Cover Letter
Dear Professor Moran,
I was honestly confused by this project. I know that my confidence in my writing will fluctuate and this time is low. I enjoyed the topic that I researched, and I care deeply about it, but from the beginning the way that I was going to approach it was unclear.
Once I somewhat got the swing of things it was easier to write about. I struggled with the overall flow of my essay, and relating my topic back to language. Creating the art was enjoyable for me, it was nice to exercise my creative freedom in a way that wasn’t writing. However, I struggled to analyze my painting rhetorically. Being that the painting wasn’t done in a language, it was somewhat difficult to analyze and write about.
Alcoholism in the media is so prevalent, especially in adolescence and this is something that I deeply care about. Being someone who has grown up in a culture where alcoholism is seen as normal, losing people to alcoholism is normal, and the diseases that derived from alcoholism were just seen as the ways of life. I have recognized these patterns, and I myself do not drink and have devoted myself to it.
In my family, since 15 years old I have had an extreme amount of pressure to consume alcohol, and I’m often excluded from things because I don’t. AT the surface level, alcohol is bad for you and being somewhat of an athlete my whole life, I could not afford the cost that it had on my body. Beyond that, in many different aspects of my family I feel that I have to be the one to break the cycle. I’ve seen too many people hurt and not recognize the true killer was the alcohol.
Doing this project was eye opening to just how much alcoholism is normalized and even glamorized in pop culture. It also showed me where some of my weaknesses were as a student and as a writer. I know that I can only go up from here. All in all, this is a topic I want to learn more about and I am proud of the message that I put out.
Glamorization and Normalization of Alcoholism
Angelina Brown
English 110
The normalization of alcoholism in our culture is everywhere. The consequences of it are not. The painting depicts a girl with yellow decaying teeth, yellowing eyes, uneven skin, and thinning hair, who is trapped in a bottle and pressing against the glass in an effort to get out. The bottle resembles a generic bottle of liquor and it is surrounded by a large cloud of darkness, symbolizing the death and destruction that comes with alcohol abuse.
Considering the message of the painting and form of media that it is in, the audience is intended to be people who struggle with alcoholism and can empathize, people who have loved ones who deal with alcoholism, and anyone who wants to better understand what it feels like to be consumed by alcohol.
Alcoholism is very glamorized. What seems like a shiny green bottle is blinding to the darkness that surrounds it, the woman inside smiles as she presses against the glass in an effort to escape. Celebrity endorsements, social media posts, movies, and television shows often show excessive amounts of drinking and the only consequence they endure is a good time.
Around 200,000 Americans are alcoholics, and an additional 663,000 adolescents have alcohol use disorders. Some consequences of alcohol abuse listed by the National Institutes of Health are: heart failure, stroke, vision loss, kidney failure, kidney disease, heart attack, sexual dysfunction, extreme mood swings, depression, and anxiety. These consequences are never shown in media where alcohol is used. The majority of popular songs in 2022 had some mention of alcohol use. According to the Alcohol Rehab Guide organization, sports, comedy, drama, reality, and animated television, alcohol is mentioned or used.
The use of alcohol is everywhere, and the message is especially conflicting when we see our favorite celebrities and tv show characters indulging in alcohol use more than the recommended amount and they receive praise for it. Cheers (1987-1993) is a show where the majority of the scenes take place in a bar and one of the main characters personality traits is being a “beer-lover.” The show’s age range is 12 and above.The first interaction on this show is an adolescent walking up to a bar and saying “how about a beer chief”Cheers “First Opening Scene” (0:39-0:41).This kind of normalization of alcohol abuse at a young age affects how children think alcohol is meant to be consumed
Kendall Jenner, one of the members of arguably the most influential families in The Western Hemisphere, has her own tequila brand. Kendall Jenner is the most top paid supermodel in the world, and she regularly posts her holding and engaging with her product. She promotes merchandise for her product, and through her impact on social media she is able to spread the message that you can be just as glamorous as her with her tequila. The Kardasian Jenner Family have a huge impact on what is popular and the current trend cycles, and mostly young people are affected by them. Jenner often glamorizes purchasing and consuming alcohol
in extreme amounts.
Alcoholism is something that we learn to normalize in our adolescence due to the culture that we live in and the type of media that we consume. The effects of substance abuse are serious and something we need to be far more conscious of. We have to admit that it is not normal to consume alcohol at the rate that the media has made it seem.
