My Experience of Boys and Booze

Everyone knows the feeling of regret after a night out, however I personally feel as though I am losing control over my decision to drink too much. That is to say, there is an increasing amount of pressure upon girls to get more and more drunk.

At a house party recently I found myself leaning over the toilet spewing up a disgusting mixture of cider, vodka and who knows what else; meanwhile, the teenage boys with whom I had chosen to spend the night were hatching a plan. As I reemerged from the toilet, awaiting me was a supermarket's budget version of Pimms, only sans the lemonade and cucumber garnish. In my inebriated state, I assumed the boy handing me this drink would join me, and also raise his glass to his lips. Yet this was not the case, he simply reunited his shot with the rest of the bottle. It felt as if this 17-year-old boy was trying to convince me to drink more.

But to what end? As mentioned in the Telegraph: "young men…appeared to follow behaviour patterns that included pressuring girls to have sex, often with the use of alcohol." However, in this particular case, the boy in question was in a happy relationship. This leads me to the question as to whether he was trying to prove his masculinity?

This is more than just one occasion, tomorrow evening's plan involves bets. The losing boys have to wax their legs, whilst the losing girls drink three shots. This seems wholly unfair. The boys merely have to experience the daily pressures faced by girls, whilst the girls are forced to drink more and more. Despite the fact that these boys in question are my friends, I find it unsettling that they enjoy getting girls drunk. This appears to be a commonplace issue, and it makes me wonder how many girls it affects.

Flipping it around, how many males feel obliged to drink due to pressure from their female friends? Very few of them, I imagine.

I believe there are many reasons for this, one being that the idea of female consent is rarely taught in schools. Consequently, our society fosters a lack of respect for women. The very fact that a fifth of women aged between 16 and 59 experience "some form of sexual violence" (Rape Crisis 2013) shows that we need to change this attitude. Girls should not be dolls for boys to play around with.

Written by Georgina

Edited by Lili

Picture credits to Ellen

The telegraph reference: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3384737/Teenage-boys-say-it-is-acceptable-to-pressure-girls-into-sex.html

The Rape Crisis 2013: http://www.rapecrisis.org.uk/Statistics2.php