Blog #2 - No Wonder

To this day I am unsure what prompted trying alcohol for the first time. It was not something I planned. It was as simple as opening the pantry door, taking my dads vodka, and pouring it into my yellow Hydro Flask, which until then has been used solely for water on long days at cheer practice. Whether it was boredom, curiosity, or a mixture of both. I decided that night I’d see what alcohol is all about. Alcohol had always been framed as something desirable. A milestone I’d be able to achieve at 21. Something that was spoken about fondly by the adults in my life as a way to relax, have fun, and alleviate stress. No wonder, as a 14 year old I felt drawn to the very substance that I had been told both explicitly and implicitly would make life easier and more enjoyable. In reflection, I am stunned by both the normalization of alcohol use in my community and on a wider societal level. This normalization does not happen over night, it is something that has been taught to us for decades. And now with social media being more relevant than ever in influencing our perceptions and behaviors, it is harder to escape the idea that drinking is expected and welcomed. Media is often one of the first places people learn what is considered acceptable, expected, or even necessary for having fun. For a long time after getting sober, I resented this influence. I felt like I was a product of my environment, someone that could not handle the expectation of drinking and handling it. While I might not fully understand what drew me to my dad’s liquor cabinet, I do know that I was not the first child to have this experience, and I will definitely not be the last. From this perspective, I will explore the ways in which alcohol use has been normalized in society and how the media contributes largely to this. I will examine alcohol use in movies to look at how drinking is performed, and sold as a social norm.

While thinking about the topic of this post, the first thing that came to mind was American high school and college culture, specifically how American adolescence culture is portrayed in movies. I urge you to take a moment and think about what defines American high school and college culture. Parties, football games, rallies, tailgates, drinking, and more drinking. And who knows maybe my view is skewed, but when I think of some of the “culturally significant” classic movies portraying high school, like SuperBad, I can’t help but think that we do have a collective idea of what American coming of age life looks like. Most of the time, alcohol is present as a social tool, like when Fagle gets his iconic McLovin fake ID, a way to boost one's social capital. A step children are pushed into during their teenage years. I figured that I would take a moment to dive into my personal favorite coming of age movie, Lady Bird, and see how alcohol is normalized. If you have yet to watch it, please do.
Lady Bird beautifully encapsulates the both hopeful and painful life of a high schooler. Christine, who goes by Lady Bird, who attends an all girls catholic school in Sacramento, CA. This movie follows the everyday subtle experiences of adolescence. There is no big plot, nothing other than her dream to leave Sacramento and attend a college on the East Coast. She joins a musical, falls in love with a closeted gay boy, fights with her mom, dreams about life in New York, wishes she was prettier, tries to hang out with the “cool kids”, dates the “bad boy”, applies to colleges, goes to prom, and finally graduates high school. To me this movie perfectly captures the raw feelings of adolescence. Watching it felt like a mirror of life. Towards the end, Lady Bird gets accepted into a college on the East Coast, fulfilling her dream of leaving Sacramento and gaining a sense of independence. The first experience that she has in her new college life is going to a party, getting way too drunk, and waking up in the hospital. I think this scene speaks volume to society's view on alcohol. The inclusion of getting wheeled away in an ambulance after drunkenly making out with a stranger solidifies that this experience is a right of passage, a pre-planned push into your 20’s, the sweet taste of independence. This movie, the epitome of the everyday experiences during the process of growing up, includes alcohol poisoning. The inclusion of this scene speaks volume to the audience, alcohol poisoning is a potential of your college experience. While the movie does show adverse consequences, like waking up in a hospital, it is romanticized in a way. Lady Bird did it, she made it to college and went through her first adult experience, getting too drunk. Lady Bird, like so many other movies, solidifies the idea that drinking is an expectation and an experience to be had.

At 14, I did not know that I would struggle with alcohol misuse and have to grapple with sobriety in the future, but I did know that alcohol was accessible and something that at some point would be a part of my life. That much I did not question. I think this can be attributed to society's general view on alcohol, as something that is normal and this is especially shown through our media. Approximately 80-95% of films depict alcohol use and most of them are positively portrayed, with minimal negative consequences. This has a larger impact on us than we may realize, especially on young people who are strongly influenced by what they observe (Del Cin et. Al 2009). This being said, it would not be fair to argue against consuming media or watching movies, but I do believe it is important to watch with informed eyes, and to have discussion with our peers or children about this normalization. I believe that becoming aware of the ways in which alcohol is normalized, is the first step in creating a society that truly can want to understand the potential risks and dangers that can accompany it. And next time you watch a movie, observe the ways in which alcohol is presented and think about how that influences us.

Thanks for reading,

Lila Clementson