The Great Debate: Appletini vs. Scotch

Group: Richard, Heather, Rachel

Independent Project

The other day, I got coffee with a few friends and couldn’t stop thinking: what designates coffee as the universal “getting to know you” beverage? Why not tea? Or Hot cocoa? Or lemonade? How many times have you been asked out to grab a glass of milk or cup of cider?

Think of how many times you’ve gone out for coffee with someone. Be it a close friend, professor, colleague, classmate, or a date, coffee seems to be the social common thread.

So the I began to think about the classifications and thought that goes into arranging a date, or a get-together, or a conference and what each different beverage communicates.

Tea: Too European and potentially too feminine

Hot Cocoa: Too childish

Soda: Too adolescent

Lemonade: Too childish and too “southern”

Milk: Too childish

Cider: Too complicated

Fruit juice: Too childish and only appropriate for early morning functions

Energy drinks: Too adolescent

While going out for drinks seems a little more formal than going for coffee, there are similar associations we make with alcoholic beverages. Going out for drinks seems a little more serious because it’s at night (and maybe sexy if it’s a dat because apparently alcohol is directly correlated with getting lucky?). We’ve all watched Scrubs at some point and laughed at the image of JT daintily sipping his appletini. How do beverages become gendered? And why is it that most mixed drinks are especially associated with the feminine? Here’s a brief list of drinks and their generalized gender associations:

Martini-masculine

Gin and tonic-masculine

Scotch-masculine

Beer (especially darker beers)-masculine

Bloody Mary-masculine

Wine (especially sweeter wines)-feminine

Mimosas-feminine

Margaritas-feminine

Fruity-tinis-feminine

Cosmo-feminine

I’ve noticed that the non-alcoholic drinks become a concern with age while alcoholic beverages become a concern with gender. If you’re on a first date with a guy and he orders a milk at Satelitte, what is your reaction? If you decide to give him a second date and go out for drinks and he orders a fizzy apple cocktail…what would your reaction be?

Why is it that if a guy went out and ordered a Cosmo when I’m sipping an IPA, I’d be a little turned off? How is it that gender has become engrained in the most basic human activities?

And so, just as in my blog on creamed corn, I’m wondering, who establishes these distinctions? When things are foundational rather than relativistic, how do we, as unique individuals go about deciding what is foundational? What drinks are girly and which are manly? Which are age appropriate and which are not? And the even bigger question is, if things are relativistic rather than foundational, who is responsible? Where is the power? The authority? Relativism and foundationalism have the same general problem, neither effectively determine where the power comes from.