However, while these gender differences in alcohol use and intoxication remain, cross-sectional survey data in the U.S. 2001 O'Malley and Johnston 2002 Wilsnack et al. 1972), it is therefore not surprising that numerous studies investigating gender differences in rates of drinking and intoxication find that men are more likely than women to be either current or lifetime drinkers and to drink more often and in greater quantities ( Bloomfield et al. In light of the widespread acceptance of this situation across multiple settings and cultures ( Bales 1962 Gough and Edwards 1998 McClelland et al. In this way, young men's intoxication is believed to need no further explanation – they are just being men ( Ostergaard 2007). Within this perspective, drinkers are viewed as manly not solely because they drink, but because their drinking is linked with other behaviors that are connected to being masculine ( Iwamoto 2011 Lemle and Mishkind, 1989). In linking masculinity and drinking, a general discourse exists which suggests that masculine identity is affirmed through group heavy drinking, and questions of male honor can be resolved and upheld through alcohol-related violence ( Hunt et al.

Drinking and intoxicated behavior among men is argued as acceptable or normative because it works to affirm masculinity and increase male bonding and solidarity ( Bales 1962 Connell and Messerschmidt 2005 Dunning and Williams 1988 Gough and Edwards 1998 Hunt et al. Within many cultures, to drink is to be masculine and to drink heavily and become intoxicated is to be even more masculine ( Guttmann 1996 Messerschmidt 1997 Peralta 2007). Intoxication from alcohol has long been associated with men and masculinity ( Bales 1962 Hunt et al 2005 Mullen et al.

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