Drinking Equality
Girls Now Drink as Much as Guys
By Daniel Muniz

Women have always demanded equality but unfortunately, they are getting it in a counter-productive way.

Recent studies indicate that teenage girls and college age women are now quickly catching up to the alcohol consumption of males. This development is creating very negative and even dangerous results.

So if a girl has the same number of drinks that a guy has, she will inevitably end up more inebriated. Incidentally, many males with raging hormones are already fully aware of the physiological limitations of females so they don’t mind at all if women do achieve that level of equality. In fact, some guys even encourage it.

Consequently, a number of experts find the recent trends alarming. Binge drinking is already a serious problem for teenage boys and more so for college age men. Accordingly, drunkenness among adolescent boys and young men invariably leads to bad behavior especially with the possibility of doing something stupid that can ruin their lives. Experts now fear the same possibility since there is a sharp rise of excessive drinking by young women. Such a trend represents the potential for a disastrous impact for that demographic.

So what are the reasons that lead young girls to not only drink but to purposely binge drink?

Below are explanations from a handful of experts:

Apparently, there are two forces at work. On an individual level, there is a need a boost confidence and enhance moods which leads to the second force, the desire to be accepted into a social network.

Of course this isn’t anything new because peer pressure and the longing for acceptance have always had a tremendous influence among young people. However, the implications are far worse because it involves large numbers of young girls consuming copious quantities of alcohol. Fitting in with the crowd, especially in a far more permissive social environment in our modern society encourages girls to push the envelope into outrageous behavior.

And to no one’s surprise, the antics of glamorous panty-less celebrities such as Lindsey Lohan, Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton don’t help any. It seems that popular culture is fixated with rich beautiful starlets who don’t wear underwear.

Nearly every youth experiences some sort of turmoil in their young lives and perhaps it is inescapable. The real challenge for parents is to provide guidance because they still wield enormous influence even during troubled times. Incidentally, the biggest fear for a parent is that their child will do something that will ruin their lives. The daily newspaper and statistics reveal that such a worry is justified although there is only so much that a parent can do.

But what parents can do is to set an example. That may be easier said than done especially if a parent has a checkered past. However, previous mistakes are not an excuse to needlessly allow future ones by an offspring to be repeated. The cycle can be stopped because the intent is to prevent bad behavior from escalating to the point of no return.

Parents can also encourage alternatives, especially during the teenage years. To a youth, it may be hard to accept that there are alternatives to drunkenness and debauchery but there certainly are and it is up to parents to demonstrate that they do exist.

And most importantly, a parent can teach their child refusal skills. Perhaps the hardest thing for a youth to do is to say no to their friends. But such skills have to be taught early and they have to be reinforced throughout the teenage years. Having the ability to say “no” is perhaps the greatest accomplishment for any young person because it puts them in control of their lives instead of having their decisions made by someone else.

Unfortunately, binge drinking by a huge number of young girls is not a worthwhile goal of equality. Only the intervention of parents can help reverse that trend.

Any opinions or views expressed herein belong solely to the author and does not represent any employer, organization, political party, governmental agency, or any other entity and do not necessarily reflect the views of the site owner or its participants.