Alcohol loses more steam as another celebrity tough guy quits at 47

At one time, not long ago, a man admitting he wanted to quit alcohol would have drawn a lot of sideways looks and probably more than a few homophobic comments.

He would have been pegged as one of two things:

An “alcoholic” who probably has a “problem”
A wuss

Such is the aura that Big Alcohol and the media placed around the image of the tough, manly, hard-drinking dude that guys wanted to be and women wanted to be with.

It’s all a crock of s**t of course.

In fact, for the longest time now, it has taken a heckuva lot more toughness to say no to booze than to say yes.

The peer pressure — among grown adults even! — to imbibe is intense on its own.

Throw in all the baloney about being “less of a man” because you won’t drink yourself into oblivion and it’s a lot easier to say, “Yeah, sure, I’ll take a beer” than to explain why you don’t want one.

More and more people you wouldn’t expect to do it are tossing booze in the trash. (Credit: James Julina/Photoshop)

Manlier to say ‘no’

Given the environment I’ve just described, when a country megastar who once sang about “the boys ‘round here, drinkin’ that ice cold beer, talkin’ ‘bout girls, talkin’ ‘bout trucks, runnin’ them red dirt roads out kicking up dust” says he really wants to quit booze, I take notice.

Such was the case with one Blake Shelton, who told Entertainment Tonight this week that he’s had it with alcohol:

“I haven’t managed to stop drinking yet.

“That’s been, you know … even cutting back has been hard.

“I mean, it’s a resolution though.

“And I’ll say it again right now — that’s my New Year’s resolution, is to either cut back or stop drinking altogether.

“Let’s just say I said it.”

I make this point all the time, but the fact that it’s highly newsworthy that any given celebrity says they want to quit alcohol shows how far we still have to go as a society.

Alcohol is so ingrained in our culture that there are still tons of people who can’t even fathom someone wanting to give it up.

But the good news is that the more people there are like Shelton — people who come from hard-drinking, tough-guy subcultures like country music — who normalize not wanting to drink, the less others will feel inclined to continue doing it.

(And the less the media will feel inclined to promote it as normal and good).

Every time a new sober hero emerges from any subculture that once equated booze with manhood — country music, sports, Wall Street, whatever — it makes it more “OK” for Regular Joes to dump booze too (and not take a bunch of s**t for it).

Another thing I like about Shelton’s comment?

He was vulnerable enough to admit quitting is HARD!

Again, there was a time when, if you admitted you were struggling to cut back on alcohol, you would automatically be placed in people’s “alcoholic” column.

It’s silly, too, because the stereotype of the drunk, homeless guy in the park is so far removed from the reality of overdrinking for most people.

When I drank too much and struggled to quit, I was fit, had a lovely family, and held down a high-paying job.

You don’t need to have blown up your life to want to pursue a healthier path.

I wanted to quit because I wasn’t reaching my potential as an entrepreneur and I knew I was slowly killing myself on the inside.

Everyone has their very good reasons to quit alcohol.

The coming sea change

Change is coming.

Every example like Shelton’s is another inch on the battlefield in the war against killer alcohol.

Its time as a cultural icon is coming to an end.

Hey, thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this piece, please give it a clap so others can find it and let me know in the comments!

Looking for something else to read? Here are my top 5 stories all-time:

Summarize

Alcohol loses more steam as another celebrity tough guy quits at 47

Manlier to say ‘no’

The coming sea change