Why Aren't Women More Into Marijuana?
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If you’re a woman, then the cause to legalize marijuana wants you. Most activists working with the Marijuana Policy Project are men, Laura Greenback writes in High Times. But they want to change that. So Greenback is doing some soul searching about why women aren’t gunning for ganja. She offers the theory that women “feel the pressure to be seen as strong workers and perfect mothers, so we shy away from getting behind something our coworkers and PTA members might see as ‘out there.’ ”
Another possibility: We just don’t have any strong pot-loving women role models. Stoner flicks are notoriously dudes only, save a stray female friend here and there, like Charlyne Yi in Knocked Up. Perhaps Peggy’s foray into to reefer on Mad Men will make pot as cool as well-defined waistlines, but until then, we’re struggling to think of strong female role models who do the dope. We’ve been kicking it around over e-mail, and here’s what we’ve got so far:
Noreen offers Jennifer Aniston in Friends with Money, but points out that “she's not having very much fun.”
Ellen says “Annie Hall in Annie Hall, but the point was quite different ... It was more like she needed pot to have sex with him because she was losing interest in the relationship. It was more about him being neurotic.”
Rachael brings up Weeds, which she says has “a feminist angle” because Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) deals drugs but “stays sober while the buffoonish men around her smoke pot and act like children.”
June’s response: “And when former neighbor Celia Hodes, who started out as a clamp-down-on-crime puritan got her taste of drugs, she immediately became a full-on, falling-down, whoring-herself-out-to-score addict. Hell, you know she had it bad—she even lost a front tooth. It's hard to see a message here other than women and drugs don't mix.”
Dana says Smiley Face is “a great female stoner odyssey.” And there’s also just about everyone from That '70s Show.
Still a pretty anemic list, compared to the full catalog of pothead dudes prancing around—or, sprawling out lethargically—on the big screen these days. If there were a truly awesome, hilarious film about lovable, relatable pothead girls, would that change things? Or is Greenback right that women’s hesitance to be strong weed supporters is more rooted in our need to be perfect overachiever types, which runs so counter to the pothead ethos of lounging around and eating Cheetos?
Samantha Henig is the associate editor of Double X, and can be reached at samantha.henig@doublex.com.
Comments
Too much potential for condemnation.
By: sugar_k | Tue, 09/22/2009 - 21:43
Women as a rule aren't potheads because we worry so much, from an early age, about our images. Nobody likes a lazy woman, not even potheads and especially not the Type A jocks. So to the extent that potsmoker = lazy, it's not an image women want. It takes a media goddess like Sarah Silverman to flout those standards.
I've had female pothead friends in the past (who have since quit). But they were very high-functioning, taking care of business a la Nancy Botwin either as small dealers in their own right or as sidekicks to bigger dealers, even as they held down other jobs.
The most serious potheads I've known were men who were being supported by their families and/or who had cushy jobs that allowed them the freedom to slack a lot. Women aren't generally indulged as much by their families or employers, or at least we don't feel as secure that the world will get our backs if we screw up.
Now, as a matter of public policy I think the laws against marijuana are ridiculous, and I wouldn't mind agitating against them if I didn't have so much on my plate. But ultimately the biggest advocates for legalization are going to be the ones with skin in the game, i.e. potheads, and those overwhelmingly are men.
Come to think of it...
By: CorkPopper | Tue, 09/22/2009 - 10:23
None of my girlfriends are, or ever were, potheads. Not to say we didn't smoke pot...just about everybody I know has smoked at some point, myself included. It just didn't do anything for me...dry mouth, slow wits and the munchies isn't a state of being that I enjoy. I *do* know several women who broke up with their boyfriends over their pot habits--the men lacked initiative and were, well, pothead loser couch potatoes.
I wonder if anybody's researched this? I never thought about it before but now I'm really curious. I know plenty of women who drink, frequently and often to excess, so I don't buy the "high achiever" thing. But pretty much none who get stoned.
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Well personally, the last
By: laleego | Fri, 09/18/2009 - 17:19
Well personally, the last thing I need is a drug that clouds my judgment, dims my wit, and makes me want to binge eat. Furthermore, I find the ganja aesthetic repulsive. Whether it's accurate or not, to me pot smoking conjures macrame necklaces, hacky sacks, ill fitting corduroys, and outdated psychedelic motifs and color schemes that weren't even good to begin with. Unless and until the image and aesthetic of pot smoking changes, I think it will continue to be unattractive to a lot of women.
Maybe women don't need it as much as men
By: gabes mom | Fri, 09/18/2009 - 16:57
In my experience, most of the men who use are self-medicating in some way. Many of them are otherwise angry or very high-strung. On dope, these guys mellow out (or at least, that's how they feel). Maybe it's a byproduct testosterone, but I know few women who fit the pothead profile.
Um, I have to disagree with
By: JC | Fri, 09/18/2009 - 13:37
Um, I have to disagree with the comment about our collective need to be an overacheiver, and hence, women don't smoke pot. Women, I think, don't smoke pot because it is so much more destructive to our lungs and other tissues. If you inhale 30% more smoke when you smoke a joint versus smoking a cigarette, and unfiltered at that...well, it's one more way to cause cancer. Women are warned not to smoke cigarettes while on the pill, but what about weed? There's a risk there, I'm sure.
Also...Sarah Silverman doesn't count? She's funny, she's made a career for herself in a tough industry, and I do believe she has proclaimed herself a regular user. She might not be everyone's cup of tea, granted, but she inspires any female with a talen to get up and take risks. Role model material for me.
Although she could do better than Jimmy!
Perhaps its because most of
By: misslkodell | Fri, 09/18/2009 - 13:35
Perhaps its because most of the women potheads are still overachieving so they don't fit in. I myself don't smoke, but I have several friends who do smoke, and are heavy smokers also have it all together. They pay rent on time, get/got straight A's or over achieve at work, go to all their charity functions they donate to, take care of their pets as their children (none of us have children yet), and generally wear business attire. It could be that my friends are all type A people, but I doubt it. I have met other female stoners who are classic in the stoner guy mold, but some are just like Snoop Dogg, they operate the same with or without dope. They relax with it the way I relax with tea.