Final Blog for Women's Studies 326 Women and Addiction

I want you to reflect on your experience in the class-- How has your understanding of addiction changed? Are you able to integrate what you have learned in your real life or your major? Has the way you talk about, feel about, empathize towards addiction/addicts changed?

Before taking Women's Studies 326: Women and Addiction I though I understood addiction, maybe even a bit more than the average person. Now, after almost 10 weeks of reading and discussing addiction, I realize just how little I knew and understood about addiction, especially the relationship between addiction, patriarchy, hierarchy, and capitalism. Without a doubt, Charlotte Kasl's "Is Addiction Inevitable? Patriarchy, Hierarchy, and Capitalism" and Dr. Northrup's "The Patriarchal Myth and the Addictive System" are my two favorite readings from the quarter. Both of these readings are from the first weeks of the quarter, when I realized just how little I understood. I don't remember if I really even had an opinion on why people resort to addictive behaviors before this class. I think I felt like the reasons were mostly personal. Now, nothing seems personal to me. Everything seems so much more connected to the world in which we live, even how people behave and interact. Kasl's piece really helped me to see this. She writes (emphasis mine):

"Patriarchy, hierarchy, and capitalism create, encourage, maintain, and perpetuate addiction and dependency. Patriarchy and hierarchy are based on domination and subordination, which result in fear. This fear is expressed by the dominators through control and violence, and in the subordinated people through passivity and repression of anger. The external conflict of hierarchy between dominants and subordinates becomes internalized in individuals, creating personal inner chaos, anxiety, and duality. To quell the inner conflict people resort to addictive substances and behavior."

Kasl's talk of psychic numbing and dissociation really helped me to understand how people with addiction issues don't see that the problems they face in life are caused by the addiction and not something else. While listening to the news or hearing other people talk about the problems we face as a society, I find myself thinking of her illustration of hierarchy and patriarchy and I've even yelled at the TV "outside solutions don't work for inside problems!" (yes, I know the people talking on the TV can't hear me).

Dr. Northup's writings really spoke to me as well, probably due to her talking about how women don't trust their bodies anymore, especially in relation to birth. Every time I teach, my main objective is to get women to trust their bodies and their inner wisdom.

I could write for hours about these two authors but since this blog was due 7 minutes ago I won't. I do want to end with an example of how my deeper understanding about addiction helped me at work.

Last week I took a young woman expecting her first and her mother on a tour of labor and delivery. The pregnant mom was very quiet and seemed very uncomfortable. While showing them a postpartum room the soon-to-be grandmother asked how long after delivery her daughter would be able to go downstairs and smoke. Ten weeks ago I would have been appalled. While I would have done my best to hide it, I know my feelings would show on my face. But I wasn't appalled. I answered the mother's question. The young woman then opened up a little bit and said she had tried to quit but wasn't able to give it up completely because everyone around her still smoked; her boyfriend, sisters, and parents. I told her that her situation makes it that much harder to quit. She seemed to perk up a bit more and said that she was able to cut back quite a bit. Her mom told me she was really surprised at how well her daughter was taking care of herself since becoming pregnant and that she was proud of her. I excitedly told the pregnant mom that she was doing awesome; that her cutting back was helpful, and, in taking better care of herself and eating healthier foods, she may be able to minimize some of the risks associated with smoking. We continued the tour and the pregnant mom seemed so much more comfortable with me. She even starting asking questions about the rest of her pregnancy, labor and birth. Had I not reacted the way I did to her mom's question, I think the situation would have been very different. But I didn't judge her and I didn't blame her, which is so often what I see others in the medical field do. This class did changed that for me.

Thank you, Ms. Genetin. Your class was awesome.

Digital Scrapbook #8

"Shroud" by Ani DiFranco

I had to leave the house of fashion
And go forth naked from its doors
'cause women should be allies
And not competitors

In our patriarchal and capitalist society women often find themselves competing with each other, which only serves the maintain the status quo. Charlotte Kasl's piece "Is Addiction Inevitable? Patriarchy, Hierarchy, and Capitalism" explains that "because patriarchy assigns a secondary position to women, it creates a hierarchy, in which human value is determined by gender, race, class, position, religion, age, appearance, ethnic background, and physical ability" (55). These groups can either unite or compete for the highest position available. Kasl identifies the weapons of patriarchy to be "segmenting, separating, and isolating people" (60). When trying to escape isolation we may have to rely of self-destructive behavior in order to dissociate from our inner wisdom, what Kasl describes as "short-term relief from pain is exchanged for long-term destruction. This follows the model of patriarchy and capitalism, which is short-term economic gain at the price of long-term destruction of the ecosystem and people's spirits" (60). In the context of the this song, women are destroying other women to feel better about themselves.

And I had to leave the house of god
Because the cross replaced the wheel

This refers to the destruction on non-Christian religions, specifically pagan faiths.

And the goddesses were all out in the garden
With the plants that nurture and heal

Kasl refers to this as the Patriarchal Switch. She writes "historically, between 10,000 and 3,00 BC there is considerable evidence that we moved gradually from a Goddess-worshiping culture that revered life, nature, creation, and harmony to patriarchy" (60). The reference to the plants references the movement to modern medicine and away from maintaining health naturally.

I had to leave the house of privilege
Spent Christmas homeless and feeling bad
To learn that privilege is a headache
That you don't know that you don't have

Capitalism can only exist by "making people feel insecure, unlovable, and ashamed in order to have them purchase all kinds of things to make them--allegedly--attractive, lovable, and powerful" (Kasl, 62). But all of this stuff can't make us feel happy or loved, we only think it can.

And I had to leave the house of television
To start noticing the clouds
It's amazing the stuff you see
When you finally shed that shroud

We've become what the media wants us to be. Because so much time and energy is spent watching TV, we aren't allowing ourselves the time for reflection within ourselves.

I had to leave the house of conformity
In order to make art

In class, while discussing the drop in self-esteem when girls reach adolescence, we learned that their art work also changes as drawing is now seen as childish. Even girls who really enjoy creating art may feel pressure to fit in with the other girls and walk away from her love.

I had to be more or less true
To learn to tel the two apart

I think this means that life isn't black and white or absolute. There are shades of gray and periods of uncertainty.

And I had to leave the house of fear
Just about as soon as I could crawl
Ignore my face on the wanted posters
Stuck to the post office wall

In order to live life one cannot fear life. This is contrary to patriarchy and hierarchy as they "are based on domination and subordination, which result in fear" (Kasl 53).

I had to leave the house of self-importance
To doodle my first tattoo
Realize a tattoo is no more permanent
Than I am

The ability to realize you're not perfect nor will you ever be perfect and realizing your own mortality.

And who ever said that life is suffering
I think they had their finger on the pulse of joy
Ain't the power of transcendence
The greatest one we can employ

We have the ability to go through life with a positive or negative attitude. But if all we see is suffering, then we will only ever experience suffering. This doesn't mean a person with a positive attitude never experiences pain or suffering, they do, they just navigate through it with a brighter outlook.

Digital Scrapbook #7

“Obama and McCain: Where They Stand on Addiction Issues” by Bob Curley

The Presidential Election of 2008 has been underway for several weeks now. We often hear about the candidates’ views on major issues such as taxes, war, education, terrorism, and health care. We also hear about their views on made up issues like who is and who isn’t wearing a flag lapel pin or who is more American. Rarely do we hear political discussions based on each candidate’s stance on addiction issues. And really, the more I think about it, I don’t recall ever hearing a question about these issues in presidential debates. It seems the media only gives air time to addiction when they are examining if the candidates themselves have any addiction issues. And this year, both McCain and Obama have a history of addiction. McCain has dealt with heavy drinking, though I don’t believe he considers himself a recovering alcoholic. He also has a family history of addiction as his father was an alcoholic and Cindy, McCain’s wife, was addicted to prescription drugs in the 90s. And because Cindy heads an Anheuser-Busch distributor, McCain recently recused himself on votes regarding the alcohol industry. Obama has been open regarding his use of cocaine and marijuana as a youth. And both McCain and Obama are former smokers. This is pretty much where the similarities end.

Obama has pledged to pass a universal healthcare plan that is similar to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). While he doesn’t specifically discuss treatment for addiction, it is implied by his referencing the FEHBP as it requires parity coverage of addictive diseases. He also recognizes the need to increase funding for disease prevention. By funding prevention, Charlotte Kasl’s illustration of hierarchy may begin to break down. He also wants to see first-time, nonviolent drug offended serve out their sentences in a drug rehabilitation program. Obama recognizes the disparities in drug sentencing laws and wants to address these issues. He also wants to provide more support for ex-offenders to fight crime and poverty—this seems like inside thinking to me. He relies on solving other inside problems with inside solutions by calling on parents to be the first line of defense regarding drug and alcohol abuse and he wants to create “Promise Neighborhoods” in cities. Obama is also supportive of doctors prescribing medical marijuana.

McCain doesn’t discuss addiction issues with as much detail as Obama, partially due to his longer voting record in the Senate where he’s actively worked against the tobacco industry. Within the context of his campaign, he only makes pledges in regards to smoking-cessation products. His healthcare plan mentions chronic diseases but addiction isn’t specifically mentioned. He would also cut underperforming programs which mean a number of addiction-related programs will be eliminated because they are currently identified as nonperforming. I wonder if he’s considered that these programs may not be performing well because they aren’t being funded. Cutting these programs will only maintain the illustration of hierarchy and the status quo. He also opposes the use of medical marijuana. There is no mention of community programs to help fight addiction.

Digital Scrapbook #6

From The American Journal of Bioethics “Substance Abuse in Pregnancy: Where Does the Blame Lie? How do health care providers, and society at large, approach a pregnant woman who is substance abusing? By Jennifer M. Cohn

Our medical system is rooted in patriarchy and hierarchy. Dr. Northrup, in “The Patriarchal Myth and the Addictive System”, writes that “our culture gives girls the message that their bodies, their lives, and their femaleness demand an apology…If we must apologize for our very existence from the day we are born, we can assume that our society’s medical system will deny us the wisdom of our “second-class” bodies. In essence, patriarchy blares out the message that women’s bodies are inferior and must be controlled” (4). Furthermore, Cynthia Downing tells us in “Sex Role Setups and Alcoholism” that “literature in the mental health field has empirically documented characteristics associated with femaleness to be seen as less healthy than those considered masculine. Consequently, women can be considered as a kind of deviant group in that they possess characteristics that are negatively valued and stigmatized” (47). And because reproduction is the responsibility of the woman, any behavior seen as irresponsible on the part of the pregnant woman is seen as a prime example of a woman’s deviance. And if the pregnant woman is also an addict, she is viewed as the lowest of the low and deserves to be punished. Such punishment is justified as a way to protect the child, but the goal of punishment is not to protect the child, rather, punishment “operates more to maintain a social distinction between insiders and deviants” according to Iris Marion Young in her piece titled “Punishment, Treatment, Empowerment: Three Approaches to Policy for Pregnant Addicts”. Jennifer M. Cohn argues that in putting the needs of the fetus before the needs of the woman, society and the medical system has compromised a woman’s control over her own body. While mother and baby are two lives they are one being. But because there are two lives, society has shown a “willingness to criminalize substance abuse during pregnancy” according to Cohn.

Cohn points out that in order “for an act to constitute a crime, it must be both harmful and intentional” and it can be difficult to prove “harm that was caused directly by drugs” and “intentional harm is even more difficult to prove…the consequences of drug taking during pregnancy are rarely anticipated by the mothers”.

Cohn also sees a double standard in how our society expects mothers to preserve their fetus’s life but we allow women to go without access to medical care, which can counteract the effects of drug abuse, as we offer little community aid to the pregnant woman. We also allow women to be exposed to toxic fumes and chemicals in the workplace. Where are the anti-abortion activists when the pregnant woman attempts to leave an abusive relationship, when she is at greater risk of being murdered by the abuser?

Cohn and Young seem to be very much on the same page. Punishment doesn’t work. Treatment isn’t always accessible. What does work is referred to as empowerment by Young, and the role Cohn believes the physician must play goes hand in hand with empowerment.

Digital Scrapbook #5

“Underneath pop Star Scandals is a Serious Message about Young Women and Addiction” by Courtney E. Martin

Everywhere we look we see images of young pop stars and Hollywood actresses. TV shows, gossip columns, tabloids, magazines shower us with images of these often sickly thin and addicted young women. These girls are often the only images young women see of other women their age, thus they are, by proxy, who we are suppose to emulate and admire. And this, according to Martin, has normalized addiction for many young women. I’ve heard people argue that girls and young women should know that this elite class of Hollywood women does not serve as good role models; but they are the current focus of our media culture.

In “The Patriarchal Myth and the Addictive System” Dr. Northrup tells us that we all unconsciously inherit and internalize beliefs and assumptions about our bodies from our culture. She stresses that women cannot reclaim our “inherent ability to create health without first understanding the influence of our society on how we think about and care for our bodies” (3). If our society is sending us only one message about young women, we have only that message to learn and we have already begun to see the impact of that message. According to Martin, young women are “more diseased and more addicted than any generation of young women that has come before”. And because the images of women in magazines are perfect, even though the models in the magazines don’t really look like their pictures, we face a great amount of pressure to be perfect as well—we attempt to achieve the impossible with devastating results.
More and more women today have eating disorders and the rates of binge drinking and drug use is increasing as well. And now, according to Martin, we are noticing a strong link between eating disorders and alcohol abuse. Martin cites data from The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University that says that “up to one-half of individuals with eating disorders abuse alcohol or illicit drugs, compared to nine percent of the general population, and up to 35 percent of alcohol or illicit drug abusers have eating disorders compared to three percent of the general population. In “Still Killing Us Softly: Advertising and the Obsession with Thinness” Jean Kilbourne also points out the link between eating disorders and cigarettes, as well as just about every other product marketed to women only. In her film Still Killing Us Softly 3, Kilbourne also points out that images of women in print advertising places emphasis on women being thin, innocent, and sexy. One print ad with a picture of a very thin model reads “The more you subtract the more you add” implying that the thinner a woman is the more she has to offer.

Both Dr. Northrup and Martin agree that in order for women to begin to heal, our culture must change. But we live in a capitalist society and those at the top make more money with our culture the way it currently is. As long as women are unhappy with the way they look, they’ll keep buying more and more products with the hopes of achieving the impossible. If the media shifted their attention elsewhere and, in turn, women began to love themselves the way they are, there would be no need to advertise products to improve looks thus no need to advertise. A capitalist society can’t function without consumerism; therefore, I don’t see changing coming any time soon.

Digital Scrapbook #4

American Medical Association Press Release: Teenage Girls Targeted for Sweet-Flavored Alcoholic Beverages: Polls show more teen girls see “alcopop” ads than women age 21-44

In a 2004 press release, “the American Medical Association (AMA) released the results of two nationwide polls that reveal the extent of underage consumption and marketing exposure to “alcopops” or so-called “girlie drinks.” The AMA expressed concern that hard-liquor brands are using these sweet-flavored malt beverages as “gateway” beverages to attract less-experienced drinkers”. According to the Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog organization, alcopops are especially popular with young teens and middle schoolers and they are designed to look just like non-alcoholic lemonade and energy drinks, but contain about the same amount of alcohol as beer. Alcopops also has a high sugar and, sometimes, caffeine content to diminish the flavor and affect of the alcohol. This new product is especially alarming as the AMA reports that “the percentage of girls who drink is on the rise faster than boys” and we know the role drinking plays in a person’s life is vastly different for girls than for boys. Even the health effects are different. The AMA press release states that “according to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, women drinking at the same rate as men, continue to be at higher risk for certain serious medical consequences of alcohol use including liver, brain and heart damage”.

In “Sex Role Setups and Alcoholism” Cynthia Downing looked at the work of Dr. Sharon Wilsnack to explore why women drink. Dr. Wilsnack “hypothesized that women may drink to resolve sex role conflicts connected with their inability to attain the unattainable feminine ideal as prescribed by the culture” (50). Downing asserts that women tend to hide their alcohol use much more than men do. And if a woman’s drinking develops into an addiction to alcohol, the fact that the addiction is hidden can lead to the woman being inaccurately treated or untreated for the primary disease.

There are many other issues that stem from the increase use of alcohol by females that surface before the female is even classified as an alcoholic. The polls released by the AMA found that “nearly one in six teen girls who have drunk alcopops in the past six months have been sexually active after drinking”. We saw examples of this very issue in Spin the Bottle and Smashed. Some of the young women in Spin the Bottle admit that they drink to feel sexy. If a young woman’s judgment is impaired from drinking and she’s feeling more relaxed and sexy, she’s much more likely to engage in sexual activity. The consequences of having sex are not openly talked about in our society, and when they are, women are often blamed or told that they asked for it while young men will be given a pass because the alcohol clouded his judgment.

To me, the most alarming piece of information from the AMA press release deals with the marketing of alcopops. According to the press release “a study released earlier this year by the Center for Alcohol Marketing and Youth revealed that girls ages 12-20 saw 95 percent more magazine ads for alcopops than women of 21”. The target audience of alcopops is women 21-34 but the study found that they were less exposed “magazine advertising for alcopops and peer than girls aged 12-20”. Spin the Bottle revealed that the ads used to sell alcohol to young women send the message that women need to be drinking more by implying that if women drink like men then they will inherit man’s power. As mentioned earlier, the health effects of drinking the same amount of alcohol as men do are much greater for women.

Digital Scrapbook #3

Drug-Free Action Alliance: Children Vote Beer Commercials among Their Favorite Super Bowl Ads

Neither my husband nor I are pro-football fans. None–the-less, we look forward to watching the Super Bowl every year, though not for the football—for the ads. Advertising companies realize that the Super Bowl is their time to shine. They spend more and more money every year to produce bigger and better ads, competing with other ad companies to have the “Best Super Bowl Ad”. Advertisers also want their ads to be memorable; after all, the reason for the ad in the first place is to get you to buy whatever it is they are advertising. Some adults, me included, can simply watch and enjoy the ads without feeling the need to buy into what it is marketing. I’m capable of understanding that advertisers use any tactic they can think of if it may persuade you to purchase their product, including sex. But what affect do Super Bowl ads have on children? Most of what they are trying to sell isn’t for children, so a person might assume that the kids tune out or don’t pay attention to the ads. This would be especially true for alcohol ads. But when the Drug-Free Action Alliance surveyed 6,300 Ohio youth in middle and high school about their favorite Super Bowl ad, they “selected commercials for alcohol, specifically beer commercials, among their favorites”. When students specifically named their favorite commercial, the Anheuser-Busch commercials took “three of the top six most-remembered ads”. I know many adults who don’t see this as an issue, after all, kids cannot just go out and buy beer; they just enjoy the ads. But more and more research is showing the negative impact alcohol ads have on kids.

In “Defining Addiction: Patterns of Chemical and Psychological Addictions” Charlotte Kasl examines the personal experience of addiction starting with predisposing factors which can determine whether a person will become addicted to a substance. The first of these predisposing factors is the availability of the substance; meaning, “repeated exposure to a drug or substance increases the changes of using that substance” (94). Kasl emphasizes the “need to recognize that exposing children and young people repeatedly to alcohol and alcohol ads that equate alcohol with being sexy, glamorous, cool, and watching sports may make it harder for the people with alcoholic chemistry to abstain because they keep getting presented with a trigger to their unconscious pleasure center” (94).

In the film Still Killing Us Softly3, Jean Kilbourne stresses the need to take advertising seriously. We need to realize that the goal of the ads is to tell us who we are and who we should be. She also emphasizes that not only are the ads defining us, but they also keep us trapped in strict roles of masculinity and femininity. These are the messages being sent to our children, who are very impressionable, by the advertisers because they need to convey their message early and often to the future consumers. And their selling tactics work; if they didn’t, advertising would not be a $130 billion industry (in 1994). Kilbourne, in “Still Killing Us Softly: Advertising and the Obsession with Thinness”, the “advertising industry is a powerful educational force in America. The average American is exposed to over 1500 ads every day and will spend a year and a half of this or her life watching television commercials. Although the individual ads are often insipid and trivial, they have a serious cumulative impact” (395).

In terms of alcohol addiction, the impact of the alcohol commercials was revealed in a study published in Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine in January of 2006. According to a press release from the Drug-Free Action Alliance, the study “found that youth who saw more alcohol ads on average drank more than those who did not see the ads. It is noteworthy that in 2007, Anheuser-Busch is estimated to have spent nearly $20 million on commercials that aired during the Super Bowl according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest”.

In 2008, more than 17 million Super Bowl viewers were under the age of 21.