I recall, quite a few years ago now, watching one of those terribly serious TV documentaries that purported delve into the psychology of sexuality. The only part of the programme that I can actually recount was an examination of a gas-mask and uniform sexual fetish that appears to be almost entirely a British phenomenon.
The impressively qualified talking-head that they employed to interpret all of this, speculated that this particular fetish had its roots in World War II when the images of gas masks and uniforms (in the context of great national emergency and danger) left its imprimatur on a lot of impressionable pre-adolescent boys.
This was also shortly after Gulf War I when Israelis were all issued with gas-masks for fear of some chemical attack from Saddam. Hence said talking-head predicted the emergence of a similar sexual phenomenon in Israel in years to come.
It all sounded quite plausible at the time but its very difficult to judge whether or not they hold any objective truth. I was reminded of this, though, by a recent conversation with Dr.Chris Tame of the Libertarian Alliance on this subject and what (if anything) lies at the root of sexual fetish. The object we were discussing was not gas-maks though, but cigarettes.
In short, has smoking become eroticised?
I think there is quite a lot of evidence to suggest that it has. If websites like Smoking Models are anything to go by then some people are clearly getting their kicks from photographs like this:
And this:
I found the linked site by means of a ‘Google’ search which also thew up hundreds of sites just like it (although many are clearly of a more carnal nature) and that means that demand for this sort of thing must be fairly widespread.
At the risk of betraying a relatively sheltered life, I cannot remember seeing this kind of thing before. Perhaps it was only the advent of the internet that made it possible but Dr.Tame is quite a few years my senior and he seems to think this has fairly recent provenance. If that is true, then it begs the question of whether the Western world’s sustained ‘holy war’ against smoking has caused this eroticisation. Is it possible that years of cultural demonisation of smoking as wicked, anti-social and dangerous has gifted to cigarettes a quality of thrilling taboo?
If smoking has indeed been fetishised then I suppose it is a variation on the time-honoured theme of unintended consequences. It would just serve the nannies and health-fascists right if all their efforts to eradicate the evil weed had resulted in turning cigarettes from a casual habit into objects of obsessive desire.
I think it has more to do with the models and less with the cigarettes.
Then why not just show the models?
Interesting. Un-examined off the top of my head thought is that as smoking becomes more “bad,” it’s a way to project “bad girl” without looking trashy or wearing leather or…
Of course, there’s going to be variation in different cases, but I’ll bet that explains at least some of it.
My mother and father both smoked, and I grew up in a smoke-filled apartment. I hated it. I hate cigarettes now, and must make a determined effort to restrain myself around cigarette smokers.
I would vote in favor of an exception to the homicide laws, actually. Guess which…
I think Erik Wingren has it right. A woman smoking today gives out the same message of defiance, daring and being slightly “loose” as did the first women smokers 100 years ago who caused an exciting scandal every time they lit up. Smoking’s beginning to look glamorous and defiant of convention again. Once again, the socialists have unerringly shot themselves in the foot. With an aim that true, I wish they’d aim for the head next time.
Pictures of beautiful models smoking can be “attractive” on several levels…. Firstly there is the beautiful model to look at … then there is the strange beauty of smoke/smoky breath,which can be fascinating to watch as we can’t normally see the air around us~ add smoke and suddenly you can. Lastly there is the childish fascination of doing something rebellious… something the “leaders/parents” don’t approve of.
I find this all immensly sad- smoking is one highly visible act that seemingly shows how some aspects of free trade can work destructively against people…. it also shows how stupid we can be both personally and as a society….
Smoking does have an allure… but as soon tobacco is made readily available – people take far too much of it and damage themselves irreparably…Out of all the smokers I have ever met- I only know 3 people who can smoke occasionaly for fun and not through any longing or addiction.
Out of all the daft things they try to teach in schools… it is a crying shame that they don’t teach basic behavioural self control… It would largley eliminate many of societies problems without the need for a lot of stupid restrictive laws.
Women smokers can look either slutty or sophisticated, each has its attractions.
Anyway I’m in month 3 of no nicotine, and this article brought back a nicotine craving.
As a man who enjoys a good cigar once a week (not a la Clinton – I prefer to smoke mine) perhaps I may have disqualified myself from this debate. However…
How does one teach basic behavoural control in school or at home? I have two teenage children who are not unintelligent but they have grown up in a world of instant gratification, enjoying mostly superficial pleasures. Can I teach them to savour those things which require a little effort to appreciate?
At present it seems that I have little effect but I do have sneaking suspicion that they, like me at their age, are being influenced at a deeper level and will mature into adults who are able to appreciate that self control and discipline will bring valuable rewards. Perhaps we all turn into our parents.
On the subject of men finding images of women smoking erotic. I agree that it probably is as a result of a number of factors especially the allure of the rebel. Frankly I could not care less though as it can only harm the women concerned and they choose to do it.
Hey, let’s not forget that men smoking can also look attractive! Not rebellious or daring, like women, but sophisticated, knowing, mysterious. I think it’s such a shame that actors don’t know how to smoke onstage any more. They don’t even know how to hold a cigarette.
I agree with Joe. It’s almost impossible to enjoy an occasional cigarette. For most people, smoking is all or nothing. I smoked 60 a day before I quit. I quit cold turkey and it was no big deal. I just went to bed one night and said, tomorrow I’m going to be a non-smoker. And I was. But I still think it looks like fun. If I had to name the best smokers, I think I would say Bette Davis for women and Robert Mitchum for men. They really put their hearts into it.
Epicurean, “How does one teach basic behavoural control in school or at home? I have two teenage children who are not unintelligent but they have grown up in a world of instant gratification, enjoying mostly superficial pleasures. Can I teach them to savour those things which require a little effort to appreciate?”
Yes… its just a matter of teaching them how their actions and their thoughts are interlinked… and from there showing them how to link thoughts and actions for best effect.
One of the most simple ways to learn behavioural control (simple behavioural psychology) currently available is found in the NLP (neuro-linguistic-programming format) and its ilk. To learn it you can pay a lot of money to trainers or you can borrow the books from a library. Also all the information you really need is available online for free. You can spot the best trainers and books by the simple fact that what they say will give you the feeling of… “of course why didn’t I think of that?”
It is something very worthwhile looking into.
Beth wrote: I think it’s such a shame that actors don’t know how to smoke onstage any more. They don’t even know how to hold a cigarette.
Perhaps it’s not their fault? It seems there’s a nanny state-style crackdown on smoking in the spotlight, at least according to this article.
Aarrrghh, Stephen Hodgson, I read it all the way through, agog at its stupidity (when was the last time you saw someone smoke in a movie?), before seeing it was taken from, where else, The Guardian.
The internet is growing. It makes sense that just about any bit of information is likely to turn up there sooner or later, including, “girls with cigarettes look gorgeous”. If a human being can imagine and appreciate it, a website on it is on its way.
Smoking itself has always been sexy, and erotic, and a fetish; what’s not sexy are hacking coughs, stinking morning-after ashtrays and chemotherapy.
Alice
umm..am i the only one that sees the link between smoking and cigarette and “smoking” a man’s genital region? It is a tease, like sucking on a lollipop.
As an internet porn addict I can tell you unquestionably that smoking has become eroticised. I speak anecdotally but the number of websites, and pictures, featuring women smoking has jumped dramatically in the last year. As several commenters have said, if you make something “bad” people will be drawn to it. I would expect, for that very reason, tobacco use to increase due to the “taboo” nature of it.
… it is a crying shame that they don’t teach basic behavioural self control… [from Joe]
And who shall set the standards for what is to be controlled ??
Why do teenagers start smoking ? They must overcome the nausea they get when first smoking.
The reason is – they want to make a statement, addressed at other people, but mainly at the opposite sex: “Look, I’m grown up” which also implies: “I’m sexually a grown up”.
Two of the biggest sexual turn-offs… tobacco breath and alcohol breath. closely followed by scabrous warts, in places unmentionable.
Some people also find the expulsion of waste matters from the body erotic. Some people get their kicks out of animals. You get people who find ANYTHING erotic, David!
Animals who smoke! Yeah!
Whatever. People can smoke or not if they chose to do so, I only ask that they do not blow smoke into my face because I am allergic to it.
That being said those smoking model babes may be “exta attractive” today, but smoking is one of the proven cases of premature wrinkles. So, hopefully, they will make enough money in time for lots of plastic surgery. Except that you are not a good candidate for plastic surgery if you smoke (you bleed excessively and don’t heal properly).
I’ve got nothing against smokers, but I don’t find it erotic.
It seems to me like the whole cigarette thing is purely aesthetic in the first place, aside from the nigh eternal addiction to nicotine that most smokers are saddled with. It is, as a previous commenter stated, another case of the usual self-styled mini-tyrants shooting their own non-smoking agenda in the foot.
Jeannie Fiona Macauley, with regard to behavioural self control – you ask: “… And who shall set the standards for what is to be controlled ?? “
Yourself Jeannie, yourself… that is the whole point of self control… disciplining your own thoughts and actions to enable you to do whatever task you wish to accomplish.
Whether you have self control or not is obvious both to the teacher and to yourself by the simple fact of how well you can set yourself to tackle any task you are given. The standards you achieve are dependent entirely upon yourself.
The only time a woman looks sexy to me while smoking is if she’s doing it right under a “No Smoking” sign.
Two behavioural psychologists have just had sex. One turns to the other and says, “Well, that was great for you. How was it for me?”
I have had this fetish since I was a little boy in the 1970s.At the time,smoking was sort of naughty and was known to be unhealthy,but it wasn’t a big deal like it is today.More people smoked,there was much more public smoking and nobody thought much about it.Yet,when I saw women smoke I found it to be a major turn on and very erotic.
Others with this fetish also developed it very young,well before the anti-smoking movement became so strong and decades before internet smoking sites.So,I say the anti-smoking movement has nothing to do with the fetish.It just makes it harder for us fetishists to see women smoke in public,which we resent.BTW,I never have smoked or had any desire to do so.
The smoking fetish is becoming more and more mainstream on the Web, and in society as well. It has it’s own “niche” in video download sites, much .ike S&M, foot fetish, nylons, etc. I myself am a big smoke fetisher, but more for the actual vision of a woman exhaling while looking at me. The beauty of the woman is very important, but her ability to smoke is more important. Some take short quick puffs, then blow out a pale cloud. The accomplished smokers take a nice inhale, hold it in, then exhale it in a variety of ways. There are also the “trick” inahlers, such as french inhales, snaps, and double pumps. It’s a beautiful thing, and I’m glad it has become somewhat mainstream.
I can tell you from personal experience that smoking women are definitely a widespread fetish, and it has nothing to do with society turning against smoking in recent years. I did a research paper on the subject and spoke to many, many men who “have” the smoking fetish. The exact turn-on varies, but generally it’s the inhale or exhale of smoke that men find erotic. Some men are turned on by the lips of the woman. For some, it’s the “bad girl” image. For almost all, however, the woman must be a true smoker, and not merely playing the part (thus, the images you see on the smoking erotica sites will commonly show white streams of smoking coming from the woman’s mouth or nose. There is also a list of actresses who smoke here: http://smokingsides.com/asfs/(Link)
It’s a pretty interesting subject.
i grew up with my mom ..who always smoked ,even my younger sister …… i don mind women smoking though. i think they feel strong when they smoke , they look good at the same time ………my mom is a chain smoker ….the only problem is my house stinks……
I understand the smoking fetish quite intimately. lol To some guys, a pretty smoker is certainly more erotic than her non-smoking counterpart. It’s really no big deal most of the time, except that once your girlfriend figures out that her smoking is a turn on, she tends to really enjoy having that power. I guess I can’t complain. 🙂
I think that seeing girls is the most sexy thing that there is, I love it , and I think more girls should be encouraged to smoke cigarettes.
It just looks very erotic in a “bad girl” way to me. Like when I see a good girl pretty young type whom I would never, in a billion years, suspect smoked light one up. It may surprise me, but it immediately turns me on, like nothing else. It’s like that old joke “gals who smoke poke.”
I agree with Brian K. When your girlfriend figures out her smoking is a turn-on, she uses that power.
My girlfriend figured out that I am turned on seeing her smoke a Long Misty 120 while wearing extra low skin tight jeans and a short tight top. She uses that power against me and “makes” me light her cigarette every time she pulls out a 120. Then she loves to tease me with smoke rings and french inhales.
Wade is right. Us wpmen do enjoy the power. I started smoking Virginia Slim 120’s because I could tell they arroused my husband. I too like to were very low, very skin tight jeans along with short skin tight tops. My thong shows and so does my new tattoo on the small of my back.. I love to tease my boyfriend by making him light my cigarette, and then blowing it in his face while I wiggle my butt with my skin tight jeans.
lot of ladies r very sexy when smoking, i find it erotic and would love to have women send me ppics as they smoke while masturbating or pissing