[ Post a Response | The Sublime Desire of Cigarette Smoking ]
Posted by Nat on August 12, 2009, 1:26 pm
I know, not a real word. My meaning here is about assigning a gender to inanimate objects. Say for instance, cigarettes.
I had always thought of cigarettes, and tobacco in general, as "She". One day, in the early days of the internet, I was intrigued to come across a website by Miss Karen Sommers (where ARE you, Karen?) talking about her two favorite brands - Marlboro and Benson and Hedges - as 'He'. I specifically remember her referring to a cigarette she had bent while making a scan of it as the "poor little guy".
At first, this struck me as odd. After reflection, I realized that women tend to think of cigarettes as male, and men tend to think of them as female. Througout my internet perusals, I've discovered that a lot of people - especially smokers - make this gender classification/distinction.
Then one day, I came upon a sonnet (posted by our Dear Hostess!) talking about the joys and virtues of our favorite indulgence. In it, she refers to cigarettes, or at least their effects, as "she".
Again, I was struck by this, as it ran contrary to my supposition. I then realized that it depends on one's sexual orientation. Gay guys also refer to them as "He's", and lesbian women often call them "She's".
I've seen this many times now, enough to think it's fairly common; the norm, as it were.
I don't draw any firm conclusions, but it's possible that nicotine elicits psychological or/and physiological effects that may be closely related to a sexual sort of response or feeling.
Along these lines, I don't think the advertising themes "Come up to Kool" or "You've come a long way, baby" were any accident. There are probably others, but I can't think of them off-hand.
There does seem to be an intrinsic link between smoking and sensuality/sexuality that manifests at many levels.
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