How did we get here: A round-up of what you should read about the mercurial wine mom
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Where did wine-mom meme’s start? Why are they so popular? Why is mommy-wine culture the way it is? We’ve rounded up five great reads to get you rethinking this aspect of women and drinking with some ideas on how we can move towards change.
“The Many Faces of the Wine Mom” by Ashley Fetters in The Atlantic
“The stresses and challenges that wine moms are drinking to take a break from—or, as some might put it, drinking to escape—aren’t unique to those who identify as wine moms. They’re shared by lots of other moms (and dads) who might or might not drink wine to wind down.”
This Atlantic piece is a great place to start to familiarize yourself with the definition of “wine mom,” her place in internet memes, and also to learn a bit about what it means for women to drink in the public eye. This is a great foundational piece that discusses how we can move toward systemic changes needed to support mothers in a meaningful way.
“A Short History of the ‘Wine-Mom’ Meme” by Courtney Gorter in Romper
Writer Courtney Gorter finds the humour in the wine mom, tracing her emergence on social media to 2012 Facebook groups. Exploring the wine mom’s various meme-ified faces, Gorter looks at the various pop culture influences of the wine mom, found in TV shows and books, connecting the dots of wine mom’s genealogy. This is an insightful and entertaining piece definitely worth the read.
“Society Was Drugging Mothers Long Before Mommy Wine Culture Was A Thing” by Amber Leventry in Scary Mommy
This piece situates the wine mom within a lineage of insidious marketing campaigns aimed at anesthetizing women when they’re at their most vulnerable: right when they’ve become mothers. A great introduction into the business of tranquilizing mothers, Leventry’s piece is at once searing critique and a trove of knowledge.
“Wine Mom Culture is Terrible But Moms’ Quiet Suffering Is Worse” by Halley Bondy in The Temper
“ Visitors gave me an excuse to drink without making me feel super irresponsible (which I was, absolutely). I probably would have been drinking whether or not wine mom culture existed; the new trend was just a way to have fun without dealing with the shameful truth. We could be open about our booze instead of guzzling a bottle in a broom closet.”
This is a stunningly sympathetic piece by Halley Bondy that tackles the subject of the wine mom from the point of view of someone who used to be a wine mom. Bondy shows us the thinking behind why a new mother might reach for a glass of wine, asking of us that we be kind and understand her struggles. Bondy examines the media’s responsibility in vilifying the wine mom — think pieces pointing to the dangers of the wine-mom’s lifestyle are well intentioned, Bondy says, but they also, inadvertently, paint these mothers as pariahs, as irresponsible, and they don’t consider the trauma of motherhood and how alcohol is oftentimes literally the only affordable respite for some.
“The Feminisation of Alcohol Marketing” in BBC
This thorough piece allows us to see the profitability of “wine mom” as a brand, plus the thinking behind commodified items such as shirts and glasses that have “wine mom” emblazoned across them. This is a great place to learn about how the rise in women’s socioeconomic power is a site for exploitation by Big Alcohol, which has created many campaigns of gendered marketing that in turn normalize alcohol for future generations.
