Beirut, flip-cup, kings - all of these have traditionally been the province of male college students. But according to a new study released by researchers at Loyola Marymount University, that may no longer be the case.
The study, which found that women in college are now playing drinking games as much as their male counterparts, may represent a demographic change, since male college students were historically thought to play drinking games more - and drink more in general - than women.
The news did not come as a surprise to many women at Tufts.
"I think it's kind of funny that they did a study on that," freshman Ashley Semler said. "Guys and girls play drinking games."
Senior Julia Manoli agreed. "Most of the time I see mixed groups of men and women playing together," she said, adding that during her time at Tufts, the number of men and women playing drinking games has seemed to remain consistently equal. "Over the last few years I guess it's been pretty even."
Sophomore Emily Chapper has made similar observations. Chapper believes that personality plays a greater role than gender in determining how often a student will play drinking games.
"I'd say it depends on the people, not on the gender," Chapper said. "There are going to be guys that do it and don't, and girls that do it and don't."
Semler agreed. "I think it's more of a personal thing. Some people like playing drinking games, some people just prefer to drink and get it over with," she said.
Chapper felt that the apparent increase in women playing drinking games may be due to the fact that it has become less stigmatizing for a woman to participate in such activities. "It might be more socially acceptable now for girls to play drinking games in general," Chapper said.
Margot Abels, director of Drug and Alcohol Education Services at Tufts, agreed that modern college women are consuming more alcohol than women in college have historically, but she's not sure that it is an entirely new development. "There's definitely data that says women are drinking more than in the past," she said. "It's changed, but I think it changed a while ago."
Abels went on to explain that gender is perhaps not the most effective way to account for people's drinking habits. She used the yearly survey conducted by Tufts on student drinking habits as an example: In looking at the responses to the question about what motivates people to drink - a question that is modeled on national surveys about drinking - Abels has found that "there's not a lot of difference by gender."
According to Abels, an in-depth study conducted from a sociological perspective might provide more interesting data. "I'd like people to do more research," she said. "Not just on the hard numbers of how much people are drinking, but on the social context."
Semler also found that the study did not necessarily account for differences in the ways that men and women consume alcohol. "A lot of times for guys it's a competition of how much you can drink," Semler said. "For girls it's less about quantity and more about what you're drinking and what you do after."
While it may be par for the course for women to partake in a game of kings or flip-cup, some are worried that playing drinking games could put women at greater risk. "I would be concerned that it might increase instances of sexual assault and rape," Manoli said. "Women might be drinking more without thinking about how much they're consuming."
In fact, the study found that playing drinking games led to more negative behaviors for women than men, including missing classes, drunk driving, and engaging in sexual activities without protection - problems that often result from any type of binge drinking.
Abels acknowledged that women are, generally speaking, more affected by alcohol than men, but she warned that both sexes should make decisions based on how their own bodies react. "There are other factors that go into how much alcohol your body can handle," Abels said, adding that it is up to individuals to know their own personal limits when it comes to alcohol consumption.
Abels also said that while there is not necessarily anything inherently wrong with drinking games, people should be aware of the risks associated with them. "I don't demonize drinking games ... in and of itself it's not necessarily a bad thing," Abels said. "The way it's done, experience and history tells us that it can be problematic."
Abels emphasized that there are many factors beyond gender that determine how, or if, an individual consumes alcohol. She also added that a study such as the one in question cannot encompass all the details of an individual woman or man's life: "I don't think [the study] is as complex as how people really live their lives here."
