Reggie loves tagging along on Willie and Alex’s dates, mostly because they’re two of his best friends and their dates are always super vibey, but also because he’s got a secret drinking game. He takes a shot every time Alex gets flustered or Willie says something sweet then runs off, and he’s never failed to get drunk
Sometimes I think about how I went from not wanting to text in homeroom Freshman year of high school (due to the fear of getting in trouble) to nonchalantly drinking alcohol in homeroom Senior year with one of my best friends.
die person, die auf die idee gekommen ist, die nrw landtagswahl auf den sonntag nach eurovision zu legen, muss sadist sein, denn das einzige, was grausiger ist, als sich prognosen und hochrechnungen anzusehen, ist, sich prognosen und hochrechnungen mit einem kater anzusehen
Dean Winchester (functioning alcoholic) drinks so much at home that he can’twalk back to his own room and just sleeps on the floor instead… because Cas is gone.
“we need to stop the stigma towards drug users and addicts” and “we need to challenge the idea that being sober makes you boring” and “we need to stop acting like binge drinking to the extent you’re doing medical damage is fun and normal for young people” are all ideas that can and should coexist.
just so we’re clear, the threshold for “binge drinking to the extent you’re doing medical damage” is waaaay lower than you think.
I work in an obstetrician and gynaecologist’s office. we have to tell patients on a regular basis that they are binge drinking weekly when they think they are simply consuming a normal amount of alcohol on the weekends.
having more than 3 drinks in a single sitting if you have an estrogen based endocrine system is a binge that is medically significant.
having more than 5 in a sitting is a medically significant binge for someone with a testosterone based endocrine system.
every time you do this, it significantly impacts your risk of getting breast cancer, and damages your liver. it takes time to recover from that liver damage. if you’re having a 3-5 or more drink binge on a weekly basis, you are an alcoholic, medically speaking, and your liver is not recovering.
again: the bar for what binge drinking is, medically, is so much lower than what you think it is.
alcohol is a really toxic substance and not something you should fuck around with.
again: if you have an estrogenized hormone system (common for most women), then 3 drinks is a binge. if you have a testosteronized hormone system (common for most men), then 5 drinks is a binge.
anything above that number, consumed as frequently as weekly or more, and you’re medically a binge drinking alcoholic.
also, if you’re drinking any quantity of alcohol 6 days a week or more, that’s another threshold at which, medically speaking, you meet the definition of alcoholism. your liver needs more days without alcohol in your system than just one a week to recover and be healthy.
I don’t say any of this to shame anyone—to me, alcoholism or substance use disorders aren’t a sign of weakness or moral failing. and most of us genuinely don’t know this stuff.
rather—I point this out because it’s important to reduce harm, and find ways to live healthier, happier lives. there is a life outside of constant binge drinking. it’s not always easy to find it. but it’s out there. you deserve a life where your emotional needs are met by something other than alcohol, and a life in which your liver is healthy, and the ways you cope and celebrate and find joy don’t put you at increased risk of cancer.
also–even if alcohol is the only way you can self-medicate, or if you choose to go on with your alcohol usage anyway regardless of other options–you still deserve to know what it’s doing to your body.
information is key. you don’t have to stop drinking, but the utter lack of education on alcohol + the normalization of binge drinking in current society leads to many people drinking without any idea of what it’s doing to their bodies.
addicts deserve accurate medical information regardless of what they decide to do with it. for some people, losing liver function is worth the benefits they get from binge drinking, but they can’t make that choice if they don’t know what the consequences are to begin with.
addicts deserve accurate medical information regardless of what they decide to do with it.
Fuck the French gov that refuses to support Dry January or forbid ads for alcoholic beverages.
The “best wines country” ? Yeah, the best alcoholist lobby’s country too.
The only survivor of the Mannington family was the eldest son. He had long, well-moulded features, a smooth and elegant gait, and heavy brows that struck handsome severity into a look that would have been clean and inoffensive otherwise.
He was dressed almost entirely in black, like the evil prince of a Disney flick, though Sinclair would be pressed to name a specific film. Most of the costume design in those things was uninspired and designed only to sell toys that wouldn’t have too many removable parts for six-year-olds to choke on.
The shirt was silk and the trousers loose and long, not a traditional suit but something more distinct and casual. It was tailored carefully to show off his muscular shoulders, but obscure the lower arms and do similarly from thigh to shin. At ankle and wrist, the hem pulled close, hinting to a medieval style.
Stripes of gold accented one cuff, gleamed in the placard and wound down one leg in a thin, glimmering chain of thread. Further chains hung from golden rings on his fingers and dangled from his ears. His eyes were dark but his lids were edged with liquid gold. He stared out with every attempt at dignity, head perfectly still, hands raised slightly from his sides, back straight and shoulders squared in defiance.
He was perfect. The rebel prince cast out. Atop the close-cropped hair on his head rested a crown of heavy metal, simple and moulded into latticed spikes, exquisitely gold-leafed, and ringed around the base with tiny sharp teeth that held it firmly in place in young master Mannington’s scalp.
If you looked closely, you would see the rest. The faint glimmers of blood in his hair. The imprint of chains against his wrists and ankles, underneath the cuffs. The position of his arms, casual and elegant for his pose, but maintained with sharp prop sticks enforcing a distance between his arm and his body inside each loose sleeve. The slightly bared teeth of a lip-lined mouth were to help him keep his jaw locked, preventing the spring-loaded box inside his mouth from giving out its sharpened contents before someone was ready and waiting to remove it for him.
So while most rainbow capitalism is sticking rainbows on things and pretending to be an ally, Budweiser’s UK branch is giving credit to trans activists, and explaining pride flag colors.
Budweiser is an inclusionist
What a weird and true thing to say! And I almost sounds like a joke but honestly I feel this tweet captures 90% of my feelings
And to actually credit Monica Helms and get the white stripe right? Like, if we are going to have companies at pride this is what I’d like to see. Professional looking marketing, credit to activists, research about the groups its marketing, and spreading further awareness.
So while it’s understandable that people are excited to see mainstream recognition, I think it’s important to also know that there is a reason that alcohol companies in particular tend to be “better” about learning about and reaching out to stigmatized or disadvantaged communities that other companies avoid or ignore:
It’s because industries like alcohol and tobacco know that marginalized communities that are subject to minority stress are much more likely to suffer from things like substance abuse and binge drinking - making them prime targets for companies whose #1 goal is selling more alcohol and making more money.
As@godlessacepointed out, advertising by alcohol companies isn’t directly comparable to other types of rainbow capitalism / queerwashed commercialism, because the products they are promoting are directly, actively harmful to the communities they are targeting.
When it comes to things like ace flags at Target, or Subaru advertising cars to lesbians, there is rarely any direct harm to the targeted consumer (other than whatever harms capitalism and commercialism as a whole may have on society). If I buy a Subaru or a polyester flag, I’m not immediately putting my health at risk.
But when it comes to companies advertising things like alcohol and tobacco (and later, vape products) to lesbians and gays - and later to groups like trans people and ace people - the products they want you to adopt are ones that can also be directly harmful to your health.
For those not as familiar with the relationship between alcohol/tobacco, advertising, and LGBTQ Communities, here’s some initial recommended reading that I was gathering for another post:
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/business/media/absolut-heralds-its-marketing-to-gay-consumers.html more on the history of how Absolut vodka marketed to LGBT communities - it’s a little pandering to Absolut but I think it still demonstrates how reaching out to LGBT (and ace) communities - and even hosting community events and fundraisers - is all about a clever brand strategy, not out of the goodness of their hearts.
https://www.autostraddle.com/sober-in-the-city-surviving-pride-without-liquor-236902/ - notes on how the entanglement of alcohol and Pride can be triggering and risky for alcoholics trying to stay sober. While not mentioned in this article, I think it’s worth mentioning that alcohol companies are often major sponsors at Pride (in order to profit, of course) with such an extensive presence that it’s often easier and sometimes cheaper to find booths selling alcohol that it is to find water.
Alcohol companies (along with over “vice industries” like tobacco companies) have a history of being the first to really enthusiastically include/exploit LGBTQ+ populations in their marketing campaigns, so I guess it doesn’t come as a surprise, but I definitely have mixed feelings about it and it’s definitely something that should be looked at critically.
Target is also selling ace flags in most of their larger locations (haven’t seen them in the smaller city target lines that don’t have the Bullseye’s playground section), so I guess that for better or for worse 2019 is officially the year that Asexuality really joined the capitalist-exploitation-at-pride party?
“Budweiser is also hosting several Pride events, including a three-day asexual event. The brand is partnering with asexual activist and model Yasmin Benoit to bring visibility to this part of the community.”
What the…? Is <a href=“https://tmblr.co/mZhD2ndLSdvHsoEN81fGvsw”>@yasminbenoit</a> aware of the concerns that some people might have about this?
I don’t really mind corporate sponsorship in general, but corporate sponsorship from alcohol companies scares me. That’s a public health problem. I’m a craft beer person myself and I know not to impugn people’s individual choices with respect to alcohol. But when you’re getting targeted advertising, statistically that’s going to cause problems for a lot of people.
Hard liquor companies have been advertising to LGBT people for a long time, and it certainly impacted the queer student group that I participated back in college. There was an awful lot of binge drinking, and for many it was a way of dealing with personal despair. It was for me too.
Studies show asexuals have a really high rate of teetotaling, and maybe that means we’ll be resilient to targeted alcohol advertising. But it also might mean that there’s that much more room for things to get worse.
