"Sugar and spice and everything nice. That's what little girls are made of."
This classic American poem that every mother repeats to her daughter is often thought to be an indicator of the sweet nature of females.
In youth, it begins by playing with dolls.
During teenage years, it progresses to wearing perfume and painting toenails.
But as girls enter adulthood, this same sweetness becomes the bottom line for drink choices, which is why the current assortments of sweeter, alternative alcoholic beverages have become widely known as girly drinks.
On any given Friday night in Tempe, a woman is rummaging through the beer-packed refrigerator of Mr. Joe Throws-a-lot-of-parties in search of the last Smirnoff Ice. She instinctually neglects each guy who offers her a Bud Light, Pabst Blue Ribbon or Red Stripe, until she feels the funky shape of an alternative beverage, often called "malternative" because of the drink's malt-liquor base, in her hand.
Tonight, this woman is ASU biotechnology sophomore Anjali Patel.
"I enjoy the occasional beer," Patel says, as she sips her regulation girly drink from a straw at a recent house party. "But I enjoy the alcoholic experience more with girly drinks."
Zima, a product of the Coors Company, is considered the first malt beverage.
After its introduction in 1993, Zima became the drink that was universally OK to make fun of. However, with the recent introduction of other sweetened and fruity malt beverages, it has become more socially acceptable to drink.
But for Patel, and many women like her, it does not get any better than Smirnoff Ice, which was one of the first widely advertised girly drinks on the market with 22 million cases sold in 2001, according to a report by the Beverage Marketing Corporation.
Patel's explanation for the craze is simple.
"It ultimately comes down to adaptability," she says. "I think Smirnoff has what it takes in every situation, whether casually flirting with orange juice or straight from the bottle as a 'get crunked' kind of beverage."
While industrial design sophomore Hilary Bailey says she rarely partakes in girly drinks or anything else, she is quick to hypothesize the origin of the drinks' nickname.
"It means that we're sweeter. They compare the sweet drinks to girls," she says, giggling over her glass of strawberry lemonade.
While Bailey's hypothesis may be correct, it certainly does not stop men from crossing the line from beer and hard liquor over to the side of sweeter sensations.
Mechanical engineering freshman Adam Pah is not afraid to admit his attraction to the sweet taste of the more feminine beverages, including Mike's Hard Lemonade and Smirnoff Ice, although he says, "Wine coolers are kind of a bitch thing to drink."
While he is aware of the feminine stereotypes associated with these so-called "girly drinks," Pah says drinking them does not make him feel any less masculine.
"When I hear 'girly drink' I think of Arnold Schwarzenegger saying, 'Are you a girly-man?' " Pah says, in his best governator voice. "So I just laugh.
"Besides, as long as it is in a bottle, it's OK," he says. "And I do love my daiquiris."
Pah says Smirnoff Ice was the first malternative beverage he tried, but he did not enjoy it immediately.
"It wasn't until after I tasted beer that I really appreciated the girly drinks," he says.
Seeing a man sipping from an ice cold bottle of Mike's Hard Lemonade does not deter women as often as most men think.
Journalism and mass communication sophomore Noelle Paul says men who drink malternative beverages are cool.
"They know what a really good drink is," she says.
Patel agrees, saying that a man drinking malt drinks is no less of a man than one with a bottle of whiskey in his hand.
"It makes them seem sensitive," she says. "I have dated a girly drink guy, and I will do it again."
Reach the reporter at tara.brite@asu.edu.
