Holly Glenn Whitaker

Holly's story was that of all the women who try to conform to a life they are told they should want, one that looks good on paper and in movies. She drank green juice and made all the right sounds with men she didn't really like and killed it in the board room and had a yoga-tight body. She did all the right things until all the right things left her prostrate, drunk, on the floor of her apartment. But when she started to look for a way to recover, the support systems she found for sobriety were archaic and patriarchal. Urging drinkers towards a newfound humility is great if you're a man, but if you're a woman and not in a position to renounce privileges you never had, a whole other approach is needed. Quit Like a Woman is a memoir which is also a call to arms, a revolution against everything we assume is true about alcohol and addiction, and a celebration of learning how to claim everything life has to offer.

The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol

Quit Like a Woman

Gigi Lennon

… the women in this world who try to conform to a life they are told they should want-one that looks good on paper. I drank green juice and I made the right sounds when I fucked men I didn't really like and I crushed it in the boardroom

I discovered that alcohol was not only something I could not abide, but perhaps something we all shouldn't, and that was paralleled by the part where I discovered that the systems in place to help me stop drinking the chemical we've been trained to tolerate--the chemical that was physically and emotionally and mentally murdering me--were archaic, patriarchal, mascu-line, and hence ineffective for me as a non-man.

Here is the time in history where The Future Is Female, the wine is pink, the yoga classes serve beer, and the death toll rises.

We are born impressionless, doughy little babies into a world that carves its fear and love of conformity into us.

To change behavior, you have to go deeper. Americans aren't stupid. We are, however, preternaturally disposed to herd behavior (FOMO), with a strong desire to preserve a sense of individuality and maintain control over our decision making. We're joiners and don't want to be left out of fads; we're also fiercely independent and don't want to be told what to do. We are a people constantly balancing our need to belong with our need to maintain individuality and control over our decision making. 

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