# Was it really once considered romantic to blow smoke in a woman's face? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 5, 2018, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637 "2018-05-05T13:14:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637/1 "2018-05-05T13:14:22Z")
Or was this purely a Hollywood thing? Here’s a [short Youtube clip](https://youtu.be/1cL-lVtaRe8) from the 1931 film Her Majesty Love in which Ben Lyon demonstrates the technique with Marilyn Miller and from her responsive smile she seems charmed. It’s just hard to believe though that a stream of stinking tobacco smoke in your face would ever have been a pleasant experience even if you liked the guy. So is this just a movie meme or was it something real, and if the latter when did things change? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637/2 "2018-05-05T13:29:06Z")
[Not an isolated example](https://fineartamerica.com/featured/blow-in-her-face-she-will-follow-you-anywhere-rianna-stackhouse.html). ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637/3 "2018-05-05T14:01:40Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > [Not an isolated example](https://fineartamerica.com/featured/blow-in-her-face-she-will-follow-you-anywhere-rianna-stackhouse.html). Wasn’t there an even older cigarette ad from the early 20th century with a theme like this? I always assumed the premise was advertising based: trying to get women hooked on cigarettes (or other fine tobacco products). Such an old ad could have embedded the concept of smoke-in-the-face = romantic and resulted in the bit in the OP’s video. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637/4 "2018-05-05T14:20:05Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Wasn’t there an even older cigarette ad from the early 20th century with a theme like this?. [Looks like](http://tobacco.stanford.edu/tobacco_main/images.php?token2=fm_st031.php&token1=fm_img0742.php&theme_file=fm_mt012.php) [yes](https://www.google.com/search?biw=1056&bih=509&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=xrztWsjZD-GZjwSWlpygDQ&q=%22blow+some+my+way%22&oq=%22blow+some+my+way%22&gs_l=img.3..0j0i30k1.76206.84926.0.86253.20.17.1.0.0.0.930.3202.6-4.4.0....0...1c.1.64.img..16.4.2289...0i67k1j0i24k1.0.DfXK-NWNQcs). ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637/5 "2018-05-05T16:31:32Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Or was this purely a Hollywood thing? Here’s a [short Youtube clip](https://youtu.be/1cL-lVtaRe8) from the 1931 film Her Majesty Love in which Ben Lyon demonstrates the technique with Marilyn Miller and from her responsive smile she seems charmed. > > It’s just hard to believe though that a stream of stinking tobacco smoke in your face would ever have been a pleasant experience even if you liked the guy. So is this just a movie meme or was it something real, and if the latter when did things change? I’m fairly certain that a lot more people were used to the stink in those days, and may have even liked it; or at the least just considered it an unavoidable part of everyday life. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637/6 "2018-05-05T16:50:24Z")
I dont think it really was. But I think that the tobacco companies wanted people to think it was. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637/7 "2018-05-05T17:00:31Z")
Going from the “blow some my way” ads (and the commentary on them on some of the sites) cigarettes were thought to be a “man thing” but Chesterfield was marketing the idea of a cigarette mild enough that women could enjoy them, too. They are asking to have smoke blown their way because they want what the man has and wish to benefit from second-hand smoke. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637/8 "2018-05-05T17:07:38Z")
Before that time pipe smoking was far more common. And many people liked the smell of good pipe tobacco. The smell of cheap tobacco is always lousy, pipe or cigarette. I think the cigarette ads were trying to claim that their tobacco was of the superior variety, and therefore your wife/girlfriend wouldn’t run away,or send you out on the porch with it. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637/9 "2018-05-05T18:35:10Z")
Watch any Bette Davis movie and you will see cigs were a romantic thing. The smoking pair would be in low light, the man lighting the cigarette for her and they stand face to face smoking together. It’s almost a metaphor for sex. IMO ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637/10 "2018-05-05T19:08:03Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > [Looks like](http://tobacco.stanford.edu/tobacco_main/images.php?token2=fm_st031.php&token1=fm_img0742.php&theme_file=fm_mt012.php) [yes](https://www.google.com/search?biw=1056&bih=509&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=xrztWsjZD-GZjwSWlpygDQ&q=%22blow+some+my+way%22&oq=%22blow+some+my+way%22&gs_l=img.3..0j0i30k1.76206.84926.0.86253.20.17.1.0.0.0.930.3202.6-4.4.0....0...1c.1.64.img..16.4.2289...0i67k1j0i24k1.0.DfXK-NWNQcs). Thanks, “Blow some my way”, Chesterfield. Some of the ads have dates from 1927 so definitely pre-dating the OP’s clip. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637/11 "2018-05-06T22:11:43Z")
When I was a teenager (late 70s-early 80s), it wasn’t really considered as “romantic” , but rather as a way to communicate that you were interested in the girl. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637/12 "2018-05-06T23:44:07Z")
[Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/08/12/just-a-cigar/) The rest of the time: _Cigarettes and cigars can symbolise the penis. They are cylindrical and tubular. They have a hot, red end. They emit smoke that is fragant ( = flatus = semen). …_ ---
**Author:** ![Stinky\_Pete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Stinky\_Pete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stinky_Pete)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637/13 "2018-05-07T00:57:49Z")
Blowing smoke in one’s face was done to send a message and what that message was depended on context. Yes. It was definitely considered an act of flirtation between a romance minded couple. In another context where two people hostile to each other were face to face and one deliberately blew smoke in the other person’s face it was not a romantic act. In this case it would be a provocation or an insult. Under normal circumstances, in America, it was/is considered bad manners to blow smoke directly on another person. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637/14 "2018-05-07T14:53:20Z")
It’s invasive, done at close quarters, and as a visible manifestation of breath, intimate. Not too hard to see how that act of blowing could lead to blows of different sorts, depending on context. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637/15 "2018-05-07T15:06:00Z")
I wasn’t around in 1931 but would you recommend to people in 2100 that they draw conclusions about societal norms based on today’s movies and TV? I mean, they would think that all the women are chasing after men who use Axe. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2018, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-it-really-once-considered-romantic-to-blow-smoke-in-a-womans-face/813637/16 "2018-05-07T15:12:26Z")
If I’m out somewhere and some guy intentionally blows cigarette smoke in my face, he’d better be wearing a cup. :mad: