Oh man, I love me some Jameson! I love it straight, I love it with root beer, and I love it in Irish Carbombs (my personal favorite "out on the town" beverage). But yeah, whenever I order whiskey I get the "Oooh, someone's not messing around tonight!" speech, as if I'm really "manning up" by enjoying it.

And yes, sometimes I do want to order the foofy-fruity-sweet drinks, and I usually refrain from it because I don't want to encourage stereotypes. It's like I have to prove to the bar that we can drink as well as anyone.

Bourbon- straight up, neat.

I was never a big drinker- in fact, I went about 10 years sans alcohol- but then I discovered I could appreciate bourbon just like people appreciate wine. I don't like mixers in anything.
And yes, when I order it, I usually get the raised eyebrows and the low whistles of appreciation- "oh, I like it, a tough chick."
Blargh.
BTW- Elijah Craig is a great bourbon, but few bars carry it.

i'm a vodka tonic kind of girl mostly, but i do enjoy a maker's and coke now and then. i just have to commit to one liquor for the entire evening and not mix it up and it seems like opting for whiskey usually results in something really crazy happening.

i really haven't liked the sweet, fruity "lady" drinks since i was about 19. i can't process the sugar and after too many strawberry-mango-pineapple-cosmo-tinis i just end up puking without even being drunk! it's the worst. it seems like most of the women i know are pretty down with the hard liquors at least sometimes, but maybe i just know a lot of tough bitches. i definitely feel like there is a presumption, especially among younger women, that what we chiefly want to drink is syrup with a paper umbrella, but i think that the converse of that is even more prevalent--that manly dudes do NOT want to touch anything too girly, so i think guys face more social disapproval for fruity drinks than girls are for ordering scotch on the rocks.

Awesome post! I was just thinking of this the other day, actually, when I was at a new bar with a good (male) friend of mine and we both ordered a nice brand of Scotch (on the rocks). Predictably, mine came with some kind of soda mixed in, and a little umbrella. Gross!

I just don't understand. I'm not quiet, and I didn't mumble or stutter while I ordered. I clearly ordered the exact same thing as my friend. Gah!

Luckily, my regular neighborhood bar NEVER tries to pull any of that crap on me.

Vodka. Multiple filtered, expensive potato vodka, too good to shoot. Straight or in tonic. I love me some vodka.

I definitely have gotten the "oooh, you're so tough" comments shooting the more affordable stuff, though. Mainly with vodka--people were never that surprised by women shooting rum or something.

I live in Kentucky. I love bourbon. Bourbon = American whiskey, not necessarily from KY but in my opinion KY (and TN) make the best. And it's all natural! I usually order it on the rocks or with water (bourbon and water sounds gross, but is not).

I never felt like an anomaly for ordering bourbon here, but I've noticed when I've traveled recently that people are shocked that I order bourbon, or any whiskey. I don't have a very noticeable Kentucky accent, and usually when I explain that I'm from there people 'get it', so I always thought of it as a geographic thing rather than a gender thing, but based on these ads and the experiences in this post I'd say it's a little of both.

Also, I notice that it's MUCH more expensive in say, San Francisco or New York than it is here in KY, which makes sense, i guess (though I'm always amazed when i try to go out in other regions and people are paying $9 a drink and $10 for a pack of cigarettes). If you're really into whiskey, and you're ever near Kentucky, I encourage you to do some bourbon tourism. It's really really fun and educational. You can do distillery tours where they give you samples and teach you about the process of making bourbon and see some beautiful countryside.

Whisky-lemonade is what I liked when I lived in Scotland. Sadly, most bars in the US don't carry lemon soda, so I go for a whisky-sprite. In a bar I just ask for whisky since I'm poor, but if I'm buying a bottle for home use, I like Woodford Reserve as a sipping bourbon, or Dewar's if I'm in the mood for scotch. On the rocks, no mixer. I mix if it's Jim Beam or something of equally-mediocre taste.

I've lived in bourbon country my entire life, so I'm kind of a snob. But we have an extra shitty economy, so I'm financially limited in snobbery. ;)

I will take a nice Belgian or Belgian-inspired ale over hard liquor any day. :) Or a Newcastle. Or even a Bass Ale. Or, a lovely Boddingtons. Yummy.

Um. TGIF!

Also, I have never been given a drink with a little paper umbrella. I can see how patronizing that would be, but i think just once that would kind of thrill me. I don't think the bars i usually go to have paper umbrellas. they don't even skewer olives with those little plastic swords that i see sometimes when i travel. I've also worked as a cocktail server and there were no umbrellas there. maybe this is a geographic thing...

That used to happen to me all the time when I was dating my last boyfriend, who didn't drink beer. I'd order a beer, he'd order a Mike's or a Smirnoff Ice, and invariably the waiter or bartender would put the beer in front of him and the sweet drink in front of me. It usually hadn't been more than a minute since we'd ordered, so that had to be some powerful stereotyping operating to make them revert that quickly to the belief that he must've ordered the "manly" beer and me the "girly" alcopop.

I'm not much of a hard liquor gal since I left my partying days behind. However, I have had trouble with male bartenders when I ask to see the beer list. The conversation goes something like this:

Me: May I see your beer list?
Bartender/waitstaff: I have a Smirnoff Ice (or similar) that you would like.
Me: Actually, I was interested in a stout. Or IPA. Or hefeweizen. Or any local microbrews you might have. So could I just see the beer list, please?

It gets really annoying. Good beer is NOT masculine! Ugh!

Anybody else out there a beer woman?

Singapore Slings. I do worry about them being girly, but Tom Waits sings about them so I feel ok.

I drink bourbon on the rocks. In Austin, Texas this is not looked upon as odd for a woman, at least in the bars I frequent. However, I do have an alcohol-related gender issue. When I'm around my male friends, I feel a perverse need to prove that I can keep up with or out-drink them. This is not healthy.

@ religiousfeminista

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Although, I'm not as acknowledge!

I tend to stick with imported lager: Heineken, Heineken Light, Stella Artois, Presidente, Presidente Light (in that order, because no carries my beloved Presidente, unless I find myself at a Dominican or general Latino spot).

@ Attagrrrl - I definitely had that problem in college. Luckily I could hold my alcohol back then, and didn't hang out with DBs who would try something.

I don't like hard liquor (I feel like I'm drinking harsh chemicals). I like beer and wine, but I always feel silly ordering a blonde ale or a wine spritzer (perpetuating the stereotype) BUT I LIKE THEM!! Dang, can't order something without getting admiring looks for being manly, or feeling enabling with a fruity something. Drinks are definitely gendered.

I like medium-dark beers and red wine, myself.

Meanwhile, I like the drink, too, but can everyone come up with a name for it that doesn't refer to the conflict in Northern Ireland? I didn't really think about it until I went out with a guy from Hollywood (the Irish one), and he mentioned his horror at that name in passing. Just saying. (I like "Guinness bomb," as the drink is technically a "bomb" shot).

I LOVE that you wrote this article.

My best friend and I are "petite" women who drink whiskey "like men" and get weird looks all the time.

ALL the time. even people who know us well are like "oh my god. you drink whiskey??? you can handle that?? i'd like to see it to believe it!"

Yet if we ordered tequila or vodka, we would not get those looks.

I LOVE that you wrote this article.

My best friend and I are "petite" women who drink whiskey "like men" and get weird looks all the time.

ALL the time. even people who know us well are like "oh my god. you drink whiskey??? you can handle that?? i'd like to see it to believe it!"

Yet when we ordered tequila or vodka, we don't get those looks.

My stepmother is a whisky drinker; my father for years drank gin & tonic. Most waiters would put the whisky in front of him and the G&T in front of her.

I have a friend who was an NCAA gymnast, about 100 lbs, and would invariably order double Jamesons, neat. Having heard the order correctly, bartenders would assume she didn't mean it, and usually ask if she wanted ice; to which she would respond deadpan, "why would I want ice? That would water it down." (She is also a walking encyclopedia of college sports, which has made more than one sexist fratboy run).

I'm a nondrinker, and equality in alcohol is a dubious sort of equality, but discrimination is discrimination wherever we find it, and stereotypes are stereotypes.

I drink all sorts of things - rum and coke or vodka tonic when I'm out dancing, stouts or brown ales or IPAs, wine-with-food, Maker's Mark mint juleps at Redbones, interesting-sounding cocktails if they don't have peach or banana in them (ick) - most anything, although I'll usually choose something that's not gin. I don't usually order neat whiskey when I'm out somewhere, although I don't turn it down from friends who pride themselves on their collections of single malt scotches or high end bourbons. I also like Rocket Fuel, the fannish booze slushy made with grain alcohol, lemonade concentrate, and solid CO2.

But I've totally noticed the gendered thing. I was at LTK with friends a couple of weeks ago, and I ordered their take on the Dark & Stormy (rum and ginger beer, yummy!) and someone else, a guy, ordered a blackberry capirhina.

Guess who got the pinky-purple drink set down in front of them, and who got the booze-colored one?

Yup. And we noticed how gendered that was, too.

That's simple, whiskey gets the male machoness because whiskey is the drink of every cowboy in every cowboy movie.

This is kind of filth reminds me of all the anti-male commercials these days.
Nearly all the tv spots portray men as bumbling morons and woman as all knowing and smart.
We need to write those commercials and tell them to stop degrading men on tv the way women used to be degraded on tv, like in the ad you showed (from 17 years ago).

Texas drinking is a hobby, so I can handle everything but (ironically?) tequila. I used to drunk vodka on ice with my ex. Pretty much left Smirnoffs behind in highschool. We call my boss and his girlfriend the bourbon twins because they always drink tall bourbon and waters and our local spot makes them extra small because they know we're all on a nonprofit budget. A lot of the women I work with drink strait liquor. Besides the occasional Mojito or Bahama mama, gin and tonic, rum & coke, & whiskey and coke are my current favorites.

The problem that I have is that I look so young that I will probably get carded for the next 20 years of my life. I know this because my mom is 43 and still gets carded. People say "Oh how lucky! Cause you won't look a day over 17. Ever." But right now, I'd really like to look like I'm in my 20s because I am. I always feel like people think I'm giving them a fake ID or something.

I don't drink scotch regularly, but I'm working on it. So far, it goes down hard and burns my tummy in a bad way. Anybody else have that problem? How did you overcome it? I dearly want to learn how to enjoy it. Many of my friends derive such deep pleasure from experiencing the different kinds of scotch. I want that kind of joy. Sipping it, reading a good book. Lovely, lovely.

Anybody else think of Steve Martin in "The Jerk"?

***
Navin: Sorry about your wife Hobart.

Hobart: Federal regulations sir. Oh, dear me. Your wife has given you another gold chain. I nearly forgot. Ah, I suppose I'm still not quite over Hester's death.

Navin: Well, these things take time.

Hobart: Yes, so I'm told. Oh, and here's your drink sir, like the one you saw in the magazine.

Navin: Wow, you got the bamboo umbrella and everything. See that? (pulls the magazine out of the drawer) "Be somebody".

Hobart: Very good sir, very good.
*****

Be somebody.

Yay underage drinking!

My drink of choice is gin and tonic, and I have no idea how girly or manly it's considered. I think it's pretty neutral. I've never gotten in trouble buying gin, and the one time I ordered a G&T in a restaurant, I got one of the strongest ones I'd ever had.

Like I said, underage, and the waiter totally knew. He probably figured I was trying to get drunk.

Me and my suitemates all love beer. Never gotten any shit for that one, either, probably because we're college students and everyone assumes we just like it because it's cheap.

Of course, I love strawberry margaritas and sangria. I have been known to enjoy Smirnoff Ice. Nothing wrong with the girly drinks.

I like Guinness, mostly because I have an excuse to drink it slowly.

I drink whiskey on the rocks after a bad breakup, because it makes me feel so much worse. That's also the only time I smoke.

The dearth of whiskey drinking women worked in my favor on the distillery tours in Ireland. They ask for a volunteer to be a whiskey taster, and mine was the only female hand raised, and I always got selected.

@metabonbon: If you don't like scotch, try whiskey. Bushmills is good stuff for a beginner. Once you are accustomed to whiskey taste, you start to appreciate the burn, and you can try rougher whiskies.

He loves high-waisted bikini bottoms. And he drinks Johnny Walker.

BTW, as I said above I'm a nondrinker, and I have a trememdous sweettooth, and by way of "fuck you and the stereotype you rode in on," I frequently order Shirley Temples. That gets double-takes; I'm a masculine-presenting man in his mid-thirties. But I just stare and repeat myself.

What's interesting to me about this (and yes, I'm a whiskey drinker in bars - Bushmill's or Bulleit, depending) is how I, a somewhat androgynous looking woman, don't get nearly the commentary that my friends and colleagues with more femme appearances do. I'm not sure what to call it, but since I have kind of a genderqueer thing going for me these days there's a certain hesitation, and then folks almost always defer to the treatment they would give a man. It's strange, and at times infuriating. Then again, when I'm read as a butch lady, the expectations are "act like a man, drink like a man!" and folks will give me grief if I order something that looks or tastes like fruit juice. The latter scenario is more common at queer joints. Who knew ordering a damn drink could be such a clusterf*ck, eh?

I like vodka just about any way they serve it.
I find many woman like vodka also.
Vodka shots, or mixed. It is always a great drink.
I find many woman from Europe can drink American men under the table with shots.

Hehe. I love this post.

This issue of gendering inanimate objects like booze came up with one of my male students. For some reason I mentioned in class - probably because I was having them analyze advertisements, some of the more interesting and egregious ones of which were for alcohol - that I feel strange for not liking beer because I'm of German heritage and grew up in one of the most German states. He admitted that he actually gets teased because he hates beer. And I said, "It's pretty ridiculous that we have to gender even what we *eat and drink*."

Whiskey ads are almost always aimed toward men. In fact, I don't even recall seeing one in a women's magazine. Just today my class was looking at an ad for some kind of pomegranate liqueur. The ad consisted of a martini glass with the red liqueur in it balancing on top of a pomegranate. All of a sudden, like inspired, one of my boys piped up, "It looks really girly. I can't picture myself walking around with a drink like that." I was like ... it's a martini glass with a red liquid in it. Red liquids are girly? But even underage college students - and probably even young kids - have a sense of the gendered nature of booze.

I drink a sort of weakling whiskey - Jack - and I get the tough-girl reactions all the time, even from guys I date. And I'm like ... wtf. It's Jack. It's almost sweet. I don't mind the reactions, but it just reenforces that booze is one of the most obviously gendered products around, almost on par with clothes. And it annoys the shit out of me to think it's used as another tool to inspire homophobic insults and gender policing, which it surely does.

I don't drink anymore, but when I did drink I drank vodka, generally neat or in Absolut Lemonades.

But I so relate to being served the wrong drink. Years ago I was out with a group of friends, and one of the gentlemen in our group took one look at what the girls were drinking (whiskey, neat; gin & tonic; vodka, neat) and at what the guys were drinking (margarita, old fashioned, bar drink called a "zombie brain", pina colada) and said, "It figures that in this crowd the women would drink the hard drinks and the men the foofy drinks." (Including himself in that second group, of course.)

I've had a thing for hard apple cider lately. Must be the season.

Personally I hate whiskey and bourbon. Not because they're strong, I just don't like the taste. I love vodka tonics though. They're plenty strong and not sweet like some stereotypical "girl" drinks that we make me sick before I even get tipsy from the amount of sugar in them. But my all time favorite thing is tequila shots. So whenever a guy claims that I don't like whiskey cause it's strong I just laugh and order us some shots.

I LOVE a Jack Daniels and Coke. Or Southern Comfort and Coke, or any other type of whiskey - don't like vodka, never have. But bartenders do seem to find it odd - hell, practically everyone I know finds it odd. A few nights ago I was having a drink with my boyfriend - he ordered a Coca-Cola, with nothing in it, I ordered the above. Guess which drink the bartender put in front of me? He looked rather confused, bless him, when we swapped them round.

I hate beer, never could stand it. I mostly drink wine or mead, but I also drink whisky (Laphroaig or Talisker, or Jamesons if I'm in the mood for Irish). Of course, I just buy a fifth of the stuff and it lasts forever. Going out and buying booze by the glass in a bar is hideously expensive, I hate hanging out in most bars (less since the smoking ban went into effect), and then I'd just have to drive home anyway.

I started drinking Jim Beam because it was the cheapest, hardest thing available (to last longer, not 'cause I'm a drunk) and developed a huge appreciation for better whiskey once I got a chance to try it. I need to find out what the hell we drank in Scotland; it tasted like gouda.

Always drink it straight. Pop tastes nasty with alcohol.

This post makes me wish there was a feminist whisk(e)y club somewhere. Maybe a club where any sort of liquor snobbery is welcome as long as you don't gender the drinks! I'd love to trade tasting notes with folks who don't have these drink biases.

To Thomas, Cheers. Those things are yummy!

I'm with Kate: Jameson. On the rocks. No sprite or juice added, thanks. Depending on the bartender, it takes some convincing. But if you're in a rootbeer mood try it with some dark unspiced rum. Mmm, IBC rootbeer and Myer's rum. But Jameson is my standard for sure.

Ah, this makes me realize how long it's been since I had a drink - 9 months of pregnancy + 10 months of breastfeeding! Jesus. And no caffeine either. Is this what it's like to be a Mormon? Damn! (Please don't get all mad at me if you're LDS!) Only 2 months to go.

"This is kind of filth reminds me of all the anti-male commercials these days.
Nearly all the tv spots portray men as bumbling morons and woman as all knowing and smart."
You have a point Jenny, anti-male ads today are pretty bad and despicable. A girlfriend of mine was watching one and started laughing, I had to tell her that is not what feminism is about and she should be against those too.

The gendering of alcohol hits the Gay Community as well:

I'm a big, bearded lug, so's my best boyfriend.

I drink Laphroaig or Ardbeg, neat. I blame my Scottish ancestry.

He drinks Cosmopolitans or Manhattans. I blame SATC.

The server NEVER knows where to put the "girly" drink. I've seen startled double-takes, worried expressions, even a pout. And they ALWAYS ask about the foofy drink, as if that's the questionable one. Surely, a big burly man drinking fanged Islay single malt is normal. Le sigh.

I seldom drink liquor, mostly because it's tough on my stomach and often expensive -- and also because I fucking love beer. Especially a good ESB or dunkelsbier. I'm about to resume a homebrew project in service of that love.

I've always hated sugary drinks of any kind (except plain fruit juice), which means I avoid fruity cocktails and many wheat beers. For the same reason, I've never gotten into whiskeys -- too syrupy. Although I would like to adjust, since I do like Manhattans. Good gin always tastes great to me, though, whether in a martini or with tonic.

I tend not to encounter many drink assumptions, even when I'm out drinking with my sugar toothed boyfriend. I think part of that is because I tend to ask questions about what's on hand before I order, though, and because I tend to be the one to recite the order.

Rum and coke, tequila, beer. Sometimes at my grandparents house I have whiskey sour.

Once at a bar, my friend and I both ordered the stout and our male friends got lighter beers, until the second round when they ordered dark beers to feel "manly". It's not my fault I don't want to drink most of the piss breweries try to pass off as beer these days.

One of my male friends unapologetically loves fruity drinks, specifically mango. More power to him, I say. Well... kudos to him for not being shamed into buying something he doesn't like.

Beer girl here! The darker, the better. I also like whiskey, I dated a guy for a while who imported it from Scotland and taught me how to taste it like you'd taste wine. Stuff like Jack Daniels just does not compare.

Fruity drinks are meh. You can't taste the alcohol, and if you can't taste it, why bother paying for it?

Whisky-lemonade is what I liked when I lived in Scotland. Sadly, most bars in the US don't carry lemon soda, so I go for a whisky-sprite.

Yes! I always got vodka lemonade in clubs and pubs when I was studying in England. When I got back to the States, I tried mixing vodka with Squirt to recreate it. Do NOT mix vodka and Squirt! You have been warned!

Anyway, I usually drink rum and coke or gin and tonic, which I think are relatively gender-neutral (but I am not that familiar with my alcohol stereotypes). I have the palate of a 12-year-old and enjoy sweet sugary drinks a lot, but I always feel embarrassed to order them in public places because I feel like I'm reinforcing stereotypes. I know, I know, it's dumb.

However, Southern Comfort and Squirt is the greatest beverage to take camping. The only time I will ever drink that nasty sweet swill :)

There is nothing like an 16 year old Lagavulin single malt with one ice cube in a brandy snifter...its heaven all the way down, but when i can't afford the $70 bottle, I'm happy with my Jack Daniels or Johnnie Walker Black.

When I ordered a shot of Wild Turkey I did have the male bartender ask me if I was sure. Ugh

Sorry for fitting into the stereotype, but all "brown liquors" make me want to hurl. I do really like beer, though. Wine gives me a headache.

Jack Daniels. Ice. some days way more of it is necessary than others... we'll see how this evening goes come 9 p.m. EDT....

whiskey, straight up!

My college (Wells College, formerly all-women, went co-ed four years ago) has a drinking song that starts off "We drink whiskey with all the college men, scotch with the best of them, beer with the rest of them" and I ALWAYS wondered why I'd have to drink whiskey with the men. Why can't I just drink my whiskey by my bad self?

I love how this post has an unusually high number of comments, usually reached only by more controversial topics.

We like to talk about our alcohol.

True story: I came back from the bar with a Jack and Coke, and my buddy said; Thats a mans drink. And yes I was pleased. Let me note that he had by far the manliest drink in the house; the juices from the copenhagen in his lip.

I detest American light lagers. Budwiser, coors, miller all that farce. Deschutes has an awesome Black hills porter, the alaska brewing companies beers are damn good. IPA's give me a hangover greater than normal beer for some reason. I homebrew and the best thing I ever made was a blackberry stout... I wish I had a bottle, I would enter it into a competition, but alas I drank it all.

I do come from a whisky/scotch house. If you have a hard time drinking any booze my advise is to sip. The problem with missing drinks is that I get completly trashed when I do so. I always mix gin, and I always end up trashed. Not so with my sipping whisky. Even though they taste fine I am against blended whiskies.

I find the same, but with coffee - I used to live with a burly guy with tattooed arms and a shaved head, and at coffee bars he would be always be given my short espresso and I his big, heavily sweetened, syrup-flavoured, whipped-creamed "frou frou" coffee (with sprinkles, of course).

Liquor-wise, I tend to go for the harder stuff, and a Long Island iced tea usually hits the spot. What most bothers me about alcohol and gender was how, in the halls (dorms) during my first year at university, I'd overhear other girls spending a hungover Saturday or Sunday morning bitching over breakfast about how 'fattening' any given liquor was, so that those who had drank darker, more 'sugary' liquors the night before would get a requisite tut-tutting about waistlines followed by advice on how to binge drink whilst maintaining svelteness. Yuk :S

I'm a rum drinker, myself. Not spiced, unless it's REAL rum soaked in mamahuana, and not white rum. Lambs, Pussers, Mount Gay, anything that is either a deep golden or a rich, thick brown. Generally mix it with diet coke (the normal stuff is wayyyy too sweet) or proper ginger ale.

I don't tend to get too many problems with my drinks being served in pubs. Maybe it's a UK booze-culture thing, but I find that on the whole we have the opposite problem; men who are impressed, or oddly proud, to see a woman drinking something "manly" that isn't beer or ale and who end up making it too strong because "any woman that can handle a real drink deserves a double", or something similar.

Of course, most servers of fine beverages over here tend to be women, and a lot of the smaller bars have unofficial "women-only" employing practices, so it is rare generally to encounter a male bartender. Managers are generally men, though.

Bar managers will, upon hearing of my love for good dark rums, sometimes present me with a free shot of their best stuff, usually neat. I don't know if they are testing me or what. Damn tasty, some of them, though!

Whoa, I read the ad the wrong way...I remember when it came out, and--being a whiskey drinker myself--I thought it meant, "He drinks the same drink I do." Aside from the bikini part, I found it kinda progressive. Don't now. Just goes to show how you filter things through your own experiences.

Whoops, filter. Didn't mean that to be a pun.

The girls in the ad look more interested in each other. Am I the only one getting that?

I like a dirty martini. I don't even know if it's "girly" or not because everyone I know, male or female, is disgusted by it. I think olive juice is tasty.

Otherwise I get a Jameson on the rocks, and I drink a lot of wine too.

I love whisky! The peatier and smokier, the better.

I haven't actually encountered any resistance to this in bars, despite being a petite woman.

I like Midori Sours, Sex on the Beaches, and Long Islands, but often feel pressured into ordering the Long Island, as it is the "manliest" of the three (I'm a guy).

Stupid sexist socialization keeps me from my booze!

Thomas, you're my non-alcoholic hero :D

Kathryn, I too am from KY and I've always wondered if my perspective on this issue is alittle skewed.
Woodford Reserve is like 2 minutes from my parents house and I live about two hours north of Lynchburg (where they make Jack Daniels) so drinking bourbon has never been a big deal. But it was kind of a big deal in high school that I drank Wild Turkey and Diet Coke at every party. It's also interesting that in so many country songs they talk abut how they just want a woman who can chug beer and drink whiskey and drive big trucks as though it's some sort of anomaly. I don't drink whiskey anymore (all those nights of downing bottle after bottle I was bound to get sick eventually), but I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Bud Lite (which is a whole other issue).

I should not be commenting on this, because i still have five more years until i can drink legally, but i've found that at most of the parties i go to, it's the boys drinking beer and the girls drinking vodka. I'm guessing that's just a high school thing, but all of my girl friends drink much stronger drinks than my guy friends do. I, personally, like to know exactly what I'm drinking, and how much, so I tend to just do straight shots of vodka. It helps me keep track so I don't get to sloppy.
With my family, however, we all have a glass of wine with dinner. The whole family. Nothing gendered about it.

The hubby and I have the same issue. I like to drink dry red wines or serious beers, and my husband likes to drink fruity frozen drinks, hard lemonade, and white wines. Waiters can never figure us out.

For you beer-drinkin' ladies, I can only say COME TO FORT COLLINS! We have amazing breweries -- New Belgium, O'Dells, and smaller locals -- and since it's a college town, you can usually get microbrews on tap for $2-3 a pint. Sweet.

I've never experienced any sexism with alchol drinking. Maybe a bit of the "ooo, such a tough lady for drinking that," but I've never had a bartender water down my drink. Nor have I ever had a waiter set the wine in front of me, and the stiff drink in front of my fiance. Which is good. Progress in America.

I'm a whiskey and rum girl. Sailor Jerry's and Jamenson are my all time favorites.

While attending a bachlorette party, we went to a college bar where i ordered a jamenson shot. The bartender really laughed in my face and goes i'll make you something else. Comes back with a shot of UV blue vodka. Sick. I told him that wasn't what I wanted, and he said something along the lines of "a pretty little thing like you shouldn't be drinking man drinks"

jerk

I really don't have this problem. I only drink in very good bars with very cool people (obviously), although I can only afford to do this because I or my friends work in them and rock discounted action.

I love scotch but hate bourbon, feel pretty ambivalent about beer but can sink rum all night, treat red wine as though it were juice, drink gin with lemonade because tonic makes me retch and like my cocktails sour rather than sweet. Most of my taste I put down to experience, or lack of (I'm only 21 but have been tending bars since I was 18). I don't drink spirits neat, but neither do I use a great deal of mixer. At work I am expected to keep up with the boys and would be ridiculed if I tried to use my gender as a get-out-clause.

Neat spirits are an acquired taste, not a gendered one. Women are not usually encouraged to acquire that taste. Neither I nor any of my colleagues, male or female, would question a woman who ordered whisky, although we will point blank refuse to put lime in it. Customers get mocked for drinking bad drinks, not 'girly' drinks.

I think this may be one occasion where men suffer more from gender stereotypes. Here in the UK women can drink whatever the hell they want without it diminishing their femininity, whereas men are told at every turn that they can only drink certain things and some can get very wound up about it. I've had male customers ask me for manly cocktails, or a different glass because a stemmed glass is too girly. Men have asked for their white wine spritzer in a pint glass because they didn't want to be laughed at. I've also had a very camp man complain because his stein looked too manly. I've yet to hear a woman voice similar worries.

I REALLY like this post, as well, though I'm not much of a drinker. I just don't care for the taste, generally, save for the occasional glass of wine. I've had jack and coke in the past before, and liked it...

Most people, however, are shocked when they find out I don't drink, though. I'm a big, tattooed and pierced woman who fronts rock bands, so it is frequently assumed I do drugs and drink when all I want is a really kick ass cup of strong coffee.

Can I come have a Shirley Temple with you, Thomas?

I tend to get "are you sure?" when I order dirty martinis or whiskey straight-up (my two drinks of choice) in bars, and I think the incredulity is a mix of gender and class. "Man" drinks--whiskey, bourbon, etc.--are also associated very closely and very deliberately with a certain socioeconomic group; if you look young, punk, and decidedly middle-to-lower-class, you should be satisfied with PBR.

Like the song goes: "Jose Cuervo, you are a friend of mine" I LOVE tequila. Shiner beer and Chivas Regal are faves, also.

@Thomas: my husband is another teetotaler. Glad to know he isn't the only guy who orders Shirley Temples. :D

I am an unashamed lover of sweet, mild alcoholic drinks: hard cider, hard lemonade, wine coolers.

BTW, someone told me that the American version of Mike's Hard Lemonade uses beer instead of vodka. Is that true?

When my husband and I went to Vegas we decided to have a drink before going into our rooms and because I was full and not feeling alcohol at all I asked for something light and fruity. The bartender gave me a condescending look and chuckle-grunted and asked, "You mean...something girly?"

I was pissed. A few days later my mother-in-law introduced me to Patrón Silver (tequila) and I was in love. I went back to the bar and I was a little disappointed that there was a different bartender at the time. This bartender had mixed me a drink days before and it was relatively strong -a happy surprise- but he still showed concern when I ordered a shot of Patrón. He kept asking if I wanted a shot of it in another drink. Even though it was a different bartender I still felt angry about the incident days before and I ended up having 7 consecutive shots. I left without the slightest wobble and a silly prideful feeling (I'm a very small person!), and I can only hope he didn't see my husband carrying me past the bar to our room about 15 minutes later when I started passing out.

Thanks to that patronizing bartender I may never drink my beloved tequila again. Thanks to the fact even DRINKS are gendered, my husband has never and -I expect- will never order those piña colada flavored drinks he loves so much to have at home.

How did it become like this that we have categorized what type/kind of drink a person "should" have depending on whether their gender appearance? Can't it be that some women love to have some strong alcohol and some football style men would rather drink a fruity something or other? When I read that some men would rather drink something they don't want or don't like just in order to keep up there masculine appearance, it makes me very sad. And when women wouldn't touch hard liquor, whiskey or whatever, because it would make them look "unfeminine" just makes the world a very strange place. We have made it such a taboo to step outside of how your gender should act, that when someone does, or tries to they are often labeled as weird or strange. Like when she ordered the same thing as her husband but was giving about half the alcohol, the bartender saw her as a women and assumed she couldn't take as much as her man husband. Now yes, there is a biological difference in how much alcohol a person can take, but you can't tell that from just looking at a person. So though I don't drink, and I have no stories of any experiences, this type of "genderizing" thing happens all over, whether it be sports, electronics, food or whatever. Our world has become a place where there are some things women should have and some things men should have just because of their gender.

May I just add to this discussion that every time I've ever gotten chewed out for ordering a 'girly' long island, it's by a woman. Most men have the decency not to mention anything unless they want to start a fight.

It's well known that women are hit harder by alcohol, both from how their bodies process it and their relative size, but plenty of girl drinks are just as strong as a shot glass and much more plentiful, the gendering of those drinks still baffles me.

I love a good, strong Canadian beer at the pub on Friday nights. I love a Corona at the cottage on a hot day. I love a white-wine spritzer when I'm hanging with my mom before dinner. I love a nice dry red wine AT dinner with my boyfriend. I love a pina colada while I chill out on the beach. I love a vodka-tonic Saturday night at the dance bar. I love a whiskey-and-coke at a house party. I love a glass of cheap champagne at midnight on New Years Eve. I love a Bailey's on the rocks or a pint of Guinness come Saint Patricks Day. I even love a rum-and-eggnog on Christmas Day.

Fuck gendering. Drink to the occasion. Order what you want. I used to think consciously about the way I'm perceived when I order something girly or something manly, and then I realized one day: If I like it, I'm gonna drink it. And that's that. If you want to pull a subtle feminist move at the bar, do this: Think carefully about the BRAND you're buying, and the way they market their product. Do they promote sexist advertising? Then fuck them, and find a brand that doesn't.

This may have some regional connotations too. I'm from Kentucky, where we make bourbon. Lots and lots of bourbon. So I usually order some kind of bourbon-based drink (with coke, ginger ale or club soda) when I'm out. Here I don't get a second look. When I lived in DC and would order the same thing, bartenders raised their eyebrows and men at the bar felt they had to remark on my choice of drink.

If you go to an event like Derby or just the races at Keeneland, you see many woman dressed to the nines in designer dresses and drinking bourbon. Ditto a Junior League cocktail party. Nobody ever thinks it's in any way a "guy thing" here. It's just a "Kentucky" thing.

I once ordered a Maker's in South Carolina, and when the waiter turned in the drink order the bartender, who was from Kentucky, came out to the dining room to find out which one of us was also from Kentucky. :-)

I'll drink anything that doesn't have too much sugar in it. Period. I don't like sugary drinks; they give me cramps. Preferred drinks are scotch and water (no cold scotch), bourbon straight (only classy bourbon like Maker's Mark, Woodford, Basil Hayden and others fall in this category), whiskey on the rocks or with ginger ale, and I can do shots of rum and vodka. Preferred lifestyle choice is drinking Pabst and doing shots of 100 proof Old Granddad (I swear it's really good bourbon, and doesn't hurt the wallet like classy bourbon) because I look far older than my 24 years would suggest.

I don't have a lot of problems ordering Whiskey, but my mom does. She is a die-hard whiskey fan, only thing she really drinks with regularity. Waiters will give her strange looks like she shouldn't be drinking that. I personally think that's absurd; they should be enthusiastic that someone wants to pay for a drink at all.

I'm a little late to the party here, but I've got to say that I've never had a problem with ordering what are traditionally considered to be "male" drinks. I'm a Guiness gal myself, or good whiskey if I'm drinking with my Dad (he got me hooked, it's all his fault). Also, tequila and/or rum. Yum. But then, I'm a relatively butch looking individual, despite my petite stature. I tend to get weirder looks ordering Bellinis than I do Guiness.

However, I will never, ever, ever drink another flavoured Smirnoff as long as I live. I got just riotously sick on it at my last team's rugby rookie night, and now even the smell of it is enough to make me green around the gills. Blarg.

"I mean, looking at some of these ads, you'd think whiskey is something on the level of Axe or Maxim -- something only a douchebag could love."

...and your disdain for the assumption that only men drink scotch is just as sexist as your above statement.
Axe - The ads are silly, and i hope to god that is what they were going for. Men want to get laid. Put on AXE and you will get laid. Period. Just like "invest with Tom Vu and you will be rich". Axe has a chemical in it that makes women want you, or so the product leads the consumer to believe. what if you found out, gasp, a woman was behind the creation of that ad!?!? SHOCK! HORROR!

and maxim, is to men, what Vogue, elle, Alica Allure, red book (shall i go on?) is to women. The artilces are geared towards men, NOT to opress, repress, distress, impress or cause duress . But to MAKE MONEY. Most of the articles in maxim make fun of the reader anyway....take a good look.

side note - the 2nd ad from Johnny walker, they look like a gay couple....so nothing about sexism there.

no, i take that back, they do not LOOK like a gay couple, but the picture with the tagline portrays them as a gay couple.

The black sheep here ( I bet I'm gonna get some sh*# for this one) is just putting in his two cents-

Women and men ( guy vs. girl drinks etc. etc.)both face many different stereotypes in the world, that's human nature. But this is just ridiculous complaining. If you don't like the looks for ordering a whiskey no one is stopping anybody from drinking at home, or just with a group of known friends. Plus, who gives a rat's ass if some stranger gives you a look or makes some dumb comment; look at it as a way of knowing right away who is passing judgement w/out truly knowing the person. You can't try to force people into accepting you if they are prejudiced instead you just end up pushing them farther away.

While I'm not referring to anyone in particular-if you're gonna complain do it about something that is truly worth the time, and don't pick and choose where/who you will feel sympathy for and who not too. That is selective moral outrage and is just as prejudiced or worse than complaining about sexism when ordering a drink. This topic is a little played out I think.

BTW- Go gov. Palin '08! Not because she's a woman, but rather because I agree with much of what she stands for.