Go big or go home

Young Australian girls in grip of binge drinking culture

It was Saturday night. Having just arrived in Australia for the first time, walking down George Street at 2am was a fast and hard lesson in the female social standards of native nightlife writes Jessica Beder.

Navigating a forest of staggering stilettos in my flip-flops and jeans, I was like a smurf lost in a South Park episode, my sobriety and miles of clothing drawing noticeable attention.

Twenty-something girls were tripping into the streets from every crevice swaddled in leopard prints and silk, colliding with each other and falling into the gutters like so many blind hamsters.

As a female international student from the United States, the adjustment to life in Sydney has been remarkable.

Although the drinking culture here on a general scale is not wildly different from what I experienced growing up in Connecticut, the aggressive sexuality and binge drinking practices of young women came as quite a shock.

According to a recent University of Wollongong study , binge drinking among Australian women aged 18-25 has increased 200 per cent in the last 12 years. Reaching epidemic levels, it has come to the point where extreme drinking habits are not just the social norm, but have become the prerequisite to a night out.

And as I was quick to learn, the less you wear while doing it, the better.

Getting decked out for a long night of drinking has become a point of pride and competition among young Australian women. Whose bare back and perfectly coiffed up-do attracts the most attention? Never mind that the whole effect is ruined when that vodka tonic gets spilled down the front 15 minutes later.

At a bar in the city, I asked a petite blonde teetering in a skin-tight halter dress why she went to so much trouble.

Struggling to keep her double vodka cranberry upright while manoeuvring her dress over her backside, she said, “It’s just what you do.” Before turning back to her friends and a round of jager-bombs, she slurred that the climate of judgment here is “go big or go home”.

Gordian Fulde, the director of emergency medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital, shared her observations of the female binge drinking culture with the Sydney Morning Herald:  “Of course, there are an awful lot of girls sitting at home doing homework, but when they let it rip, they really let it rip. And these days, if a girl goes out and gets trashed and vomits, maybe even ends up in emergency, they freak out at the time but you can see that they’re getting a badge of honour. The next day the photos will go up on Facebook.”

So what does all this mean for international women struggling to adapt to life in Sydney?

For many of my female counterparts, it means changing our social habits. Girls have to make a choice: jump on the bandwagon, strap on that mini skirt and saddle up for a night of shot taking and shenanigans, or simply don’t go out.

As a cosmopolitan city, Sydney is home to a growing multitude of international women. Many migrants come from countries with more conservative backgrounds, and with the added pressure of this hypersexual mentality, females have the hardest struggle of all.

Julie Peng, a University of  Sydney student from Canada, feels a lot of pressure to conform.

“I’ve never liked the taste of alcohol yet I always get peer pressured into drinking a beer or two on almost every outing with Australian friends,” she said.

“I find that I spend a lot of my time in my room, not because I always have work to do, but because sometimes it’s just easier not to bother.”

Peng also struggles with the overt sexuality associated with the female drinking culture. When she arrived in the country, one of the first things she did was go shopping, despite the fact that it was not within her budget.

“Girls in the CBD would look at my Northface fleece and flats like I was from outer-space,” Peng said.

To her, it was worth it to spend a few more dollars to fit in with the locals.

Leo Mateo is a dance instructor from Auriol, France. Teaching in Sydney for the past three years, he has observed the female drinking culture up close.

“They get completely ‘pissed’ and are unable to walk which is quite sad,” he said.

Comparing their behaviour to his own background, Mateo is puzzled by the cultural differences.

“We don’t have this problem in France at all. We have people who drink, but it’s much more controlled and it’s throughout the whole night, not like here where it’s done in a few hours. Australian women don’t get drunk for specific reasons; it’s just cool. And that’s where it gets dangerous.”

For both Australian and international females, the female drinking culture poses a problem that needs to be addressed. Mateo believes the government is not focusing on the right areas.

“There are such strong laws about where you can drink, like on the street or at the beach, and there is such a strong repression on drinking and driving, but nothing is being done to slow down the rate of consumption.”

And counselling services help women work through the adjustment period and give them the chance to be social outside of the ‘go big or go home’ mentality that is eating Australia’s young women alive.