Consuming Alcohol in Bars, Pubs and Clubs: A risky freedom for young women?

Abstract

Traditionally, consuming alcohol in bars, pubs, and clubs represents a masculine leisure activity at odds with conventional understandings of appropriate feminine behaviour. However, contemporary young women appear to have new freedoms to embrace this leisure activity. This paper focuses on the views of young women (18–25 years), drawing upon data from a qualitative study which explored young women’s views, experiences, and behaviours in relation to their safety when socialising and consuming alcohol in bars, pubs, and clubs in Scotland. Findings from this study identify socialising and consuming alcohol in bars, pubs, and clubs as a central aspect of young women’s social lives. However, for young women the consumption of alcohol in this context is also equated with risk, vulnerability, loss of control, and increased responsibility for their safety. These findings pose significant difficulties for locating women’s experiences of consuming alcohol in bars, pubs, and clubs within a poststructural framework of freedom and liberation.