace has uploaded photos of her being assaulted while passed out, or a video on YouTube of her drunkenly "messing around" with a group of men on a night she can't recall at all? All of her friends, as well as whoever else, will instantly be able to view and download such content, and it will forever be coming back to haunt her, not to mention the fact that she might need a new liver by the time she's 28.

Young women have become their own worst enemies, convinced that the more thoroughly they destroy themselves, the better life will seem. Living for the moment means continually blotting out the past and forging a non-existent future. Women have difficulty sticking to the healthy levels of alcohol for two main reasons. First, they have been left utterly confused by the cumulative effects of history combined with corrupt modern society, which impels them to drink like men in order to gain power. And, second, they drink in excess in order to escape from this very society, with its corruption and confusion.

by Karen Julia

November 28, 2007