Women and alcohol: The marketing suggests glamour and empowerment, but women’s health is suffering

Once saturated with sexist images, alcohol advertisements have changed over the years to target women with evocations of fun, friendship and feminism. Experts argue that this glamour should be stripped away so we can clearly see the true harm of the product

A ‘bombardment’ of marketing has led us to see alcohol as part of our female identity. Photo: Getty

Suzanne Harrington

Once upon a time, ladies drank Babycham. Just the one. Drinking was for men, who guzzled booze as a sign of manliness, encouraged by advertising which draped women over car bonnets, presented them horizontal in bikinis, and generally used them as sexualised props in male-targeted alcohol marketing.

In 1960, two thirds of all the alcohol consumed was by men. Women did the washing up. And if a woman did drink, she was perceived as threatening / promiscuous / unfeminine / disloyal to her assigned role of passive nurturer.