Domesticating drink: a cultural history of alcohol

¶ … Domesticating Drink: Women, Men, and Alcohol in America, 1870-1940 by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. Specifically it will discuss the outlooks, agendas, and leadership of two organizations, the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU, founded 1874) and the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR, founded 1929). These two organizations form the backbone of the vast differences in American outlook when it comes to alcohol. One is extremely well-known for violent and vocal demonstrations against alcohol, while the other is known for its tireless work to repeal American prohibition. How could two women's organizations have such diverse and opposite views? Murdock's book shows the great rift that existed in America between those that approved of alcohol and those who did not, and how influential women were in political reform. These two organizations existed side by side in America because the country encourages freedom of thought and speech, no matter what the message.

These two organizations are extremely significant in American history because they indicate that so many diverse and discordant views can exist together in one complex society. They also indicate the power of women in American politics, and how American political reform has changed over the years. Women formed both organizations and kept them going until Prohibition was repealed in 1933. They showed men that women could organize, fight for what they believed in, and rally around a cause. They also showed that women were no longer content to simply run the household and care for the children. When the WCTU was formed, women had few rights and lived in a restrictive, Victorian society. When the WONPR was formed, women had gained the vote, and were taking a more active role in society and in politics. The differences between the two organizations represent the changing roles of women in society, and the freedoms women were beginning to discover and desire. As Murdock notes, "During the time of the WCTU and the WONPR, and of the Eighteenth and Twenty-First Amendments, a massive social transformation had taken place in the manner and atmosphere in which men and women interacted" (Murdock, 1998, p. 158). The country was changing, and the differences between these two organizations literally represented the changes in society, gender, and outlook. Moreover, the women of the WONPR seem more practical than the WCTU women. They were willing to modify Prohibition to make it work, while the WCTU wanted it upheld to the letter. This inability to compromise eventually was the downfall of the temperance groups. It was all or nothing for them, and eventually, they lost because they were so inflexible.

The WCTU formed before the turn of the century to combat violence and drunkenness that saloons and bars seemed to promote. The WCTU is the more well-known of these two organizations, probably because of leader Carrie Nation, who was notorious for striding into barrooms with an ax and chopping up the bar. This organization operated under the believe that "women as a sex opposed liquor" (Murdock 134). As they were to discover, that was not always the case, and so, two groups of women formed that violently opposed each other in their beliefs about alcohol and the freedom to drink it. This not only showed a growing rift in American society between those who supported Prohibition and those who opposed it, it showed how women's views and roles in society were changing. Just 30 or 40 years before it would be unthinkable for any "lady" to speak out in favor of alcohol consumption, but after the turn of the 20th century, women were becoming increasingly vocal and increasingly supportive of repealing the Eighteenth Amendment, as well as creating other freedoms and rights for women. They were a new generation of women who were more open to change and political growth, and they were far different from their Victorian sisters who had formed the WCTU.

Certainly not all women fell into this "wet" category, but many of them did, and it confounded the membership of the WCTU. As Murdock notes, "Ultimately, however, the WCTU's single-minded faith in dry women would prove its undoing. The WCTU was unequipped to battle female activists for the moral high ground in the Prohibition repeal debates" (Murdock, 1998, p. 137-138). The WCTU membership simply could not conceive that women would actually support Prohibition reform, and so, they could not change with the times and learn how to become more open and lenient. They could not lend any support to their sisters or their cause, and so they condemned them instead, drawing distinct lines between many groups of women in the country.

Despite their differences, the importance of women's voices in the alcohol debate cannot be ignored. Murdock writes, "Both woman suffrage and prohibition emphasized male excess and potential female redemption" (Murdock, 1998, p. 7). Thus, women held political power, even if they did not even have the vote when Prohibition went into effect in 1919. This is one reason the two organizations are so significant and so important to American history. They show the long and illustrious history of political and social debate in the country. The founding fathers envisioned a country that would support freedom for all, and freedom for differing opinions. In many countries, there would be no debate allowed over a law such as Prohibition. That two such diverse organizations could exist side-by-side says a lot about the freedom of the American people, and their diversity, too.

In contrast, the WONPR was totally opposite from the WCTU in action and belief. These so-called "wet" women believed Prohibition should be repealed. Why? For a variety of reasons. These reformers believed that Prohibition increased crime (it did), actually created more drinking and drinking to excess, and threatened personal freedom, which the Constitution was based on. It also cost the government millions of dollars to enforce the law, when it could have been collecting millions of dollars in liquor sales taxes. The group formed in 1929, after Prohibition had been in effect for 10 years. They found Prohibition to be hypocritical, because it encouraged people to drink illegally, and many people acted "dry" but drank in private. It also created a mystique around alcohol that many young people found attractive. Head of the WONPR, Pauline Sabin said Prohibition produced "a generation oblivious to the evils of liquor' because illegal speakeasies glamorized drink" (Murdock, 1998, p. 143). Largely, this was correct. Illegal drinking created a black market for alcohol, and created the underworld mobster who made his money through bootleg booze. Prohibition made alcohol more glamorous and more mysterious, and with changing values in young people, it made more people want to try it and enjoy it. Many members of WONPR actually did not drink, but felt the law should be repealed because it was flawed and because it glamorized liquor rather than illustrating its' evils.