For 50 years, the picture of the standard hashish person was carved in stone: male, slacker, most likely unemployed, undoubtedly hungry. From Cheech and Chong to Pineapple Categorical, stoner tradition was a boys’ membership with occasional feminine sidekicks. However 2024 simply shattered that stereotype with information that might make Hollywood rewrite each hashish comedy.
For the primary time in half a century of monitoring, women now use marijuana considerably greater than boys in each grade stage. This is not a statistical blip – it is a seismic shift that no one noticed coming, besides perhaps Anna Faris within the 2007 movie “Smiley Face,” which now seems to be much less like stoner comedy and extra like prophetic cinema.
The numbers inform a exceptional story. Based on the 2024 Monitoring the Future report, feminine highschool college students are outpacing their male counterparts in marijuana use throughout all grades, with the hole widening as college students become older. By twelfth grade, the distinction is substantial and rising. The driving power? Vaping – that discreet, flavorless, rainbow-colored gateway that is made hashish consumption as socially acceptable as sipping a latte.
This shift is not taking place in a vacuum. It coincides with rising charges of tension and despair amongst teenage women – 57% report persistent disappointment in comparison with 29% of boys. In the meantime, 40 states have legalized medical marijuana, normalizing hashish as drugs moderately than simply recreation. For women coping with every part from menstrual cramps to social media-induced anxiousness, a discreet vape pen gives reduction with out the stigma of conventional smoking.
The implications lengthen far past consumption statistics. We’re witnessing the potential feminization of hashish tradition, and meaning every part adjustments – from product improvement to advertising methods to the very manner we take into consideration weed. If girls have gotten the first shoppers, anticipate hashish corporations to begin considering extra like cosmetics manufacturers and fewer like head retailers.
The stoner bro period is ending. The femme stoner revolution has begun. And similar to Anna Faris stumbling by means of Los Angeles excessive as a kite, the hashish trade is about to find that when girls embrace one thing, they do not simply eat it – they rework it fully.
Again in 2007, “Smiley Face” bombed on the field workplace. Critics dismissed it as one other dumb stoner comedy, audiences ignored it, and Anna Faris’s portrayal of Jane F – a chronically excessive actress stumbling by means of a day-long hashish journey – appeared like a one-off curiosity in a style dominated by male protagonists.
However rewatching “Smiley Face” right this moment appears like discovering a misplaced prophecy. Whereas Hollywood was churning out “Pineapple Categorical” and “Harold & Kumar,” this neglected movie was quietly depicting one thing revolutionary: a feminine stoner who wasn’t a punchline or a prize, however the precise protagonist of her personal hashish journey.
Jane F wasn’t the girlfriend getting excessive to impress her boyfriend, or the celebration lady utilizing weed for wild adventures. She was a completely realized character whose relationship with hashish was complicated, private, and distinctly female. Her excessive wasn’t about bros bonding over bongs – it was about managing anxiousness, artistic expression, and navigating the mundane absurdities of contemporary life.
The movie’s strategy to hashish consumption was additionally prophetic. Jane’s edibles mishap feels remarkably modern given right this moment’s market dominance of discrete consumption strategies. No smoking circles or elaborate glass items – simply unintentional overconsumption of home made items, resulting in a day of introspective chaos that by some means resolves into self-discovery.
What made “Smiley Face” completely different was the way it portrayed the feminine hashish expertise with out male validation or judgment. Jane wasn’t rebelling in opposition to anybody or attempting to show something. She was merely dwelling her life, utilizing hashish as a instrument for managing actuality moderately than escaping it. This genuine portrayal of feminine stoner tradition felt alien in 2007 however reads as utterly pure right this moment.
The movie additionally captured one thing essential about feminine hashish customers that present information helps: they are not utilizing it primarily “to get excessive” or “for enjoyable” like their male counterparts. Jane’s hashish use was useful, emotional, and deeply built-in into her every day existence. She wasn’t performing stoner tradition – she was inhabiting it.
Quick-forward to 2024, and Jane F seems to be much less like an outlier and extra like a demographic development. The discreet consumption strategies, the anxiousness administration, the artistic expression, the on a regular basis integration – these components that appeared quirky in a 2007 comedy now symbolize the mainstream feminine hashish expertise.
Hollywood missed the memo then, however they cannot ignore it now. The present crop of hashish comedies nonetheless skews closely male, however that is about to vary. When a whole demographic shifts towards your product, leisure follows. Count on the subsequent wave of hashish content material to look much more like “Smiley Face” and so much much less like “Pineapple Categorical.”
Anna Faris could have been forward of her time, however time has caught up. The femme stoner is not coming – she’s already right here, vape pen in hand, anxiousness managed, and able to redefine what hashish tradition seems to be like. “Smiley Face” wasn’t only a film; it was a preview of the long run.
The shift towards feminine hashish dominance is not simply cultural – it is organic. Girls’s our bodies are actually designed to reply extra intensively to hashish, and understanding this physiology explains why women are more and more turning to weed whereas boys keep on with extra conventional substances.
The endocannabinoid system, our physique’s pure hashish community, operates otherwise in feminine our bodies. Girls have greater concentrations of cannabinoid receptors in essential mind areas together with the hippocampus, striatum, and amygdala. This implies when girls eat THC, they are not simply getting greater – they’re getting a basically completely different neurological expertise.
Estradiol, the first feminine intercourse hormone, amplifies this impact by growing dopamine launch in response to THC. This creates a extra rewarding expertise that may result in quicker habituation and, sadly, faster improvement of tolerance. However it additionally explains why girls usually report extra pronounced therapeutic results from hashish, notably for anxiousness, ache, and temper problems.
This organic sensitivity intersects completely with the psychological well being disaster affecting teenage women. With 57% of highschool women reporting persistent disappointment in comparison with 29% of boys, and double the charges of tension and despair, hashish gives reduction that conventional drugs usually fail to offer. The discrete nature of vaping makes it notably interesting to women who may keep away from smoking because of social stigma or well being issues.
The hormonal connection runs deeper than simply mind chemistry. Girls’s month-to-month hormonal fluctuations create home windows the place hashish turns into notably efficient for managing signs. Many ladies report that hashish helps with menstrual cramps, temper swings, and the overall discomfort of hormonal cycles – functions that merely do not exist for male customers.
There’s additionally the urge for food issue, although not in the way in which most individuals assume. Whereas the “munchies” stereotype suggests hashish will increase urge for food, many ladies use it for the other impact. Low-dose hashish can really suppress urge for food and scale back meals cravings, notably interesting to women coping with physique picture points or consuming problems. It is a complicated relationship that highlights how gender variations in hashish results go far past easy consumption patterns.
The social media technology faces distinctive pressures that hashish appears uniquely suited to handle. The fixed comparability, cyberbullying, and efficiency anxiousness that notably have an effect on women create an ideal storm of stress that conventional coping mechanisms do not adequately handle. Hashish, notably in discrete vaping kind, gives rapid reduction with out the social stigma of prescription drugs.
However this is the place biology meets advertising alternative: girls’s enhanced cannabinoid sensitivity means they want completely different merchandise than males. Decrease-dose formulations, particular terpene profiles, and consumption strategies designed for discrete use aren’t simply preferences – they’re organic requirements.
The hashish trade is slowly catching on. Merchandise marketed to girls emphasize wellness over recreation, that includes elegant packaging, exact dosing, and focused results. It isn’t nearly getting excessive – it is about useful enhancement of every day life.
This organic actuality explains why the gender flip in hashish use is likely to be everlasting moderately than cyclical. When your physique is of course designed to learn extra from a substance, and that substance helps handle gender-specific well being challenges, adoption turns into inevitable moderately than stylish.
The feminization of hashish tradition represents extra than simply shifting demographics – it is a full market revolution ready to occur. When girls embrace a product class, they do not simply eat it; they rework it fully.
Have a look at how girls reshaped industries like health, magnificence, and even alcohol. What began as male-dominated markets advanced into refined ecosystems of focused merchandise, premium experiences, and way of life integration. Hashish is subsequent.
Count on the pinnacle store aesthetic to offer strategy to one thing resembling high-end wellness boutiques. Merchandise will emphasize exact dosing, particular results, and discrete consumption. Advertising will shift from “getting baked” to “useful enhancement” and “self-care ritual.” The stoner bro can be changed by the wellness goddess.
This is not simply hypothesis – it is economics. Girls management roughly 80% of family buying choices and are prepared to pay premium costs for merchandise that meet their particular wants. A hashish trade that caters to feminine physiology, issues, and consumption preferences is not simply sensible enterprise – it is inevitable.
The info from 2024 may mark the tipping level, however the development has been constructing for years. From CBD magnificence merchandise to microdosed edibles, the hashish trade has been unconsciously getting ready for feminine dominance.
Anna Faris was forward of her time in “Smiley Face,” however the trade is catching up quick. The daybreak of the femme stoner is not coming – it is already right here, vape pen in hand, anxiousness managed, able to spend cash on merchandise designed particularly for her biology and way of life.
The way forward for hashish is not simply feminine – it is worthwhile.
FEMALES IN THE CANNABIS INDUSTRY, READ ON..
