And it feels so good. I have aways been seduced by the idea of the fresh start, the starting line that would separate the old-weak-unhealthy-lazy-unscrupulous me from New Me, a shimmering paragon of organization, powered by fresh vegetables and deep breathing. It's taken many efforts to flip the switch that activates New Me for me to realize that this switch doesn't exist.Alcohol, though, seemed like the last frontier — the one thing I should and could give up for a while. As the women in our video above testify (I'm the one at the beginning who exclaims that "judgment around women and drinking is so intense"), it's tangled up not only in ideas about health, but also about propriety, morality, and safety, especially when women are the ones consuming it. Often, drinking presents a catch-22 for us: If we don't drink "enough" as defined by some third party, we're "no fun," but if we drink "too much," we're deemed unladylike or careless, not just during the incident in question but as people. Sure, ma'am, would you like a side of character judgment with that Manhattan?Dry January comes with its own generous helping of moral overtones. Some vocal subscribers to it seem to be touting their "goodness" more than sharing a personal choice, leading my friend to suggest we rename it "Netflix & Superiority." First We Feast went even further and proclaimed that "Dry January, and all the hashtag and Equinox class packages and lame-ass mocktail specials that come along with it is nothing more than a month-long version of the lie that yuppy lushes sell each other every time they toggle between benders and juice cleanse throughout the year."Some detractors, though, appear motivated more by insecurity about their own drinking habits than aversion to the "cleanse mentality" that some — but not all — January non-drinkers have. My editor is doing Dry January and is exasperated by the judgment: "I feel like [people] assume so much about folks' reasoning for trying this — I literally just want to see if I can, and what it's like," she told me. "I have no concerns about my drinking habits and obviously don't believe in 'cleanses.'"