Moral norms in older Swedish women's drinking narratives. Enduring patterns and successively new features

Author:

Abrahamson Maria1

Affiliation:

1. The Centre for Social Research on Alcohol and Drugs (SoRAD) Stockholm University

Abstract

Aims To examine how the changes in women's relationship to alcohol during the 1960s appear in narratives of situated drinking occasions. Data Newly collected autobiographies written by women born between 1918 and 1951 are analysed using theories by William Labov on narrative construction and Kenneth Burke on the rhetoric of motives. Results The historically restrictive attitude to women at all drinking is present in the oldest women's narratives, while the liberalisation of attitudes to alcohol that took place in the 1960s likewise marks the narratives told by the younger women, even though they when writing are of pension able age. With the writers’ diminishing age, the norms framing the narratives have changed, from sobriety among the oldest women to controlled moderation among the younger. And yet, the narratives also demonstrate a stable pattern of questioning women's drinking, although the focus has shifted from tasting alcohol at all to the state of becoming intoxicated. Conclusions A controlling norm remains in place, which the women have internalised and made their own. The mitigating circumstances and the neutralising explanations that are presented throughout indicate that the women are conscious of the narratives’ deviation from the prevailing norm, and show that women take a risk in drinking alcohol. When a woman drinks she risks her femininity.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Health Policy,Health(social science)

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3