Panama City Beach spring breakers escape studies, but not gender stereotypes

Spring break beach party in Panama City, Fla. Photos by Christina Green.

Two weeks ago, for spring break I went where many, many college students have gone before: Panama City Beach, Fla. As an older (22), slightly overweight dork from Ohio, I was certainly out of my element. I usually spend vacations reading books and hitting museums, not playing beach baseball and grinding on strangers next to stages in front of a student-hotel hot spot.

Overall, my brotastic voyage was a successful one—everyone in my group got sufficiently drunk and no one died. Other students weren’t so lucky. High-school football star and Cincinnati native, Matt James, died after falling from third-floor balcony after drinking. Although a tragic and extreme case, I was unsurprised when hearing the reports after returning from a week on Panama Beach. It leaves me wondering how many accounts of alcohol poisoning and STDs Panama City hospitals are treating this year (statistics aren’t available yet).

However, outside of the obvious binge drinking and sexual promiscuity, other aspects of Panama spring break were disheartening. From a sociological standpoint, the objectification of women ran rampant. Not only were women (and girls) pressured by men to return to hotel rooms for after hours or accept shots and drinks they hadn’t poured themselves, women were also publicly exploited on stage. One female student I traveled with signed a waiver (once drunk) releasing the rights to footage from a booty-shaking contest she participated in. She thinks the waiver gave rights to MTV—but isn’t sure.

Fortunately, a booty-shaking contest is seemingly tame; however, a best-legs contest I witnessed was more humiliating for the young, drunk women on stage. The contest involved women getting on stage, straddling men below, having their legs and buns felt by judges and being rated on a scale from one to 10. I can only infer from surprised looks on their faces that these women were unaware of the judging process until going on stage. Not quite Girls Gone Wild, but not something to include in a postcard to Mom and Dad either.

Aspects of spring break, specifically the borderline-lethal quantities of alcohol, were dangerous, yet characteristic of a typical college party scene. However, with not one one-piece swimsuit for miles and party-profiteers targeting women over men, the spring-break climate was surprisingly gendered. Female students may have escaped their parents and studies, but Florida wasn’t far enough to escape sexist attitudes from peers.