Jenni Simonen

Femininities of drinking among Finnish and Swedish women of different ages

This article discusses femininities of drinking in Finland and in Sweden. It compares how Finnish and Swedish women define accepted and desired drinking-related femininity. It also asks how femininity related to drinking is constructed and to what traits it is associated with. According to the general assumption increased intoxication oriented drinking among women means that drinking habits and behavior between women and men have become more similar. We rather suggest that women have not only adopted intoxication oriented drinking but they connect it to their feminine identity by shaping it according to their own needs and actions. The analysis is made by using focus group interviews from Finland and Sweden from four different age groups (20 years, 25–30 years, 35–40 years and 50–60 years) and from two educational levels. The data has been analyzed by examining how Finnish and Swedish women construct femininities of drinking while interpreting the pictures of drinking situations. The analysis shows that there is variety of femininities of drinking. Age seems to be an important factor in the construction of femininities; younger and older Finnish and Swedish women relate different traits to drinking-related femininity. It seems that the composition of drinking related gender identity has broadened from traditional hegemonic feminine values to versatility. This relates to the expansion of drinking related actions and the strengthening of drinking related agency among women. Based on these findings, younger generations seem to have a wider variety of drinking related repertoires and ways to interpret femininity than older generations.

Trusting and misleading. Parents’ and children’s communication and negotiation about alcohol as described by teenagers

Abstract Background: Typically, research on parents’ and children’s interactions around alcohol issues focuses on how parenting styles and parents’ examples affect teenager’s drinking habits. In this paper, we approach the theme from the youngsters’ perspective. We ask how teenagers describe the interaction on alcohol-related issues with their parents and how they would like their parents to act during these interactions. Data and methods: The article applies the concept of trust, which is seen as a feature connecting all kinds of communities, and especially families. We pay attention to whether alcohol issues challenge trustful relations and give rise to contradictions and complications in the interactions between parents and children. Results: The analysis shows the ways how trust is maintained and challenged in teenagers? accounts of communication regarding alcohol with their parents. It also shows that although trust is tested in several ways, it is essential for teenagers. Even though teenagers tell how they can mislead their parents by using strategies that challenge trust, they nevertheless highlight the importance of trusting ties with parents. Teenagers do not exclude their parents from alcohol-related discussion but expect rules, communication and authority from them. Our data suggest that teenagers also want to protect their parents from disappointments caused by their own actions. Conclusions: A trusting parent–child relationship, based on dialog rather than opposition, seems to play a significant role in guiding teenagers’ alcohol-related attitudes and practices.

The exercise of symbolic power by women's magazines from the 1960s to the present: the discursive construction of fields, positions and resources in alcohol-related texts

This study analyses alcohol-related articles appearing in Finnish women’s magazines from the 1960s to the present day. Women’s magazines are approached as institutions constituting feminine publicities that address issues of interest as well as problems and contradictions in women’s everyday life. Influenced by Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus and capital, data analysis focuses around three main questions: (1) in what kinds of fields do the texts locate drinking; (2) what kinds of drinking-related subject positions do the texts offer their readers; and (3) what kinds of economic, social, cultural, physical, emotional and symbolic resources do they discursively construct and attach to these subject positions? The analysis shows that throughout the study period, women’s magazines’ alcohol-related texts position women readers into the realm of home and family and construct capitals that reinforce a ‘caring ethics’. On the other hand, from the 1990s onwards, alcohol-related texts in women’s magazines also begin to assign women to consumer positions of hedonistic consumer, rational consumer, status-oriented consumer, expert consumer and the consumer who is keen to break away from formality and construct capitals for these positions as well as wage through them a symbolic struggle over which lifestyles are ‘in’ and which are ‘out’.

“Disease” of the Nation, Family and Individual: Three Moral Discourses of Alcohol Problems in Finnish Women's Magazines from the 1960s to the 2000s

Womens magazines can be seen as a genre that form feminized public spaces where everyday life contradictions of womens life are negotiated. The study examines the ways in which Finnish womens magazines have dealt with alcohol problems. The data covers six primary sampling years: 1968, 1976, 1984, 1992, 2000 and 2008. The data is analyzed by drawing on the concept of ‘moral regulation’. The analysis shows that a family-centered framing dominated the constructions of alcohol problem: fathers’ and husbands’ alcoholism appeared as a main object of regulation in all decades under study, while mothers’ and wives’ alcoholism was much less prevalent.

Parenthood re-discovered: Views of recovered parents

Abstract There is a growing body of research on the effects of parents’ alcohol and substance abuse problems on family members, which examines for example the effects and risks to children. In this article, we approach the theme from the perspective of parents who have recovered from alcohol and substance abuse problems. The research question in this study asks how recovered parents describe their re-discovered parenthood. The study is part of a wider “Growing up in the Finnish Drinking Culture” -project, conducted by the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland. The qualitative data consist of individual, pair and group interviews with parents (N = 32). The parents were diagnosed with alcohol and or substance abuse problems and they all had undergone successful treatment. The data were analysed using subject position analysis, with six subject positions identified in parents’ accounts: Apprentice, Experienced; Emotion worker, Functional parent; Struggler and Optimist. Our study contributes to understanding how parenthood was regained following recovery and what experiences it entailed. It shows that a responsible life with the child and regaining parenthood are possibilities and realistic expectations following recovery.

Do teenagers’ and parents’ alcohol-related views meet? – Analysing focus group data from Finland and Norway

Abstract Aims: This study analyses how Finnish and Norwegian teenagers and parents of teenagers perceive the appropriateness, desirability or harmfulness of different drinking situations. The focus is on whether teenagers and parents perceive the situations similarly or differently. Methods: Our data consist of focus group interviews from Finland and Norway with teenagers aged 14–17 years (n = 8 groups, n = 44 participants) and parents (n = 8 groups, n = 38). Three pictures portraying different drinking situations were presented to the participants, who were asked to describe (1) what kind of situation the picture depicts, (2) whether the way of drinking in the picture was acceptable or not and (3) whether they identified with the situation or not. Findings: Our analysis showed that teenagers and parents defined the situations similarly and applied rather similar criteria when assessing the appropriateness of drinking. The most important criteria related to the amount and the way of drinking, and whether or not children were present in the situation. Regarding the identification with the situations, teenagers seemed to have somewhat stricter attitudes towards intoxication than adults, which can be perceived as a sign of an ongoing trend of decreasing youth drinking. Conclusions: Overall, our analysis suggests that the alcohol worlds of parents and teenagers resembled each other, supporting the notion that the generational gap between parents and teenagers is diminishing.

Older women’s experiences, identities and coping strategies for dealing with a problem-drinking male family member*

Abstract Aims: In this study, we highlight the identities and actions of women with a problem-drinking relative by analysing autobiographies of women born between the 1920s and the 1950s. We ask how women describe their relationship and the problems arising because of a significant other’s drinking and how they cope with these problems. Methods: In the analysis, we pay attention to the power dynamics between family members. We, first, trace what kind of positions or identities the protagonists take in relation to the drinker. Second, we examine what kinds of harms and emotional reactions significant other’s drinking causes. Third, we consider how writers identify or take distance from events described in the autobiographies. Findings: Our analysis reveals four main identities and coping strategies: the positions of victim, helper, boundary setter and fighter. The victim and helper positions often entail women’s weakness and oppressed role, while the positions of boundary setter and fighter express women’s own power and reflexivity in action. Conclusions: Knowledge of the identities and coping strategies is important for understanding the power aspects of a relationship and developing appropriate support for women suffering from family member’s drinking.