Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol
Overall Ranking 1) Essential Reading
Would I recommend reading it?
If drinking is God's gift to mankind, be grateful that God is a woman.
It isn't often that a book absolutely rocks my perception of life and the history of our planet, let alone simultaneously. Reading Girly Drinks made me grateful, angry, amazed, and disgusted in incredibly short order. This book is like that first sip of high-proof whiskey: It burns. It soothes. It’s delightful, yet also a little bit terrible. Drink enough of it and the room you're in with its clear-cut walls and neat little shelves starts to look different. Your perception of the world has changed.
The history of booze, in all its forms from ancient ale to modern whiskey, has been blessed by a woman's touch. Whether it was inventing, brewing, revolutionizing, smuggling, or unionizing, women have been at the center of the barrel since the beginning of time. Our author, Mallory O'Meara, puts it best:
"No matter what you're having, you can toast knowing that women had a part of its history. Saying that some types of alcohol are better, more noble, more masculine to drink than others is outright silly... All drinks are girly drinks."
Usually, you don’t consider the lineage of a drink when it’s sitting in your glass; you only care about the buzz. But after this, I doubt I’ll be able to take a swig without the history bubbling to the surface.
It’s now impossible to crack a beer and not think of the 12th-century nun Hildegard von Bingen, the woman who revolutionized the industry by introducing hops. Or to realize that we have beer cans because women—the primary purchasers of household supplies—found them more convenient to lug home than the traditional, messy buckets or growlers. Hell, even the concept of the bar itself was a female invention.
And it’s not just beer. From the sake distilleries of Japan to the rum runners of the Caribbean and the high-society cocktails of London, everything that happens when yeast breaks down sugar was made better, improved, or outright invented by the hands of women.
However, this isn't just a celebratory toast. O'Meara reveals a darker, recurring cycle: as soon as women began to find financial success or social power through alcohol, male-centric societies swooped in to seize it.
Laws were passed to push women out of the brewing trade that had lifted them from poverty. Societies began to "gender" drinks, creating arbitrary rules about what was "masculine" versus "feminine" purely to assert dominance in social spaces. As O'Meara notes:
"If you want to know how a society treats its women, all you have to do is look into the bottom of a glass."
I could go on for quite some time on the plight of women in the world of alcohol, because not only are the facts and stories incredibly interesting, but O'Meara makes it entertaining. She builds up the women led communities and the challenges that they overcome through polished storytelling and then slams you back into reality by showing how those communities are attempted to be controlled by more 'profitable enterprises'. There are high highs and low lows.
I want to share so much of it with you, but I will hold back my excitement by not spoiling anything further. What I will say is this: the world of alcohol is, technically and historically, a woman’s world. They are the ones who built it, occupied it, and controlled it from the kitchen to the distillery, only to be systematically forced out time and time again. Their story is one of continuous battling with just as many victories as there are defeats. You’ll never raise another glass without being conscious that its sweet nectar is only as good as it is because of the women who fought for it. This book is receiving my highest level of recommendation.
Drink whatever you want, however you want it, and know that consuming your favorite pour is now, technically, an act of female empowerment. Even if you get a bit buzzed, and the room starts to blur your new perception of women's contribution to the world will stay crystal clear. Cheers to the real masters of the craft.
Books to Bowls OUT!
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