In 1920, in the same year that the American women acquired the right to vote for the first time, the law prohibiting the production, transportation and sale of alcohol, became a federal law in the United States. American women's support for the legalization of the fight against alcohol consumption showed their social understanding of the consequences of addiction to these types of drinks and was an indicator of the values in the traditional culture of the United States. In that very year, Olive Thomas was drinking and smoking in the comedy film Flapper, and at the same time was a victim of his traditional family.
This apparent conflict between public demand and the media's portrayal of a common phenomenon was a small scene of a larger conflict taking place in US culture. The confrontation between social traditions and the insatiable appetite of capitalists.
Cigarettes and alcohol, vanguards of changing femininity
The last decades of the 19th century and early decades of the 20th century in Western industrialized countries such as Britain and America were the period of increasing expansion of women's movements to obtain social rights and equality with men. This period, which is known as "suffrage" among historians, witnessed the formation of large women's associations to obtain the right to own property after marriage, the right to vote and civil rights equal to men.
An offshoot of these movements did not see the solution only in legal efforts to assert their rights, but sought to bring freedom and equality to women by changing the intellectual and cultural environment of society, and especially by breaking taboos. They believed that by breaking the chains of patriarchy in the minds, the way can be paved for the rights of women to become equal to that of men. Two of the most salient symbols of this thinking were smoking and drinking alcohol.
"Torches of freedom" was the name given by these movements to the cigarettes on women's lips, and "exciting" was an adjective used to describe a party where smoking and drinking were common (Fass). Such a woman "was the envy of teenage girls everywhere ..." (Zeitz) and tried to be introduced as a symbol of breaking patriarchy.
My money, my choice
With the increase of the urban population and the increase of workers, employees and overall female economic activity in the West, this class of society, which had no active presence in the market before, now earned its own money and sought to spend it. Western social and traditional norms did not consider smoking and alcohol consumption suitable for women and tried to keep women away from consuming these products in various ways.
“You weren’t a lady if you went in a saloon," was a common belief, and “smoking tobacco, drinking punch, talking obscenely and swearing and cursing” is used to describe a low-class woman in Henry Fielding's novel, Amelia.
These norms, however, were nothing but barriers to growth, enjoyment, equal use of opportunities and creating new relationships for emancipation activists. Flapper women in America, Britain and other parts of Europe were exactly the opposite of these norms. They smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol, and danced and had fun with different men. Very soon, Hollywood and Western cinematographers portrayed and praised this model of woman. Cigarette companies put the image of taboo-braking, brave women on their advertisements and prepared the atmosphere to eliminate the difference between men and women in immersing themselves in smoke and alcohol.
Breaking the chains or destroying your own house?
Since the beginning of the industrial revolution and the first workers' protests against long working hours and low wages, capitalists were usually on the opposite side of social movements seeking justice. It was normal that they did not want to share their share of the income of industry with a large part of society. But the cooperation of capitalists like Rockefeller with women's justice-seeking movements was less doubted by the people. What is the logical line that connects changing traditional norms of society about women's smoking and alcohol consumption, industrialization and equal rights for men and women?
With the beginning of the second industrial revolution and the creation of extensive assembly lines in factories, the industry's need for human labor multiplied. Western countries, which had industrialized earlier with military domination over other countries' natural resources and sea routes, soon realized their need for a large and cheap labor force.
The coincidence of the second industrial revolution and the beginning of granting the right to own property to women showed that the capitalists of the world were now looking to employ this part of the society. Bringing women out of their homes and breaking social constraints required a strong inner desire in women, and capitalists completed the first stage of women's entry into factories by abusing their rightful demands of having the right to own property and the right to vote.
With the start of World-War I and the lack of male labor, many heavy factory jobs were entrusted to women. Pushing women to enter the labor market with this volume required new incentives as well as new controllers. The culture of industrial workers in the West was intertwined with the consumption of tobacco and alcohol. Men who did heavy physical work for maybe 12 hours a day, spent their daily wages at night in drinking saloons and returned home at night, drunk.
The problems of this lifestyle were such that in America, women's movements were the main ones responsible for dealing with alcohol consumption and domestic violence. But the successful advertising campaign of western capitalists in normalizing and praising the consumption of alcohol and tobacco proved to have hit two birds with one stone. According to Britannia and Eve magazine, published on December 1, 1932, British women managed to “keep the overtaxed cigarette manufacturer immensely rich,” and should list this as their most recent achievement.
The big capitalists of the world had now made their cigarette and alcohol production industries more profitable and by normalizing the use of these two by women, they had paved the way for intoxicating and weakening this class of workers.
Imam Khamenei mentioned this historical reality, saying:
As for the topic of women … global capitalists … intervene in the topic of women just as they do in all aspects of people’s lifestyle. … What is their goal? Their true goal is political and colonial intrusion. They intervene to lay the groundwork and provide cover for further encroachment, greater interference, and the expansion of their sphere of influence. This motive, which is actually a criminal, corrupt motive, is hidden behind a philosophical guise, a theoretical guise, and a humanitarian appearance. This is the dishonesty of the West. It’s the dishonesty of the Western capitalists who dominate the world today. An example of this is how about a century ago, they raised the issue of women's freedom and financial independence proclaiming that women should have financial independence and freedom. The idea looked good on the surface, but what was the underlying reality? The reality was that their factories needed workers. Since there weren't enough male workers, they wanted to hire women to be their laborers and pay them less than men. … They concealed it under the guise and cover of it being a humanitarian move and proclaimed that women should have financial independence, freedom, the ability to leave the house, and the opportunity to work.
Now the question is whether the breaking of the taboo-breaking of Western women in these matters was breaking the chains of discrimination or the collapse of the walls of the houses that protected them from the capitalists?
References:
Fass, Paula S. The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s. Oxford UP, 1977.
Zeitz, Joshua. Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern. Crown Publishing, 2006.