Kay Steiger points to a piece by Ari Spool in The Stranger that asks why women are never depicted smoking marijuana. Marijuana = mandom, apparently. This doesn't track whatsoever with my own observations (or Steiger's). I've never witnessed any sort of gender divide in practice when it comes to any sort of drug use, except, maybe, with regard to very coded legal drugs (cosmos, Virginia Slims, the red Mountain Dew).
Spool then interviews some real live female pot smokers, who turn out to be normal people just like you and me, but female, and high. That part of the piece is unfortunate, since I already know plenty of women who have smoked pot. I'm curious about the chicken/egg argument here: Does the media gender the drug? Or does the media depict a drug that is gendered?
Feministing asks whether smoking pot is a feminist act. Maybe so, but I think we need to know more about the women who toke to say for sure. My instinct is that we're not all wrong and that higher up along the SES ladder, similar proportions of men and women smoke pot.
In any case, I'm ready to give up forever Half Baked and that towel from South Park, out of solidarity with The sisterhood. I can think of exactly one movie scene in which a woman gets high (Nicole Kidman's character in Eyes Wide Shut). I'm sure there are more instances in film history, and I imagine I've seen them and simply forgotten.
Posted by Kriston at August 21, 2007 12:35 PMWait, the red mountain dew is gender-coded? How? Why? I must know before I accidentally shame my gender by drinking/not drinking red mountain dew!
Posted by: Emily at August 21, 2007 2:41 PMDoes the media gender the drug? Or does the media depict a drug that is gendered?
The former, I think. There are fewer portrayals of female binge-drinking, too. The amiable intoxicated dumbass is most often male. I think that's because the character is usually being played for laughs, and people aren't as comfortable laughing at intoxicated women. That's partially motivated by chauvinist gallantry, but also comes from the fact that an intoxicated woman can bring to mind the sexual violence that such women are sometimes subject to. That isn't exactly a laugh riot (whereas drawing on your passed-out male friend's face obviously is).
So I'd say it's not that pot is particularly gendered, but that popular depictions of drug use are in general. One notable exception: depictions of "hardcore" drug use by women, which I think probably emerged alongside the odious crack-addicted-welfare-queen caricature of the late 80s/early 90s.
Posted by: Tom at August 21, 2007 2:43 PMLisa Cholodenko's 1998 film High Art shows Ally Sheedy like the ladies knew she really was in the Breakfast Club. She it out--she smokes pot, shoots up and eats pussy
Posted by: Alison at August 21, 2007 4:34 PMhttp://learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/addiction/issues/marijuana/bong_girl.jpg
Posted by: reid at August 21, 2007 4:38 PMAs the Reefer Madness poster suggests, the drugs, the terrible drugs were a nefarious plot by filthy foreigners to corrupt our healthy, virtuous white women (it's not hemp, it's the evil marijuana, like the opium pushed by white-slaving Chinamen with Fu Manchu mustaches.)
There's a bit of a tradition of women getting high being depicted as a seduction and corruption of the innocent, but during the 60s/70s they moved onto the harder stuff. The best examples are in cop shows from this transition period, which conflate the two and show a woman (or boy) smoking a joint then having a heroin reaction (or lsd, or bits of both).
These days men and women alike are depicted as baked mostly for laffs. I'm pretty sure all the womenfolk on The Simpsons have been stoned at least once by now.
Posted by: Ben.H at August 21, 2007 6:49 PMReal Feminists smoke blunts in their underpants. There are countless depictions in photos and films, often mistaken for cigar fetish porn.
Posted by: lcr at August 21, 2007 10:40 PMKaren Allen getting high with Donald Sutherland in Animal House.
Posted by: Alan Christy at August 22, 2007 10:56 AMWhat about Claire smoking in Six Feet Under? Or the girl gang toking up in The Warriors when none of the guys do? Research more.
Posted by: Grizzle at August 22, 2007 4:09 PMI thought it was well known that wives quite often don't want their husbands smoking pot, drinking so much, so often, staying out so late, driving so fast.
wait don't men die younger, have more mental illness and diseases, drop out earlier, go to jail way more, crash cars all the time, etc..
my guess: 4 times as many men smoke pot regularly as women. maybe 10 times. across social status. in western culture.
Posted by: aaron at August 22, 2007 4:19 PMBut why, Grizzle, when you're doing such a good job?
Posted by: Kriston at August 22, 2007 4:19 PMOT: Does "potriarchy" really intensely bother anyone else? Something about that vowel shift makes my skin crawl. I need to push this one down the page.
Posted by: Kriston at August 22, 2007 4:22 PMAre you too young for Dazed and Confused?
Posted by: joe dokes at August 23, 2007 11:06 AMall white—
Larry Clark's Kids/Faye Dunaway in Barfly/ Heather Graham in Boogie Nights? Diane Keaton in Annie Hall? Tura Satana??
Pieces of April? The Virgin Suicides? Saving Grace
Charlotte Rampling in Swimming Pool doesnt Jennifer Aniston take a hit in the Good Girl? I love you Alice B Toklas!
Nine to Five—RIDING IN CARS WITH BOYS/the Banger Sisters
