From time to time I delve into conversations about talismans–wards or symbols designed to portray some level of understanding and even unify a population. Today’s talk is about beer. There are few more defining masculine elements than beer. We are at the point where drinking beer means you are a man. I know this, because when I drink mixed drinks (often the pink kind), people find it gives them reason to challenge my masculinity. This challenge does not always arise from men. Often women question my manhood when they see me kicking back a cosmopolitan. What about me as a person changes from the moment I am drinking a Cosmo to the moment I’m drinking a Coors Light? Nothing does, and everything does, because the perception of who I am becomes so narrowly focused on the seemingly incongruous drink in my hand. It stands out, and suddenly questions become assumptions and blossom into fears.
Beer is marketed as a man’s drink. Beer commercials show hearty men kicking back a drink with friends and circling the bar for prey. By prey I mean women, as the entire operation is a mirror of animalistic mating rituals. We men, who were once hunters and gatherers, must proudly shout our masculinity by displaying the most desirable traits of our gender to the other gender–and even to our own kind. Those traits are not the ones you might imagine on the surface. Unlike we expect women to do, we don’t thrust out our sexual parts in hopes of being noticed. If anything, we abhor those who do so. Men are expected to be judged by a different set of symbols. We are expected to be judged by how tough and manly we appear to be.
At some point beer became manly. This is even more the case than hard liquor. There is a peculiar connotation to hard liquor that separates the drinks from beer. In fact, different types of hard liquor have different connotations, based primarily on social strata. Vodka is easily accessible to the moderately wealthy, so it conveys a since of class and danger. On the other hand, truly fine whiskey is reserved for the wealthiest echelon. I’ve known shots of whiskey to go for upwards of $55.
So, what about beer? Beer is man water at a bar. Beer sends the message that you are a social drinker and that you understand that men are expected to behave a certain way in that environment. Drink beer or be seen as an outsider, or at least as different. Even within beer there are strata. I drink Stella (though not as a strata–for taste), which is seen as a bit more of a connoisseur taste than, say, Coors or Pabst Blue Ribbon. The message inherent in the selection is that I don’t settle for the cheap crap.
I’m a symbolic interaction theorist, and I believe all of the interactions we have between each other are governed by symbols that are meant to have shared meaning. Understanding and agreeing upon what these symbols mean is the quickest path to clear and agreed upon communication.
Some Thoughts:
- Weak post yesterday. I apologize for that. As it turns out, posting with your eyes half-closed and your consciousness sagging is not an effective plan. However, it became a learning moment. I learned that I don’t do well after 9pm unless I have coffee. This is further proof of my caffeine addiction. Well, if I have to be addicted to something this is much better than alcohol, drugs, gambling, or even sex.