Last orders?
As rates of harmful alcohol use rise, more women are considering sobriety – with prominent voices linking teetotalism with women’s empowerment. Could it be that simple? WH reports
It’s an unremarkable Tuesday evening and, in a shiny high-rise just north of Manchester’s city centre, Pippa Kearney* is in a stand-off with a bottle of riesling, via a grocery delivery app on her phone. There are two routes, as she sees it, for the evening ahead of her. One: soothing playlist, reading the self-development book sitting on her console table, perhaps journalling some thoughts it will prompt. The other? Adele, bath, wine.
‘It’s almost a sense of relief when I finally order the bottle,’ Pippa says.
Giving in feels like a free pass; a screw you to her own expectations that demand an optimising evening after a full day. ‘Just by deciding to drink, the grip of my own expectations – to be the perfect employee, daughter, friend, woman – loosen a little,’ the 32-year-old management accountant tells WH.
Pippa’s relationship with alcohol is complicated. She doesn’t consider herself reliant on booze – in fact, she can go days, weeks, months without it – but unscrewing a bottle of white after a challenging day does help take the edge off the burden of responsibility she feels. As for so many others, it’s become something of a ritual since 2020, when restrictions meant meeting a friend to share a bottle wasn’t an option. But Pippa isn’t naive. From the first sip, she detects notes of self-sabotage, guilt and shame. She has career goals to meet, declining collagen, depressive tendencies, a family history of breast cancer and soonto-be-waning fertility levels. She’s acutely aware that a nightly glass isn’t doing her any favours where any of the above are concerned.
Shots retired
Pippa, while often not literally, is in good company. Where drinking freely may have once been considered socially as liberating, prominent voices are now using feminist and empowerment language to argue that alcohol is, in many senses, holding women back.
And the argument is landing with their audience. Google searches for ‘quit drinking’ reached an all-time high in February 2022; sobriety coaching platform Tempest – founded by feminist writer Holly Whitaker – repo rted a 400% spike in membership in 2020.
That women’s glasses – whether they’re filled with Nyetimber or Nosecco – are more charged than ever is a direct result of a pandemic that drove millions to self-medicate with alcohol. By the end of October 2021, over a fifth of UK adults were drinking to harmful levels, according to government research, driven by people consuming more in their own homes. Research published in the journal
