Not without my mobile phone: alcohol binge drinking, gender violence and technology in the Spanish culture of intoxication

Abstract

The practice of binge drinking has in recent decades consolidated what is known as the ‘culture of intoxication’ among the young people of Spain. This has coincided with the increase in the use of mobile-phone technology and of social networks within the night-time economy. Our main aim is to explore these new, potentially risky uses and violent behaviours, through an analysis of the discourses of the young people involved. This is a qualitative study with in-depth interviews (n = 24) of young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two, resident in two cities in the south of Spain: Granada and Seville. Findings: our results show that gender violence is present in the contexts where alcohol is consumed intensively and is related to the use of the mobile phone in interpersonal or couple relationships. This violence is practiced mainly against the women, who suffer sexual harassment and violation of their public image through information and communication technologies. Our data show that prevention should consider the new vulnerabilities that are generated out of the problematic association between technology and alcohol, using innovative strategies that are adapted to the new patterns of youth behaviour.

Keywords:

• Intoxication culture
• alcohol
• gender violence
• young people
• tecnology
• night-time economy

Introduction

Culture of alcohol intoxication between spanish young people

The intensive patterns of alcohol consumption that affect a large proportion of young people in Spain has over the last decade consolidated what various authors have called a ‘culture of intoxication’ in other countries (Atkinson & Sumnall, 2016; Bailey, Griffin & Shankar, 2015; Hunt & Antin, 2017; Hutton & Wright, 2015; Lyons, McCreanor, Goodwin & Barnes, 2017). We are referring to the spaces of the night-time economy, in which excessive alcohol consumption is considered to be, above all, pleasurable, as involving having fun and being sociable (McCreanor, Barnes, Kaiwai, Borell, & Gregory, 2008; Measham & Brain, 2005; Szmigin et al., 2008).

The aim of young people in this cultural context is no longer to drink moderately but to get drunk (Beccaria, Petrilli, & Rolando, 2015; Hunt, Moloney, & Fazio, 2014), known under the term ‘determined drunkenness’ (Measham, 2004, 2006; Measham & Brain, 2005). Young people, particularly those under 25 years of age, do not necessarily see the consumption of alcohol as problematic, and often argue that it plays a positive role in their socialisation (Brown & Gregg, 2012; Hutton, 2012). However, the existence of a widespread culture of intoxication creates considerable concerns due to its public health consequences (Moewaka Barnes et al., 2016).

The intensification of drinking alcohol has been accompanied by the incorporation of girls and women into the spaces of use and consumption of this substance (Romo-Avilés, 2018). Thus, in different European countries, they have been joining in the intensive consumption and there has been a relative increase in its frequency, in the level of alcohol consumed and in self-reported inebriation, since at least a decade ago (Atkinson, Elliot, Bellis, & Sumnall, 2011; Davoren, Shiely, Byrne, & Perry 2015; Hibell et al., 2012; Romo-Avilés, Marcos-Marcos, Marquina-Márquez, & Gil-García, 2016a; Romo-Avilés, Marcos-Marcos, Tarragona-Camacho, Gil-García, & Marquina-Márquez, 2016b; Slade et al., 2016).

In the case of Spain, according to the data from the latest national survey (ESTUDES, National Survey of the Use of Drugs in High Schooltudents) of fourteen to eighteen-year-olds, the prevalence of alcohol consumption is greater in women, at 76.9%, than in men, at 74.3%. The presence of girls at earlier ages (14 and 15 years old) has increased in patterns of high-intensity consumption, otherwise known as binge drinking¹ (14.6% and 27.3% girls; 13.2% and 25.5% boys) Likewise, at the ages of fourteen, fifteen and sixteen, the percentage of girls who have got drunk in the last month is higher at 9.2%, 17.4% and 26.1%, respectively, compared to 6.5%, 14.4% and 25.1% of boys (Delegación del Gobierno para el Plan Nacional de Droga, 2016).

Women are now active participants in the public milieus of consumption and, like men, form part of a culture of drinking and intoxication as pleasure-seeking, belonging to the group and friendship bond (Atkinson & Sumnall, 2017; Griffin, Bengry-Howell, Hackley, Mistral, & Szmigin, 2009; Griffin, Szmigin, Bengry-Howell, Hackley, & Mistral, 2013; Measham & Østergaard, 2009; Niland, Lyons, Goodwin, & Hutton, 2013; 2014).

Gender violence and intensive alcohol consumption in the night-time economy

The possible inequalities that girls and women suffer in the night-time economy where they binge drink derive from historical relations with concrete effects on societies and people. Gender is not only an identity or a role that is learned in childhood and is enacted in the family, but also an institutionalised system of social practices in order to constitute people into two significant categories – men and women – and to organise social relations of inequality based on this difference. Like other multilevel systems of inequality, such as those based on class or ethnicity, gender involves the cultural distribution of resources on the macro level, behavioural models and organisational practices at the interactional level, and selves and identities at the individual level (Ridgeway & Correll, 2004). The inclusion of gender perspective and relations also entails looking from the perspective of masculinities, particularly in behaviours that are socially considered as masculine, such as alcohol abuse (Connell, 1995). Alcohol consumption and intoxication have traditionally been considered male behaviours and women continue to be confronted with greater social prejudices than men for their consumption of alcohol, drunkenness, appearance and expression of their sexuality in the milieus of consumption (Atkinson & Sumnall, 2017; Griffin et al., 2013; Hunt & Antin, 2017; Hutton Griffin, Lyons, Niland, & McCreanor, 2016; Nicholls, 2016; Romo-Avilés et al., 2016b).

Moreover, social standards impose different meanings of alcohol consumption for men and women, creating different patterns of drinking and risks while they are socialising (de Visser, & McDonnell, 2012; Lindsay, 2006; Lyons & Willott, 2008). For example, although in male culture the excessive consumption of alcohol is accepted, women are expected to uphold a certain degree of control and respectability (Dresler & Anderson, 2018).

Despite the advances in terms of equality, there continues to be deep disparity between the access to rights and opportunities due to gender (European Institute for Gender Equality, 2018). Gender and sexual violence against women and girls is a problem of human rights and public health that needs to be settled. The global estimates published by the World Health Organisation (World Health Organization, 2017) indicate that around one in three (35%) women have suffered physical and/or sexual violence from their partner or by third parties at some stage in their lives. This is a crime with a gender ideology component that attempts to maintain power and control over female sexuality and female bodies. The victims are women and girls; the aggressors are males. In this research, violence is understand as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation” (Krug, Dahlberg, Mercy Zwi, & Lozano, 2002, p. 4). But our focus is mainly in gender violence. According to the definition of the United Nations (UN) (1993) is: “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”; as well as new forms of violence through technology, such as the dissemination of images without consent or the use of mobile phones as method of surveillance of girls and women. For these new situations, the European Institute for Gender Equality, in its definition of forms of cyber violence against women and girls (2017) includes: “doxing: collect and publish private data of someone through the Internet”; and among the forms of cyber stalking are: “Sharing intimate photos or videos of the respondent on the internet or by mobile phone” and “sending emails, text messages (SMS) or instant messages that are offensive or threatening” (European Institute for Gender Equality, 2017, p. 2).

In recent years, research has been begun with the aim of studying how gender violence in the contexts of the night-time economy comes about, and its relation with the consumption of psychoactive substances such as alcohol. Gender is an important predictor of violence related to alcohol abuse. In the contexts of night-time economy, alcohol is related to different forms of violence against women with different intensities (Peralta, Callanan, Steele, & Chervenak Wiley, 2011). Among the studies specific to Spain, the Observatorio Noctámbul@s (a qualitative monitoring centre that observes the link between drug consumption and sexual abuse in night-time leisure contexts) has shown that approximately 1,000 rapes are reported every year and that 85% of the victims are girls or women. Of these sexual aggressions, 95% take place in night-time leisure settings and with the involvement of alcohol. The social perception of permissiveness in nightlife means that many of these sexual aggressions remain invisible or unpunished – whether because the victim feels responsible for having drunk alcohol, or because the crime is not reported. Indeed, the victim only makes a complaint in little more than 10% of cases (Fundación Salud y Comunidad, 2017).

Studies on the relation between drinking and sexual victimisation, such as that by Graham, Bernards, Abbey, Dumas and Wells (2017), have shown how girls and women are subjected to groping and pressuring to have sex in bars and parties. In their sample, more than 75% of the girls and women who frequent bars had experienced sexual touching or persistence (46% both). Most of them used multiple deterrent strategies, including evasion, facial expressions, direct refusals, aggression, friends’ help, and leaving the premises. Women and girls experienced negative feelings (disrespected, violated, disgusted, angry, embarrassed), especially from incidents involving touching (Graham, Bernards, Abbey, Dumas, & Wells, 2014; Graham et al., 2017).

Technology, alcohol and sexting in the spanish culture of intoxication

The increase in the intensive consumption of alcohol over recent decades has coincided with the popularisation of the use of new technologies and smartphones that connect with social networks in the night-time economy. This has fundamentally modified the forms of communication and the traditional conditions of identity construction, affording unprecedented opportunities for social interaction among young people (Ridout, Campbell, & Ellis, 2012). The research demonstrates that young people are living life online and in public via these [social networking] sites (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008) and that these are an integral part of their identity, relationships and lifestyles (Boyd, 2007; Lyons, Goodwin, McCreanor, & Griffin, 2015).

Qualitative studies show that the social networking sites (SNS) are routinely used by peer groups for socialising and, among other functions, are also used for organising leisure time, for agreeing on how to buy the drink, for publishing photos while they drink, and for sharing the fun and photos following a night of drinking (Brown & Gregg, 2012; Hebden, 2012; Niland et al., 2014).

Griffiths and Casswell (2010) found that some young people openly portray themselves as ‘drunks’ on SNS, which indicates that they like to think that they are capable of drinking compulsively, creating ‘intoxigenic digital spaces’, which is the normalisation of excessive alcohol consumption among the young. Ridout et al. (2012) associated intensive use of the internet with the intensive consumption of alcohol, since the SNS also have an impact on the way in which young people drink, facilitating the organisation of ‘big nights’.

The violent behaviours related to intensive alcohol consumption also seem to be related in the culture of intoxication with the problematic use of the mobile phone. Youth smartphone use has increased over the last decade and has become a feature of young people’s lives. Recent national estimations state that seven out of ten minors between the ages of ten and fifteen have a mobile phone (70% of girls and women; 68.2% of boys and men) and more than 90% have used the internet in the last three months (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Ministerio de energía, turismo y agenda digital y Observatorio nacional de las telecomunicaciones y de la SI, 2017). The use of the internet in the 16-24 age range is practically universal in Spain (98%), a proportion that lowers gradually as ages rise (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, 2017). While mobile phones undoubtedly perform important functions in the lives of young people, greater usage also increases the risks. A new type of violence associated with smartphone use, which has received considerable attention, is ‘sexting’ (Benotsch, Snipes, Martin, & Bull, 2013; Hinduja & Patchin, 2010; Mitchell, Finkelhor, Jones, & Wolak, 2012; Wolfe, Marcum, Higgins, & Ricketts, 2016).

‘Sexting’ is the name given to the practice of sharing intimate text, photos and videos through the internet, SNS and messaging apps, for which the mobile phone is mainly used. Sexting is a unique combination of technology and sexual interaction that is growing in popularity and could be an important mechanism for explaining the risk of having unwanted sexual relations. In the content of sexting, nudity can be specified as sexually explicit content or not. In the case of photographs, these tend to follow the structure of selfies, and may also involve one or several people (Calvo, 2016; Ringrose, Gill, Livingstone, & Harvey, 2012).

Despite the disparity of definitions due to the lack of a clear, validated universal definition of this practice (Klettke, Hallford & Mellor, 2014), there appears to be a consensus regarding the need to differentiate within this category, between primary sexting, which consists of the creation or self-creation of the image, generally consensual, and secondary sexting, in which the image is sent with or without the consent of the person who appears in the photo (Calvert, 2009; Lievens, 2014; Ringrose et al., 2012; Wolak & Finkelhor, 2011).

In the case of Spain, studies, although still recent and few in number, record rates of prevalence of between 4% for sending and 8.1% for receiving erotic or sexual content (Alfaro et al., 2015; Instituto Nacional de Tecnologías de la Comunicación, 2010; Valedor do Pobo, 2014). Taken together, the recent study by Gámez-Guadix, Almendros, Borrajo, and Calvete (2015) places the participation of Spanish youth in sexting behaviours at 13.5% (Alonso-Ruido, 2017).

We believe that the contexts of alcohol consumption and the night-time economy are remarkable for the carrying out of sexting among young people. Few studies, however, have examined the link between sexting and health-risk behaviours, and of those that do (Benotsch et al., 2013; Ferguson, 2011; Gordon-Messer, Bauermeister, Grodzinski, & Zimmerman, 2013), dissimilar definitions of sexting have contributed to equivocal findings (Champion & Pedersen, 2015). For example, alcohol consumption was higher among those that sent semi-nude or fully nude photos (that is, very explicit sexters) in relation to those who sent word-based sexts or who did not sext at all (Champion & Pedersen, 2015). Other studies show that people who practice sexting have a significant probability of consuming alcohol (Benotsch et al., 2013; Dir, Cyders, & Coskunpinar, 2013; Morelli, Bianchi, Baiocco, Pezzuti, & Chirumbolo, 2016; Yeung, Horyniak, Vella, Hellard, & Lim, 2014). A recent review by Barrense-Dias, Berchtold, Surís, and Akré (2017) highlights that the concept concerning the practice of sexting is still a grey area.

There is evidence of violent behaviours related to sexting and sextortion, in which girls and women are for the most part the victims of whom compromising images, with sexual or suggestive content, have been spread without their consent; and a higher percentage of girls and women who report having been pressurised by boys and men to do things they did not want to do under threat of disseminating their intimate conversations or images (Álvarez-García, Barreiro-Collazo, & Nuñez, 2017).

These new spaces of communication related with the high-intensity consumption of alcohol in the night-time economy have not been the subject of much research in Spain. Even less researched are the possible consequences concerning the vulnerabilities that this context produces. In our research, we have posed the question of how intensive alcohol consumption in the contexts of intoxication in Spain is related to the use of mobile technology and sexual violence, which may affect girls and women who currently practice binge drinking and use the mobile phone more than boys or men.

Methodology

Sample

This is a qualitative study based on twenty four in-depth interviews with 10 girls and women (41.66%) and 14 boys and men (58.33%) between the ages of 16 and 22 residing in the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia, from the eastern province of Granada and the western province of Seville. A series of sociodemographic variables of the selected sample were established (milieu, gender, age and partner) in order to ensure heterogeneity of profiles and to learn, analyse and interpret different perspectives. The mean age was 17.7. All participants are consumers of alcohol and/or other drugs; coming from rural (12.5%) and urban (87.5%) environments; with partner (45.83%) and without (54.16%).

Fieldwork

The fieldwork began in May 2017. In the first phase, the team researchers conducted the in-depth interviews of the participants in different educational centres in Granada and Seville (secondary schools in Granada, the Seville University of Nursing). The questions were designed around five thematic segments that were the object of our study: night-time economy; consumption patterns of recreational drugs and alcohol; violence in the night-time economy – interpersonal, gender and sexual; information and communication technology and their relation to this type of violence; and its prevention and intervention. Although sexting and the use of mobile devices in the night-time economy spaces of our participants was not the main focus of the study, it emerged as a theme during the research.

Employing purposive sampling, a process of searching for independent networks in different habitats (cities, towns and villages), was undertaken. This made it possible to maximise the capturing of different experiences, as well as establishing greater control over biases in the selection of participants. The general criterion for inclusion was of girls and women; boys and men between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two with normalised profiles (they were in education, they lived with their families and they were not child offenders nor at risk of social exclusion) who were consumers of alcohol and frequented night-time economy venues. The selection of the most illustrative male and female profiles from the interviews was performed using the contacting process carried out in the first phase. The individual interviews enabled the in-depth exploration of both personal and interpersonal aspects and aspects of the socio-cultural context.

Through the staff at the educational institutions where the fieldwork was undertaken, relationships of trust were established with the young people, which enabled us to look for spaces in which to conduct the interviews in an atmosphere of sincerity. The interviews were conducted by male and female team members with previous experience in ethnographic research.

Data analysis

All the interviews were recorded and transcribed literally. The average interview duration was 60 minutes. The finalisation of the data collection process was determined following the principle of theoretical saturation. A summative content analysis was performed. After the first general reading of the transcriptions, several members of the team took part in the first identification of codes and categories. This first comparison of categories served to reach a consensus on the process of coding and thematic units of interest. Then another member of the research team collated the categories developed. We undertook a process of triangulation in order to validate the categories. Gavira and Osuna (2015) propose five different methods of triangulation in studies: of sources, of researchers, theoretical, methodological and multiple. In this case, we are referring to methodological triangulation. This enabled us to test the level of consistency and to resolve discrepancies. After coding, the most significant units were extracted and the interrelations between the different themes were identified. All this analytical process was developed using the QSR NVivo 11 programme.

Ethical considerations

The study was approved by the Commission on Ethics in Research of the University of Granada (CEI-UGR/883). All minors participating in the project voluntarily consented to being interviewed, receiving information about the study and a confidentiality commitment letter signed by the research team. The families of the minors also signed a consent form agreeing to said participation.

Limitations

This study has been carried out using in-depth interviews and data reported by boys and men; girls and women participating in the night-time economy in two Spanish cities, thus showing limitations in discerning the data shared on SNS and the different forms of use of technology. These are topics that have arisen in our research, ones that we did not seek to examine directly but for which we have opened a specific line of research due to their interest. We need to study and learn in detail the patterns that govern the use of technology in the night-time economy and their connection with violence. This calls for the designing of a virtual ethnography. Following the ideas contributed to this field by Christine Hine (2000, 2015) and Sarah Pink (2001, 2009, 2016), we were able to analyse in detail the forms of communication and use of violence that are related to the intensive consumption of alcohol.

Furthermore, we need to bear in mind that, due to the small size of the study’s sample, caution should be made when generalising the results. The findings presented here should be taken as an illustrative sample of a set of discourses that circulate in the context under study in Spain today.

Results

Binge drinking in the culture of intoxication

“Getting drunk” and fall over

Participating in the spaces of high-intensity alcohol consumption is shown to be an essential element of the experiences of young women and men and articulates the discourse of the people interviewed in this study. They use the intensive consumption of alcohol in the night-time economy as a disinhibiting tool, facilitating interpersonal relations

Int: And consuming alcohol has helped you to feel disinhibited in terms of sexuality? X: Yes, I have felt it in that way, because maybe I find it more difficult if someone approaches me, or whatever, and perhaps with alcohol then if someone comes over to me or I go to someone, it isn’t so hard for me, really. (Eva, 18 years 2000)

These night-time economy contexts are characterised by being spaces of high-intensity alcohol consumption, the purpose of which is to get drunk and have fun in a group. Among the people interviewed, stories of excesses in alcohol use are frequent, leading to dangerous behaviours of risk, such as mixing different types of alcohol or binge drinking to get drunk sooner.

There are people who now, what I told you before, young people who the only thing they want is to get drunk, and they drink whisky, gin, cognac, and they mix them and that’s bad, a cocktail of cognac with Red Bull, with gin, is, it’s senseless. (Lucas, 18 years).

Yes, we’ve seen it happening on the street or where people supposedly go to start drinking before going to the nightclub. Yes, it’s true that we’ve seen some people fall over […] sometimes we’ve seen boys who aren’t even fifteen and who are being carried by their friends because they say, “We don’t want to call for an ambulance, we don’t want to call his parents because they’re going to bust us.” But we have called the ambulance because I say, “What do you prefer: being punished and alive, or dead here on the ground?” (Julio, 18 years)

Violence in the night-time economy

Alcohol and violence

The interviewees reported how alcohol accentuates or promotes violent behaviours, negatively affecting relations with their peer circle, being a cause of fights and confrontations in night-time economy. The social value of belonging to a peer group is shown in public. Conflicts occur between the different youth subcultures that share the same leisure space and they compete for leadership in the youth context.

In street drinking parties there tend to be… what we here call ‘los canis’ [‘chavs’ or ‘wiggers’] […] those lot, many just to appear cool in front of their friends, in front of the girls of the same style to impress them and so on, they tend to look for a fight, but they tend to look for a fight to see if they can win it and that way impress whoever. (Julio, 18 years)

Violence behaviour

In the discourses we have collected, gender differences arise in the violent behaviours associated with intensive alcohol consumption: most of the cases of physical violence mentioned are associated with boys and men; and verbal confrontations with girls and women.

I think the boys have more fights, because they go out acting like big shots. At least that’s what I’ve seen, they are always like so up themselves and even more so when they’ve had… with a couple too many drinks. The girls normally… no, I haven’t seen them fighting. Normally they either go or they say something to each other, they t rade insults and end up going to another bar or something like that, but no… I haven’t seen fights that lead to physical aggression (Antonio, 18 years).

The girls and women take on mediating behaviours, attempting to deflate violent situations. They have the symbolic mandate to ‘control’, whereas the boys and men can ‘lose control’. As can be seen it Julio’s account below, alcohol consumption sometimes means that ‘they lose control’, particularly when mixed with other drugs that affect behaviour and whose effects are difficult to control. The night-time economy becomes a space in which they must learn to control the risks associated with substance consumption, such as those linked to violent behaviour:

I have friends who after drinking have gone crazy and you have to stop them, because, for example, they are fighting with someone and they’re going full out to bea the shit out of them, at first as they’re angry and you know it and he says to you: ‘OK, don’t worry,’ and so on, and ‘I don’t want problems,’ and the like, and it’s drink and take something and then he goes all out to get stuck in… and I say: ‘Calm down’ and then it all kicks off, what can I tell you… (Patricia, 17 years).

When you’re not drinking let’s say you’ve got some control, but when you drink, those controls and those things you say like, ‘I mustn’t do this, I mustn’t do that’ are taken away. So if those guys are sober they wouldn’t fight with anyone, when they lose that control then at the slightest thing they react and so on. And there are also people it’s obvious when they consume, I don’t know, cocaine or stimulants because you can see it in their eyes and sure, like that with their body more activated, more alive, because they feel like they have energy through the roof and I’ve seen it, how they look hyper-stimulated, they look for some way to get it off their chests. (Julio, 18 years)

Gender violence in the spaces of the night-time economy

However, our data also indicate that violence is not used in the same way towards girls and women as towards boys and men. Allusions to forms of violence against girls and women, associated with alcohol consumption, are recurrent in the interviews, harassment and sexual violence that limit their freedom of action. As can be seen in the accounts given by Patricia and Lola, feeling pressure from the boys and men forms part of the experience in the spaces of the night-time economy.

Others keep on at you, but when they are drunk, there’s no way to get them to leave (…) Yes, when I’m alone at night. For example, if I’ve gone out some time by myself and suddenly they start to shout at me from behind, the typical guys, and I try to ignore them, and then they come and walk right beside me to talk to me and you see that they are totally high (…). It’s more difficult to try and get them to see sense. Even so they won’t as a rule anyway and they don’t leave you alone, but if they’re drunk, it’s much more difficult… (Patricia, 17 years).

One day we went to pee and from behind a boy came along who we knew by sight, and he started to say that we should have a threesome, and this and that, he gropes you here and there, and sure, then I got pissed and I told him to get away from me, to go away […] so I felt really uncomfortable right then, if I’m saying no to you, it’s no. (Lola, 16 years)

Sexual abuse in party culture

Sexual abuse in drinking spaces manifests itself, according to our informants, as part of the “party culture” or “intoxication culture”. It is understood that sexual touching or groping are part of nightlife experience and are related with the public image of the girls and women. In the discourses we have collected, it is explained that a girl and woman’s “sexy” way of dressing or dancing is synonymous with “being easy” and is taken as insinuation and willingness to be approached and hit upon:

Int: And do you believe that a girl’s way of dressing can influence how people behave with her? X: Yes, because if you see that she is showing more cleavage or very skimpy shorts, you think she’s a slut and then you’ve got to go, “She’s going get it, she’s really…” […] That is what the guys think, the girls too. (Lola, 16 years)

Well, maybe a girl starts dancing the way she likes to, and maybe a boy notices and says, “check that one out” and so on… As if a girl dancing one way or another is, because it’s easier to get in there, you understand? […] So that if, maybe, she dances, I don’t know, moving her ass, then they say that she’s going to be easy and they go for it. (Luis, 17 years)

Discussing consent

Another of the aspects of sexual abuse against girls and women in our data is the lack of capacity for deciding, for revoking consent or reversing and changing decisions taken when the flirtation started. This concerns the insistence of boys and men, who maintain the pressure put upon girls and women, despite the express negative given by them, even going so far as to react with aggression. It appears to be normalised behaviour among boys and men, according to our data:

Perhaps that a boy comes with the intention of scoring with the girl and so on, and she doesn’t want to, and the boy keeps on and keeps on trying. (Sebastián, 18 years)

Int: If the girl says no, what happens? X: They tend to react aggressively. Int: Tell me about that. X: A girl, if she doesn’t go through with it, then the boy tends to react aggressively, or to try and hit her or insult her or say all kinds of nasty stuff to her. Int: The boy isn’t her partner? X: It’s not a couple, it’s like a one-night stand. Int: And when you speak of going through with it, you’re referring to… X: Yes. Int: Going with the boy and having sex. X: Yes. (Rosa, 17 years)

“Using phones”: technology at the night time economy for experience nightlife

Comunication with peers

Along with intensive alcohol consumption, in our reports mobile-phone use appears repeatedly in the night-time economy. Among the people interviewed, communication is mostly conducted through instant messaging services, such as WhatsApp. The main reason for their use is to organise parties, meet with friends, agree on what they are going to drink and what they are going to buy. This form of communication affects the organisation and experience of nightlife spaces. The planning of the ‘pregame’ generates expectations about the party and the alcohol-consumption environment.

We always get together via WhatsApp, we talk via WhatsApp and then we call whoever says they are going to buy the bottles to sort out the money and that’s it. (Hugo, 17 years)

Int: Do you have a WhatsApp group? X: We have a group and we say, ‘Let’s go out tonight,’ and we say, ‘OK, come on’ and we go. Int: And is there someone who proposes the time and place? X: Everything’s done on the go. We say at this time this place and once there we see where we’re going to go. (Sebastián, 18 years).

Portraying selft and the others

The young people who have participated in this study have referred to the continual use of the mobile phone in the night-time economy spaces with the purpose of portraying the milieus, the people participating and the group of friends; of taking photos of others and of oneself.

Well, either for recording, like photos and everything… of everyone together or in case somebody has to come […]. Then, well, you head out to party you take the photo and you save it… and it’s the same for my girlfriend. (Ricardo, 17 years)

Making safer the space

Mobile phones have in some ways made the night-time economy safer. Some of the people interviewed are minors. So that using mobile phones in these contexts is essential for staying in constant touch with their families.

Yes, of course. Always; because sometimes my parents want to know where I am every other second, then if I’m… I mean, if I realize that I’m drunk and so on, I try to talk on WhatsApp, so that they can’t tell […] to speak with our mother (Antonio, 16 years).

…in case something happens to me, keeping it on me at all times is essential. To try to call whoever… because if you’re on the street, for example, they grab you and let’s see, if they kidnapped me, that way you’ve also got your mobile phone, obviously they’re going to take it off you, but if you can try and contact someone, I don’t know, in case something happens to me I always have it on me just in case. (Patricia, 17 years).

Constant mobile-phone use enables continual contact with the peer group. In the night-time economy the young people, as well as being at their party, maintain a virtual community through the SNS with other peers who are not present at that time.

Int: When you and your group go out to party, do you usually use your mobile phones? X: (…) well, they do, honestly, to talk to their girlfriends, friends… (Hugo, 17 years).

A fictitious reality

Thus, a parallel or fictitious reality is created with which the idea is to see and be seen through technology: to find out what is happening in the night-time economy without being there; and to show the fun and the party through the recording of images or uploading individual or group photos to SNS:

Int: When you go out do you take photos of yourselves? X: Yes. Int: And you upload them straight to Instagram or other social networks? X: Yes. Int: And can you show yourselves drinking in those photos, with drinks in your hand or drinking in public places? X: Not in public places, no, but for example in nightclubs and the like, yes, there are times that we’ve uploaded a video or something (Hugo, 17 years).

Controling girls and women through the mobile phone

But if one aspect stands out in the discourses collected, and it is crucial in the data that we present, it is the relationship between gender violence, alcohol and technology. One of the forms of abuse that we have discovered is the control that is carried out on girls and women through the mobile phone, utilising this medium as a method of surveillance of the movement and presence of girls and women.

He controlled her, even though they weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend, without being a formal couple, he controlled her by telephone: who are you with, send me a photo, take a selfie… who are you with, where are you, today you’re not going out, send me a photo, hey, controlling her mobile, seeing who she is talking to, stopping talking with people because that person has told her to. People who have had to go and see a psychologist, two of my class at university have had to do that, as far as I know, one the boyfriend controls her and she doesn’t realize, well, she doesn’t realize but we tell her, because he tells her not to go out, she tells him who she’s with, he controls her conversations. (Lucas, 18 years)

Unconsent use of images

Thus, girls and women suffer double vulnerability. Along with the violent pressure that forces them to perform sexual behaviours, another element arises: ways of disseminating their public image and vulnerabilities concerning how to control it in the night-time economy in which alcohol is consumed. The starting point is that, being a collective space in which SNS are used frequently, images are disseminated in some cases without consent and show the effects of alcohol abuse. Among the interviewees, opinions diverge about this situation. In some cases, such us that of María, the dissemination of images is not considered important. María states that she neither minds nor attaches importance to the fact that images are publicly shared under the effects of alcohol, as it is something that has been normalised in the night-time economy:

Int: Have at any time photos been uploaded while you are out and which you haven’t liked? X: No, I don’t care what they upload. I don’t know, if I don’t look good it doesn’t bother me. Int: But I mean if they have taken a photo of you drunk… X: Maybe they have. In fact, there are many photos that I’m drunk in, but I don’t care very much. I think it’s something that everyone does, so I don’t have to feel embarrassed. (María, 20 years)

But we have also found cases in which certain content is intentionally spread on SNS with the purpose of publicising the excesses of the abusive consumption of alcohol, which would violate privacy and public image rights. In the case of Silvia, these are seen as one of the possible negative consequences of being in the night -time economy. This is how she described it:

When you are drinking in a nightclub, you normally have your mobile phone in your hand, and it’s true that you’re not going to video the guy who’s really drunk on the floor, because first of all he’s going to find out, but it is true that with all the nonsense here and there, like you are recording a video and maybe the person who’s totally gone, drunk, is in the background. And then afterwards they can take screen shots, upload a photo in which you are drunk and delete it in a moment so that nobody sees it, but in that moment someone has already taken a screenshot. The shot is passed around a group of friends, and can end up on many mobile phones and for sure… (Silvia, 18 years)

In other cases that we have collected, the dissemination of images without consent causes surprise and vexation due to the loss of control over personal image in those contexts of alcohol consumption that are public spaces. It is at these moments when the risks associated with the consumption of substances such as alcohol are multiplied due to “technological vulnerability”: the spreading of images in which you appear without being aware of it, without knowing in what images you feature. All images stay recorded and you have to take responsibility for them when the effects of alcohol consumption wear off and the party has ended.

Int: And when the girls get drunk, do they post images on Instagram? X: That’s happened to friends of mine, when they’re out drunk, they are filmed and then say, ‘But wait a moment, when did I say this?’ or ‘When did this happen?’ X: Well, their friends. Friends who are maybe not so drunk filmed the girls or the boys and they upload it and then the boy says: ‘But why would I want, like, all of Instagram or all of Facebook to see me drunk?’, ‘If you who are my friends see me, well OK, but there’s no reason for the whole world to see me.’ This has happened to me when in a group, it’s happened to friends of mine… and everyone knows the consequences this can have, because the boy can go and, if he wants to because he’s a minor, then he can report the other and say, ‘It’s that you’ve posted this image of me’. (Ana,17 years)

Well unless they take photos of me like that… totally wasted, like a photo of when I was in the bathroom, the usual of when there are several of us girls in the bathroom and I was…the usual, sitting on the toilet and they go and take a photo of me and upload it and I’m like, ‘But what are you doing with your life? Why do you have to upload that?’ (Patricia,17 years)

As we can see in these last accounts, the dissemination of images makes it possible to spread situations and contexts in which alcohol is consumed. This opens the door to social evaluation of behaviour and vulnerability that can give rise to situations of harassment, mocking and unauthorised dissemination of images. Nevertheless, the young people we have interviewed often do not consider them important and tend to take it as a joke:

Int: And if a girl drinks too much, can they criticize you on the SNS for that? Do such things happen? X: Yes, well, maybe it’s talked about if we have a group or like, ‘Well look at the state of you last night,’ and so on. (Eva, 18 years)

Int: And if they go out with their friends, do they take photos in a drunken state and post them? X: Yes. Int: And are there repercussions? X: I don’t tend to, because I don’t like having my photo taken, so I’m not going to go taking photos of people, but I do see it above all in other groups. I think they take them for a joke, I don’t know, I see that a guy has uploaded photos of a friend of his drunk and either I feel sorry for the kid, for the state he’s in, or I laugh because I know that the other guy’s going to laugh too… (Julia, 18 years)

Sexting and sextortion

One further aspect of the vulnerability that occurs in the night-time economy that is under study are the cases of sexting that have emerged among our participants. We have observed sexting consented to by the person himself/herself in the contexts of abusive alcohol consumption, as a form of experimentation of their own sexuality, the construction of their identity or of self-knowledge in romantic relationships. New practices that affect sexuality and romantic relationships between young people and that, as can be observed in the following personal accounts, require negotiation and permission related to the ability to spread the image through technology.

Yes, not videos but photos… well, photos like that are called ‘nudes’ in English. Me and my partner we do send each other a lot, but it tends to be a joke, such as making weird poses or things like that. It’s not erotic, it’s more for laughs […] I don’t have any complex about my body […] I don’t mind at all seeing a naked body or that people see me naked. (Iván, 16 years)

Yes, I know that some of my female friends have been with partners, those that maybe have been going out with their boyfriend for some time and they’ve sent each other photos of the more risqué type. (Julio, 18 years).

But we have also verified cases of sextortion in our sample. This involves threats to publish compromising photos on an SNS, to send them or spread them to other people when a romantic relationship is ended or by way of pressurising to have unwanted sexual relations. In these cases, the victims in our research tend to be girls and women.

Not on a social network like Instagram or Twitter […], not there, but for example they shared nude photos between themselves and maybe the boy sent photos of her to people, in short, they ended up being seen by everyone. Int: And how were they sent, by WhatsApp? X: By WhatsApp. (Enrique, 19 years).

Discussion

The forms of drinking in the night-time economy have changed decisively among young people in Spain. Now the intention is to attain intoxication through risky alcohol consumption, such as binge drinking.

Our results portray how the night-time economy is a space of vulnerability due to the use of technology together with alcohol, which causes disinhibition and can promote some violent forms of behaviour. Mobile phones are used by young people for 1) coordinating nights out; 2) maximising safety, allowing for continuous contact with families and peer groups; 3) demonstrating/celebrating fun; 4) surveillance of drunkenness and surveillance by partners; and 5) in some cases promoting violence.

The data reflect the presence of violent incidents among youth where alcohol is present, with a gender component that we need to be aware of. The pressure to have sexual relations and the pressure on personal appearance in public is greater on the girls and women.

The need to understand the female roles and experiences in the settings where alcohol is consumed intensively is very recent. Over the last few years, various studies have appeared that help us to piece together the puzzle, showing its impact under gender identity and how young women attempted a difficult ‘balancing act’ both online and offline, demonstrating an ‘up for it’ sexy (but not too sexy) femininity through their drinking practices and appearance, while still retaining control and respectability (Lennox, Emslie, Sweeting, & Lyons 2018). Other studies have already shown that the fact that a woman enjoys nightlife on the same terms as men places her in a position of vulnerability in the face of certain risk behaviours, on many occasions being victims of sexual violence, harassment and sexual abuse (Arostegui, Laespada, & Iraurgi, 2016).

Together with the intensive consumption of alcohol in the night-time economy, there is a virtual community related to identity. The continual use of the mobile phone makes it possible to transmit the party, the image of oneself and to portray others. The night-time economy spaces generate new codes of relations with peer groups and partners.

The people interviewed in this study created images and videos that they share and spread through SNS for the purpose of constructing an attractive personal identity and for social participation and integration. The repercussions of this output involve all types of milieus – personal, social and cultural. This relation has already been detected in other studies (Abisheva, Kiran-Garimella, García, & Weber, 2014; Bañuelos, 2009; Chau, 2010). In our work, the use of SNS and mobile-phone communication in the night-time economy show how elements of inequality emerge that cause vulnerability in the girls and women with the spreading and uploading of images to SNS, without consent, of minors under the effects of alcohol use and abuse, leading to undesired consequences such as criticism, mockery or harassment – just as with the cases of sexting that we have collected in our research.

Taking on the diversity of definitions and categorizations that are currently being debated concerning this practice, our study has differentiated between the two types: cases of consented sexting within young romantic relationships and understood as forms of experimentation of their own sexuality, of building identity or self-knowledge; and non-consensual sexting or sextortion, which can entail threats of publishing compromising photos on SNS or their being spread among other people when a romantic relationship has ended. In a study carried out by Davis, Powell, Gordon and Kershaw (2016), receiving a sext when part of a stable couple was linked to a higher alcohol consumption in the participants and their partners. This conduct can also be a factor of risk for the violent relationship. Morelli et al. (2016) showed how men who practiced more sexting committed more violent acts during dates or relationships.

The violence we detected is perpetrated above all by the boys and men; between peer groups, through physical violence; or against the girls and women, harassing them and pressurising them sexually; and inside and outside romantic relationships through different forms of psychological and technological violence. Prior research had shown that violent behaviours are higher in boys and men than in girls and women (Norström, Rossow, & Pape, 2018), with the former being more likely to perpetrate physical and sexual aggressions (Shorey, Stuart, & Cornelius, 2011), whereas the latter have a greater risk of suffering harm related to alcohol (Huhtanen & Tigerstedt, 2012) harassment and frustration, pressure in unwanted situations, responsibility that is not sought and is inappropriate, psychological and physical harm (Enser, Appleton, & Foxcroft, 2016). In other contexts, results were in along the same lines; for example, in a study carried out by Davoren, Dahly, Shiely and Perry (2017) on alcohol consumption among university students, 65% of the men reported a hazardous alcohol consumption compared to 68% of women. The participating students recognised alcohol as a factor of violence and unwanted sexual experiences.

Our results confirm those found in various studies carried out on the night-time economy in Spain (Altell, Martí, & Missé, 2016; Arostegui et al., 2016; Muñoz-Rivas, Graña, Gámez-Guadix, & Fernández, 2010), in which, in the cases of partner and gender violence, alcohol may not cause such incidents but does appear to worsen the situation (Graham, Bernards, Wilsnack, & Gmel, 2011).

Reformulations of gender violence are carried out in the night-time economy related to intensive alcohol consumption and with the use of mobile technology, through which new forms of control and diffusion of the public image are emerging. ‘Not without my mobile phone’ shows the vulnerability of gender that exists within Spain’s intoxication culture. Just as there is a greater disapproval of drunken behaviours by girls and women, and a pressure on their personal appearance in the spaces of the night-time economy, their exposure to sexual and technological violence is greater.

Implications for prevention

Health promotion programmes will need to consider the association between alcohol and the new forms of gender violence that occur in the night-time economy of high-intensity alcohol consumption. The possibilities of intervention should be explored using the same technological media that young people use.

This study proposes the adoption of preventative strategies with a gender perspective that pays attention to the current problematic link that is produced between alcohol, gender violence and technology in the drinking cultures in Spain. Similarly, further research is needed to focus on the findings presented here.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Note

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministry of Industry, Economy and Competitiveness, State Research Agency, State Plan for Scientific Research and Innovation Technique, 2016-2019 (Reference FEM2016-77116-C2-1-R, MINECO / FEDER, EU).

Notes

1 ‘Binge drinking’ has been defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) in the United States as a pattern of drinking that raises a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 grams percent or above. This typically happens when men consume five or more drinks or women consume four or more drinks in about 2 hours.