Dr Thora Hands | City of Glasgow College (original) (raw)

Publications by Dr Thora Hands

This open access book surveys drinking in Britain between the Licensing Act of 1869 and the warti... more This open access book surveys drinking in Britain between the Licensing Act of 1869 and the wartime regulations imposed on alcohol production and consumption after 1914. This was a period marked by the expansion of the drink industry and by increasingly restrictive licensing laws. Politics and commerce co-existed with moral and medical concerns about drunkenness and combined, these factors pushed alcohol consumers into the public spotlight. Through an analysis of public and private records, medical texts and sociological studies, the book investigates the reasons why Victorians and Edwardians consumed alcohol in the ways that they did and explores the ideas about alcohol that circulated in the period. This book shows that they had many reasons for purchasing and consuming alcoholic substances and these were driven by broader social, cultural, medical and commercial factors. Although drunkenness may have been the most visible consequence of alcohol consumption, it was not the only type of drinking behaviour. Alcohol played an important social role in the everyday lives of Victorians and Edwardians where its consumption held many different meanings.

Journal Articles by Dr Thora Hands

The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, Volume 27, No. 1, Dec 2013

The inebriate reform campaign of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain has attracted historical at... more The inebriate reform campaign of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain has attracted historical attention because women were the main targets of institutional treatment. The confinement of women within inebriate reformatories highlights the political and medical debates about alcohol consumption and reflects the wider social context of class and gender inequality. Yet the historiography tends to glide over the subject of alcohol consumption despite the fact that all the women sent to inebriate reformatories were alcohol consumers. This article analyses the treatment of women within two inebriate reformatories in Scotland. It will argue that although inebriate reform was encased within class and gender inequality, attitudes towards alcohol consumption also played a key role in the confinement and mangement of 'drunken' women. Alcohol consumption may have been used as a means of locking women up but within reformatories it was also used to differentiate types of deviancy and formulate treatment regimes.

Conference Presentations by Dr Thora Hands

From the 1960s until the early 1990s, Scottish brewer Tennent Caledonian sold cans of lager featu... more From the 1960s until the early 1990s, Scottish brewer Tennent Caledonian sold cans of lager featuring provocative photographs of women dressed in skimpy outfits or swimwear. These women were branded the ‘Lager Lovelies’ and as a marketing strategy, the women and the cans were hugely successful. However from a feminist standpoint, the cans symbolised sexual objectification and exploitation.

This paper considers the case of the Lager Lovelies within the context of gendered alcohol marketing. The cans were aimed at a male market and yet the sales records show that women and men were consumers. So just how mind altering were these cans in their ability to convince women to buy and consume sexualised images of other women? What about the models who posed for the photographs – how did they feel about their role in promoting the cans? These questions are considered through an analysis of original oral history interviews with alcohol consumers and the Lager Lovelies models. The interviews offer insights into the extent of women’s agency and oppression within the insidious boundaries of gendered alcohol marketing.

This paper explores the commercial tactics of alcohol producers in the late nineteenth century. T... more This paper explores the commercial tactics of alcohol producers in the late nineteenth century. This was a period when the drink trade faced moral scrutiny from temperance campaigners and the threat to business posed by new licensing laws that placed restrictions on alcohol sale and consumption. Trade defence was one aspect of the measures taken by alcohol producers and retailers to stem the moral and political ‘offensive’ against the liquor trade. However drunkenness was the real enemy of the drink trade and in order to protect business interests, it was important that alcohol should be regarded as a ‘respectable’ commodity that was consumed moderately by the majority of drinkers. In essence, the drink trade had to sell the idea of moderate drinking and in order to do so, it was necessary to imbue alcohol with notions of respectability that could be marketed and sold to consumers.

The Inebriates Acts of 1879 and 1898 resulted in the introduction of institutional ‘solutions’ to... more The Inebriates Acts of 1879 and 1898 resulted in the introduction of institutional ‘solutions’ to the problems of drug and alcohol addiction in Britain. The concept of inebriety was deployed within voluntary and compulsory medical institutions in order to target and control the behaviour of individuals and social groups. This paper examines Scottish medical responses to the Inebriates Acts using case studies of the State Inebriate Reformatory at Perth, which dealt mainly with poorer working class women and Invernith Lodge Retreat in Fife which admitted middle and upper class gentlemen. These contrasting case studies reveal the extent to which class and gender framed attitudes towards alcohol consumption and addiction. The case studies also show that institutional treatment reflected different medical and political interests rather than a specific inebriate reform agenda. In late Victorian and early Edwardian Scotland, the concept of inebriety was used to confine the mad, the bad and the drunk within institutions that provided medical treatment and moral reform for deviant behaviour. This established a framework for medical and political intervention in substance use that has lasting implications for alcohol policy in present day Scotland.

Since the publication of Brian Harrison’s Drink and the Victorians in 1971, the field of alcohol ... more Since the publication of Brian Harrison’s Drink and the Victorians in 1971, the field of alcohol history has been dominated by temperance studies, social and political histories of alcohol and medical histories of alcoholism. Most of the historiography adopts a similar problem-oriented approach to alcohol which ignores the majority of ‘normal’ or ‘moderate’ drinkers. In many cases, alcohol is not the focus of historical research but is instead used as a lens of analysis for assessing broader social and cultural changes. This is the case with Drink and the Victorians, in which Harrison uses the example of the temperance movement to write a groundbreaking piece of social and political history which fails to deliver an analysis of Victorian drinking.
In order to fully assess the historiographical tendencies towards problem-oriented studies, it is necessary to explore the various theoretical approaches within the field of alcohol research and then consider these in relation to the writing of alcohol history. Moving beyond the pathological framework of alcohol history requires a theoretical leap into unknown and unfamiliar aspects of nineteenth century alcohol use. It is the ambiguous nature of alcohol that allows for a more flexible theoretical approach: one that uses methodologies from social theory, ethnography and literary analysis to construct a theoretical framework that offers greater historical insights into ‘problem’ drinking through an analysis of the ways in which ‘normal’ drinking was constructed in the Victorian period.
This paper will present ongoing doctoral research which examines the impact of social, cultural, political, medical and commercial factors on the majority of alcohol consumers in Britain from 1869 to 1914. In the current political climate that exists in the UK and other Western societies, alcohol is regarded as an economic drain on health services and the employment sector and constitutes a threat to public health and social order. Alcohol research, frequently reported in the press, talks of the costs, risks and harm associated with alcohol abuse. Yet, the parameters of ‘normal’ or ‘moderate’ alcohol consumption remain ill defined and are forever shifting with every new report published. By examining the impact of alcohol on the everyday lives of people during a period of rapid social change, this paper not only offers fresh historical perspectives on alcohol consumption but also promises new insights into contemporary concerns over what constitutes ‘moderate’ drinking.

This paper looks at the treatment of women within Girgenti Inebriate Home near Glasgow and the St... more This paper looks at the treatment of women within Girgenti Inebriate Home near Glasgow and the State Inebriate Reformatory at Perth Prison in order to assess to what extent the political motives of inebriate reform and attitudes towards womens alcohol consumption shaped institutional regimes.

As part of my doctoral research into alcohol consumption in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain,... more As part of my doctoral research into alcohol consumption in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain, I endeavoured to find historical sources that offer insights into the drinking habits and uses of alcohol among the majority of consumers. It was important to find sources that provided glimpses into ‘ordinary’ people’s drinking practices and attitudes towards alcohol consumption, as many of the historical sources such as parliamentary papers, offer a biased and moralistic ‘top down’ account of alcohol consumption. The use of oral history transcripts therefore offered a solution to this problem and provided an ideal opportunity to explore the social and cultural meanings of alcohol in the lives of consumers.

This paper presents an analysis of the oral history transcripts provided by Paul Thompson’s 1973 study of Edwardian working class and middle class family life. Alcohol featured in the lives of many of the respondents and also in the lives of their Victorian parents. The overarching picture is one where alcohol usage was so deeply interwoven into the fabric of British social life that it was almost unremarkable. This contrasts sharply with the more prominent moral messages and political concerns about intemperance circulating in the late Victorian period. Drinking practices varied enormously in Britain but social class and gender predominantly defined alcohol usage. This paper will argue that although there were clear differences between dinner beer and dinner parties, the uniting feature of both is that men and women of all social classes consumed alcohol on a regular basis. Perhaps most importantly the transcripts show that drinking existed in the ‘background’ of social life, where it played an important social and cultural role but not an essential one. For the Edwardians and their Victorian parents, alcohol consumption was just a part of everyday life.

Recent studies of the temperance movement and the medicalization of alcoholism focus on the ‘devi... more Recent studies of the temperance movement and the medicalization of alcoholism focus on the ‘deviant’ drinking habits of the Victorian working classes. However most people in Victorian Britain were not viewed as ‘deviant’ drinkers or alcoholics. People of all social classes were in fact classed as moderate drinkers. Yet we know very little about the drinking habits of this 'silent majority'. Concepts of moderate drinking were as vague and controversial in the late Victorian period, as they are now. However, certain social groups were considered to be more ‘naturally disposed’ towards moderate consumption than others.

By exploring the drinking culture that existed within London’s gentlemen’s clubs, this paper looks beyond the drinking habits of the working classes, to offer fresh perspectives on Victorian alcohol consumption. London’s Clubland was viewed as a distinctly private sphere where dining, drinking and conviviality existed without the external interference of licensing laws. Alcohol held a specific social value within gentlemen’s clubs, where drinking certain types of wines and spirits displayed particular levels of cultural capital and aesthetic taste. This paper argues that within gentlemen’s clubs, moral, medical and political concepts of moderate and deviant drinking were muted because Club men were drawn from the social elites and as such, their drinking habits both reflected and reinforced their class and gender status.

Recent studies of women’s alcohol consumption report an increase in drinking among professional, ... more Recent studies of women’s alcohol consumption report an increase in drinking among professional, educated women and more generally, among middle class women. However, concerns about middle class women’s alcohol consumption are nothing new and stretch as far back as the late Victorian period, when the issue of ‘secret drinking’ attracted political and medical attention. From the 1870s onwards, the expansion of the off-license trade and the commodification of alcohol meant that women of the higher classes had access to an increasing range of alcoholic drinks, including medicated or ‘tonic’ wines which were often marketed as women’s drinks.
Consequently, stories emerged of middle class women regularly purchasing and consuming tonic wine for private consumption, in the apparent belief that they were ‘drinking for their health.’ This paper explores the issue of ‘secret drinking’ and locates it within the broader framework of Victorian class and gender inequality and the medicalisation of drunkenness. Historically and to the present day, women’s relationship with alcohol has been socially, politically and medically defined by their biological status. In Victorian Britain, women’s perceived biological ‘weaknesses’ meant that alcohol was viewed as both a useful medicine and a dangerous intoxicant. The subject of ‘secret drinking’ therefore highlights this duality and questions whether Victorian women were in fact self-medicating with alcohol or defying feminine norms and drinking for pleasure.

Historically and to the present day, women’s relationship with alcohol has been socially, politic... more Historically and to the present day, women’s relationship with alcohol has been socially, politically and medically defined by their biological status. This was no more evident than in late Victorian Britain when women’s perceived biological ‘weaknesses’ meant that alcohol was viewed as both a useful medicine and a dangerous intoxicant. Doctors struggled to reconcile the moral and therapeutic aspects of prescribing alcohol to women, and while some believed alcohol to be beneficial in treating a range of ‘women’s complaints’; others felt that women simply could not tolerate alcohol in the same way as men and were therefore prone to drunkenness and addiction. Yet regardless of the debates among medical men, women continued to consume alcohol for ‘health reasons’ and sometimes the drink of choice was proprietary tonic wine.

This paper explores women’s use of tonic wine and locates it within the broader framework of Victorian gender inequality and the medicalisation of drunkenness. At the turn of the century the tonic wine industry experienced a boom period, which coincided with an increase in products marketed at women. This caused a stir in medical and political circles where questions were raised about women’s susceptibility to alcohol addiction. Proprietary tonic wine offered both the means to self-medicate and a way for women to carry on drinking amid a climate of moral panic about their alcohol consumption. The concept of ‘drinking for health’ therefore challenged feminine norms by creating a viable reason for women to seek the pleasures of intoxication.

From the first screening of Gene Roddenberry’s TV series in the 1960s through to J. J. Abram’s re... more From the first screening of Gene Roddenberry’s TV series in the 1960s through to J. J. Abram’s recent cinematic reboot, Star Trek has remained one of the most popular science fiction franchises. Through its many reincarnations, it held a mirror up to present day issues and projected these on to the future where they are explored and challenged. This extends to issues of alcohol consumption, which appear to cross time and space to inhabit a future where, despite centuries of technological advance and humanitarian progress, people still seek intoxication. In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Dr McCoy presents an illicit bottle of Romulan Ale to Captain Kirk, who then questions the legality of such a gift. In his defence, McCoy quips that it should only be used for ‘medicinal purposes.’ Romulan Ale was in fact banned throughout the Federation because it was considered to be a dangerous intoxicant that could only be consumed safely by certain ‘hardier’ races such as the Romulans and the Klingons. Yet among Starfleet officers, the occasional bottle of Romulan Ale was largely accepted as one of the perks of deep space travel. An alcoholic drink that was somewhat dangerous to consume and expensive to procure held a certain dark alluring quality that appealed to the high-ranking officers aboard the Enterprise. This paper explores the parallels that exist between the consumption of Romulan Ale and more Earthly intoxicants such as Gin, Absinthe and even Buckfast Tonic Wine. At certain points in time, these drinks were deemed socially and even morally unacceptable and yet they remained popular among certain social groups. Perhaps Mr Spock would have argued that the human love of alcohol evades logic or reason and is instead driven by irrational desires. Romulan ale and its Earthly counterparts hold a sublime quality that renders their consumption subversive or dangerous and perhaps this makes them all the more appealing.

Papers by Dr Thora Hands

The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, 2017

The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs

Drinking in Victorian and Edwardian Britain

On the guests being seated at the table: It is not unusual, where taking wine is en regle [custom... more On the guests being seated at the table: It is not unusual, where taking wine is en regle [customary], for a gentleman to ask a lady to take wine until the fish or soup is finished, and then the gentleman honoured by sitting on the right of the hostess, may politely inquire if she will do him the honour of taking wine with him. This will act as a signal for the rest of the company … at many tables, however, the custom or fashion of drinking wine in this manner is abolished, and the servants fill the glasses of the guests with various wines suited to the course which is in progress. 1

Drinking in Victorian and Edwardian Britain

This chapter considers the tactics of the brewing industry by focusing on one of the largest and ... more This chapter considers the tactics of the brewing industry by focusing on one of the largest and most successful brewers in Britain, Bass & Co. Ltd. In order to compete in a growing domestic and foreign market for beer, Bass began to use advertising as a means of reaching larger groups of consumers. By appealing to notions of Britishness and Empire, Bass secured a market for their products and established a strong brand image. The company also used ideas about the supposed health giving properties of beer in order to boost dwindling sales towards the end of the century.

Chapter three investigates ideas about the ‘great army of drinkers’ that continued to drink alcoh... more Chapter three investigates ideas about the ‘great army of drinkers’ that continued to drink alcohol despite moral pressure and political control of alcohol sale and consumption. One of the richest sources of information on alcohol consumers lies within the reports of parliamentary enquiries on alcohol held during the second half of the nineteenth century. During these enquiries, witnesses from across Britain gave detailed accounts of drinking within their towns, cities and districts. This provides insights into different types of drinking behaviour and also into the ways in which alcohol consumers were imagined and portrayed.

The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, Volume 27, No. 1, Dec 2013

The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, 2017

The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs

Drinking in Victorian and Edwardian Britain

Drinking in Victorian and Edwardian Britain, 2018

To the medically uneducated public [meat and malt wines] undoubtedly seem a most promising combin... more To the medically uneducated public [meat and malt wines] undoubtedly seem a most promising combination: extract of meat for food, extract of malt to aid digestion, port wine to make blood-surely the very thing to strengthen all who are weak and to hasten the restoration of convalescents. Unfortunately, what the advertisements say-that this stuff is largely prescribed by medical men-is not wholly true. 1 In an article in The British Medical Journal in 1898, Dr F. C. Coley argued that doctors should warn patients and the general population to be wary when buying meat and malt wines. The problem with tonic wines was that they made bold therapeutic claims about the healthgiving properties of alcohol based on flimsy medical evidence. Although the therapeutic use of alcohol was generally supported and propagated by doctors who wrote prescriptions for alcohol, it was important that its therapeutic use remains within the boundaries of medical control and not be thrown open to 'the medically uneducated public.' In other words, alcohol still had a place in medicine but the general public could not be trusted to use it wisely or responsibly. Yet despite the reservations of the medical profession, tonic wines were a commercial success and the idea of drinking for health was popular among alcohol consumers. Foley's argument highlights one of the main concerns about the marketing of tonic wines expressed by the 1914 Commission on Patent Medicines, which investigated the supposed endorsement of these CHAPTER 10

Drinking in Victorian and Edwardian Britain, 2018

The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs

Drinking in Victorian and Edwardian Britain, 2018

The true role of drinking in Edwardian Britain was much more humdrum. Beer was the basis of leisu... more The true role of drinking in Edwardian Britain was much more humdrum. Beer was the basis of leisure. It took the place which later became filled with cigarettes and television. Children would fetch jugs from the pubs for tired parents to relax at home at the end of the day. At funerals, at weddings, at harvest, at the initiation of apprentices, at ordinary work breaks, a glass of beer would be exchanged. 1

Drinking in Victorian and Edwardian Britain

use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you g... more use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the book's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

History of psychiatry, 2016