Well, I’ll say this. A man who can smoke really well, very stylishly, is red hot sexy, and very cool. I have a severe smoking fetish, for guys who smoke marlboros, and can flick the spent butts across a parking lot, or can talk while holding a cigarette in their mouth.
It’s defintely the “I know this is dangerous, but I do it anyway.” attitude coupled with the “I’m sure you think this is gross, but I enjoy it” attitude.
I don’t know. I know how horrible smoking is for you and me and second hand smoke is terrible, and I hate how my clothes smell after going to a bar, but man…a guy who knows how to smoke is frigging DREAMY.
It’s a phallic thing. The cigarette (or cigar for those of you who need something BIGGER) is clearly evocative of the male sexual drive and virility. the practice in females is a cear sign of receptiveness for that virility.
I mean, we can pretty much agree that sucking cock is cool, right?
-nah, the media found a “cool” activity and made it part of the language.
Smokers do look inherently “cooler” because they’re not focused totally on whatever’s going on. The activity of smoking takes the intensity down a notch, like whatever we’re talking about, no matter how important, they’re also engaged in this slow deep breathing and ritual that goes with it.
Their focus on the group proceedings goes completely away while inhaling on the stick, then they come back to the conversation, like resetting the tone.
In this way, they also control pacing and timing of conversations.
Can’t talk too much, have to pause to take a drag, -cool.
The media didn’t invent these things, although they have presented us with some really compelling examples.
One, technical - smoking does actually ‘cool’ your blood temperature.
Two, hip - apparently, ‘cool’ is no longer cool, because the real hip people are now the apathetic postmodern-ironics. Which means that it’s not just bucking authority, but bucking bucking authority. (I think the term they’re really looking for is simply ‘individuals with character’.) So smoking isn’t cool, but then nothing that is considered cool by people who consider themselves cool, is cool, so really, it’s just a waste of money. Like baseball caps and short hair and posh clubs and skimpy dresses. Really, what you want, is a fondue at home with two close friends, listening to a 7’ of some no-name band from the 1970s with a glass of Chianti. (Note: Chianti is only good if it has a naked baby or a cockerel on the neck.)
That’s the way it is, trying to define yourself out of the masses. There’s just no helping those ‘cool’ people anymore. They’re really last season.
Next Season: Why being a post-ironic post-postmodern post-apathetic is the new postmodern ironic! (in other words, break out the baseball caps and gauloises…)
Well I’m not a smoker… I get violently ill when someone near me smokes so I limit my social life to accomodate this. (but that’s a whole other thread!)
Somehow I cannot see what is cool about being addicted to anything or about being a human chimney.
Also when you have to clog up the exit door to a non smoking establishment simply so you can get that cigarette in the nanosecond you leave said building you aren’t cool … you are rude. As is the woman who was so intent on getting that cigarette started that she couldn’t push her carriage and light up at the same time so I had to sit in my car and wait until she was done so she could unblock my parking space. She simply could not move the extra four feet to her own car as her need for a cigarette was THAT strong.
And what’s so cool about littering? Flicking a spent butt is littering the same as tossing gum wrappers or napkins or soda cans. Yuck.
Exactly. People in this thread are missing the point that there is a reason why the movies/media exploited it in the first place- and that’s because, the stupidity of inhaling something harmful aside, it DOES help create an aura of aloofness and confidence that people read as cool. The media/movies/bad rap just enhance it. This aura is created by the PHYSICAL act of smoking. First off, it gives the hands something to do - the actions of the hands are often dead giveaways for symptoms of anxiety. Smoking also allows for graceful flourishes and postures of the hand. The deep slow exhalation of the smoke is both calming to the smoker and projects an aura of relaxation to the observer. The need to exhale the smoke before speaking creates a relaxed pause before, say, answering a question. The pause is also a sign of dominance - “I’ll answer you when I’m good and ready.” The act of inhaling something hot narrows the face and squints the eyes creating a model-like pose. Think “Blue Steel” from Zoolander.
The sounds of smoking are also interesting: the struck match, the flint flick and zippo lighter open/close, the sounds of deep exhalations.
Yup, you see, in the spaghetti westerns (For a Fistfull of Dollars, For a Few Dollars more and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) clint was helped to put that sour face by smoking those cigars. I tried one of those once (remind: I´m a heavy smoker) and they were VERY strong… I can´t imagine how hard was for Clint having one of those hanging in his mouth for several hours a day…
One thing about smoking is that, to an observer, a smoker always has access to The Answer. Whenever some bad news comes in and the shit hits the fan, the first thing the smoker always says is “I’ve gotta have a cigarrette.”
I’d like to have an automatic stress-relief button to push for any situation. I’d like to always automatically know the first step in correcting whatever bad thing has just come up.
Well, when I started smoking for real, around 1977 or 1978, we already knew it was stupid, but it was still cool. That’s not why I started smoking, though. I started because it looked so enjoyable, and it was, and is. Now, though, it makes one a pariah. People look at me like I’m molesting children. They have no problem with making rude “Eww! the smell!” faces. Some have no problem making sotto voce rude comments, though none seem to have the courage of their “convictions”. (I am 6’2", and around 240, but hardly a menacing biker type.) What these people don’t seem to realize is that they’re making smoking more attractive to the rebellious teenagers those ad campaigns are aimed at. “It offends people? Great! Gimme one!”
Me? I could give a rat’s ass what anyone thinks. (Although, it would be nice if there were more women with “smoking fetishes”. Oh, and jarbabyj, this “real smoker” doesn’t even need to use his hands to flick the ash off his cigarette. Just lips, tongue and teeth.) My income taxes subsidize the tobacco industry. (So do yours. Heh!) The sales tax I pay on cigarettes is horrendous. I have to go out in the snow, and the rain, and the cold, to smoke. When I started, I could smoke while working. In a store. I don’t block doorways or parking spaces. I can’t enjoy a leisurely meal in a restaurant, any more, because there are no more smoking sections. I can’t even enjoy a beer at a bar, any more! And, that’s where I started smoking!
That’s just part of the price I pay. Is it cool? I don’t know, and I don’t care. I’m a smoker.
Just a side note… I was reading an article off of MSNBC’s local news thing about banning smoking in Massachusetts (where I live)
For me this is a good thing. I’ve had to stop frequenting restaurants that allowed smoking and I had to give up bowling because I would come home so sick from the second hand smoke. It must really suck for the smokers like Dave. There are polite smokers and I have smoker friends. They don’t smoke in my house and we always went to non smoking venues when we went out together (with the exception of the bar where a friend’s band was playing. I spent most of the night outside hacking up a lung and was so congested I couldn’t hear for a week!)
But some moron in the article mentioned how stupid the ban was. He said something along the lines of “what are we going to ban next … butter? Because butter is bad for you too!”
Well yes butter is bad for us. But if you eat a slice of bread slathered in butter and I am next to you in a restaurant this doesn’t affect me at all! If you light up a cigarette I am stuck with the choice of leaving the restaurant or smoking along with you!
Smoke all you want … as long as I don’t have to breathe in any of it
“I’ll answer you when I’m good and ready” sums up entirely why I think guys who smoke look cool. Not necessarily ARE cool, but LOOK cool. To quote Calvin and Hobbes: The world bores you when you’re cool.
Interestingly enough, I think women who smoke DON’T look cool, but I can’t pinpoint why
Perhaps. Perhaps it’s because I see smoking as a particularly ‘manly’ art form (YMMV) and to see women doing it seems out of place. Just one of my little quirks.
I don’t know, I think the “palm up, turned out wrist, fingers in a relaxed curl with a cigarette resting in the crook of the first two fingers” look ala Ava Gardner (or any actress of that era) is delicate and very femine.
Oh, and jarbabyj, this “real smoker” doesn’t even need to use his hands to flick the ash off his cigarette. Just lips, tongue and teeth.) My income taxes subsidize the tobacco industry. (So do yours. Heh!) The sales tax I pay on cigarettes is horrendous. I have to go out in the snow, and the rain, and the cold, to smoke. When I started, I could smoke while working. In a store. I don’t block doorways or parking spaces. I can’t enjoy a leisurely meal in a restaurant, any more, because there are no more smoking sections. I can’t even enjoy a beer at a bar, any more! And, that’s where I started smoking!
