I wouldn't be surprised if the writers of Mad Men loosely based the character of Betty Draper on Betty Ford. Both women had been fashion models living in New York City before they traded in their independence to settle down in a post-WW II suburban lifestyle to raise families and create homes for their husbands. Just like Draper is depicted on the show, Ford said that she felt as though her identity was lost in her new and limiting role as a wife and a mother. She began drinking to deal with the depression, and continued to take pain meds she'd been prescribed for a pinched nerve in the early '60s.

The lack of fulfillment felt by these two Bettys mirrors that of the women profiled in the book of another Betty: Betty Friedan's seminal The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963, which argues that women are victims of a social structure that dictated that the importance and meaning of their lives be identified through their husbands and children.

In the documentary, Ford says that once her husband became Vice President, and then later President, she had a podium and an audience, and she took the opportunity to unleash the voice within now that there were people listening. She says, "I was amazed that I was this important person."

Ford worked to ratify the ERA and, after being diagnosed with breast cancer, was open about her disease in a way and at a time that many women weren't; in fact, she became an activist for breast exams and early detection.

In this clip, she speaks candidly about premarital sex and being pro-choice.

After her husband lost the election in 1976, and she no longer had such a public platform, depression set in again and her addictions became worse, until her family staged an intervention and she sought treatment in 1978.

Interestingly, when she established the Betty Ford Center in 1982, she insisted upon gender-specific treatment for addictions, because she noticed that women were able to speak more openly about their problems when men weren't in the room.

Betty Ford: The Real Deal [PBS]

Related: The Feminine Mystique [Amazon]

Cheever writes on the New York Times' website that people in New York are drinking less, and she bases this conclusion on the anecdotal evidence that those in her circle are drinking less. Two things about that: Susan, honey, you're 65 years old. Perhaps part of the reason your friends drink less now is that they can't stomach it anymore! But, she takes this opportunity to say that she misses when her buddies used to get fall down drunk because "For us sober people there is a kind of drunkenfreude to watching others embarrass themselves, mangle their words and do things they will regret in the morning — if they even remember them in the morning."

Cheever gleefully describes a friend tottering around at a party a decade ago.

As dessert ended, the woman in the red dress got up and stumbled toward the bathroom… As coffee splashed into porcelain demitasse cups, the woman in the red dress returned, sank sloppily into her chair and reached for the Courvoisier. Someone gently moved the bottle away. “Are you shaying I’m drunk?” she demanded. Even in the candlelight I noticed that the lipstick she had reapplied was slightly to the left of her lips

Would this friend have described herself as merely "tipsy"? Maybe, because according to a new report, women use euphemisms to describe their excessive drinking, and those euphemisms can lead them to underestimate their intake. According to the Telegraph, "Men used more forceful words, like 'hammered' and 'wasted'. The researchers found that when women described an evening's drinking as getting 'tipsy' they were talking about consuming four drinks over two hours which is actually classed as a binge for females."

Moral of these two stories? Beware of getting tipsy, ladies, or your abstemious friends will feel smugly superior. Happy holidays!

Drunkenfreude [NY Times]
'Tipsy' Women Have Drunk More Than They Realise [Telegraph]

Earlier: 'Writer Spawn Susan Cheever's Issues Have Issues

What's interesting is that African-Ameircan women have the lowest rates of alcohol abuse, and Grucza attributes this to the fact that by and large, they have yet to "immigrate" into the dominant culture. "Black women...have a second barrier between them and the dominant U.S. culture, namely, their race," Grucza points out. "That may be keeping them from adopting the standards of the dominant culture with respect to alcohol use."

Shelly F. Greenfield, associate clinical director of the Alcohol Abuse Treatment Program at McLean Hospital, suggests that alcohol education programs be designed that are specifically geared towards women, primarily concerning the "gender differences in metabolism of alcohol, and the associated heightened female vulnerability to alcohol's adverse health consequences at lower doses than men."

If Greenfield's suggestions are taken to heart, and alcohol abuse and education programs are formatted for women, they'll probably work, as Amstel Light has proven. When the beer company started advertising their product specifically to women, Amstel Light volume rose 13%, according to USA Today. If we can be enticed to buy beer, we can be enticed not to.

Alcoholism Is Not Just A 'Man's Disease' Anymore [Science Daily]
Women Take Stage In Beer Ads [USA Today]