[ Post a Response | The Sublime Desire of Cigarette Smoking ]
Posted by Sphay on August 1, 2009, 5:05 pm
Okay, weird subject name. But it's the best I could come up with.
I'd guess that we all know about the Marlboro Man. About the "macho" image of cigarette smoking, displayed in ad campaigns such as this one or that one. Smoking is tough, the message suggests, and women like tough men. For a long time, black-and-white images of James Dean or Marlon Brando smoking were the cultural epitome of what it meant to smoke. Smoking was a manly thing, and cigarettes certainly had a male connotation.
But cigarette advertising had long since attempted to reach out to the other sex as well. In fact, since the days of Edward Bernays about 80 years ago, it has been at least a partial goal of "smoke sellers" to add a female touch to cigarette smoking. And while smoking cowboys were still lassoing their cattle in the 1980s, Virginia Slims ads finally achieved what I consider to be a permanent shift in the cultural perception of smoking: not only would cigarettes lose their "tough" Marlboro Man image, but become a female domain altogether.
Suddenly, smoking was not about impressing the ladies anymore, but it became a symbol for the ladies themselves to show their new-found self-assessment as equally qualified and equally important members of society. It also became something sensual, intimate, emotional, the antithesis to the hard-bitten cowboy image that was generally associated with smoking before. And of course, advertising picked up this new vibe quickly: Find Your Voice, What You're Looking For, Catch a Buz and Test It with scenarios specifically appealing to women popped up in magazines and on billboards.
I have often wondered why I have little urge to start smoking myself despite having a fairly strong smoking fetish. The thing is, whenever I smoke, it just doesn't feel right. I don't consider myself to be in the appropriate group to smoke, specifically because I'm not a female. Keep in mind that I'm not even 20. I've never seen the Marlboro Man in action and as far as I can recall, smoking was mainly advertised as a female activity. The majority of smokers in my family and social environment have always been women. In fact, whenever I see a man smoking, I consider the cigarette somewhat misplaced. It's strange, but that's the way I feel.
So, what do you say? Is my assessment about smoking's "sex change" sound or just a result of my female-centered fetish?
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