I turned 21 this weekend.
Hooray! I can buy alcohol -- and in my native state of Colorado, weed! What freedom! Parties are going to be so much more fun!
As many young adults know, turning 21 is considered a significant milestone in a young American’s life. This point is one of the most crucial markers of what it means to be an adult.
But it seems especially remarkable to me that the 21st birthday is sometimes considered more significant than the 18th, when you are legally considered an adult. Literally the only significant thing about turning 21 is that you can purchase alcohol – yet it is still considered a major milestone for growing up.
But wait… weren’t a lot of us drinking already?
According to the Center for Disease Control, underage drinkers consume 11 percent of alcohol consumed in the United States, and they are more likely to binge drink than adults. It is safe to assume that a large portion of Duke students has consumed alcohol before turning 21.
Much of the time, it feels like underage students engage in a very specific type of drinking -- binge drinking. This involves consuming a large amount of alcohol within a few hours. It’s basically the easiest way for freshmen and sophomores to get access to alcohol, because it is provided at many social events with no formal age barriers. All they have to do is attend a pregame or a loud, busy party, and they can get as much as they want. At these events, it is generally considered “normal” to consume large amounts of cheap, low-quality beer or liquor, regardless of normal drinking preferences.
But there is another kind of drinking, one in which underage drinkers cannot participate. It’s what is normally considered “adult” drinking, where one or two drinks are consumed in a more casual, mature environment. This is the kind of drinking that we normally see our parents doing at restaurants or after dinner. It is also much safer than binge drinking and can even have some health benefits.
The latter form of drinking, however, is inaccessible to young drinkers, while binge drinking is relatively easy to do in a university setting. So, while many have already consumed alcohol before turning 21, they have to wait for their birthday just to have a glass of wine at dinner. Consider how alcohol is shown in the media -- underage characters are often seen drinking heavily at parties, but we hardly ever see them drinking casually at dinner or at home. When this does occur, the characters are seen as more mature and sophisticated.
That’s because the 21st birthday isn’t the gateway to drinking. It’s the gateway to drinking like a grown-up.
Consider how strange it really is that we are celebrating a young adult’s ability to drink less than they had before – going from binge drinking to casual drinking. Although many of us have already had experiences with alcohol, turning 21 is the first time we can order a glass of wine at a fancy restaurant. This is a concept that is universally accepted to be strange, yet we continue to abide by this behavior.
Unfortunately, this standard can do a lot of damage. It prevents kids from drinking safely and pushes them into a drinking environment that leads to alcohol poisoning, a phenomenon made obvious during this year’s orientation week.
Here we see a number of students – most of whom are legal adults – engaging in unsafe behaviors in order to fit in with their older peers. Although they are, in every other sense of the word, adults, they binge drink because alcohol is still seen as a necessary tool to fit in the social environment of college culture. Without our current drinking laws, this could be achieved with a glass of wine or a single beer at a party. Unfortunately, our culture has taught them that much larger amounts of booze are necessary.
Without the ability to purchase their own alcohol, or the freedom to drink openly outside of party culture, underage drinkers are deprived of the ability to decide on their own how much alcohol they will drink. They lack the agency to decide their own limits and are unable to turn to trusted adults for advice on how to drink. Instead, they have to do what they see the people around them doing, even if they know it’s unsafe.
We live in a society where alcohol is glorified. It eases our pain, helps us sleep and helps us party hard. It also marks us as adults, people who are free to drink without sneaking around. But consider how nonsensical and unintuitive our culture is when it comes to the way we perceive alcohol. Maybe it’s time we rethink our drinking habits.
McKenna Glanz is a Trinity junior. Her column runs every other Tuesday.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.