The unexplainable re-association of smoking & “cool”
Pic above of Javier Burden from the cover of Esquire’s October 2010 issue
Anybody else noticing a resurgence in the use of cigarettes in photo shoots? The ones seen in GQ, Esquire, online, etc… What used to be a prop relegated to Camel, Kool, and Marlboro ads, the lit cigarette has gradually once again worked it’s way back into the mainstream.
Maybe blame it on the popularity of Mad Men
Look, this isn’t a public service announcement. I don’t care if you smoke, & magazines will do what they want. That’s the way it should be. No one is arguing that Esquire and GQ should feel compelled to ban smoking from their publications for some sort of nanny state public safety reason. Esquire and GQ should feel compelled to ease off on the smoking pics because… it looks kinda lame. They’re forced, mugging, whatever you want to call it, it’s just not working.
…..
Smoking has always given a person something to do with their hands that looks casual and effortless. That’s why to some it looks cool. It’s no different than why a lot of models are shot adjusting their watch, or messing with the buttons on their jacket sleeves. Standing with your hands at your sides looks stiff. Smoking gives the person a reason to look fluid.
It also makes a person look weak. Smoking is a weakness. It’s a weakness that some incredibly strong people by circumstance have fallen victim too, but still it’s an addiction. Proudly displaying a weakness in this “ain’t I cool” sort of way makes these guys no different than the obese women who get on Maury because they dress too sexy.
Not sure what to do with your hands? Stick em’ in your pockets. At the very least you’ll smell better.
Leave any and all feedback in the comments section below.
Pic of Joseph Gordon Levitt from Esquire, Josh Brolin from GQ.
Yikes…
Thanks, Father.
Kind of soap-boxy, but I have to agree
it’s an affectation, an anachronistic, totemic accessory symbolic of our nostalgia laden style sensibility. Shawl collars are even fashionable again, though with a slightly smaller degree of user related emphysema.
Perhaps it is because the things men are best at holding in their hands aren’t PG for photo shoots.
I agree but I also assume that the photos you’ve include above are of real life smokers. In which case, it’s entirely believable that at some point during a photo shoot they would have been smoking. Do the magazines have to run these particular shots? No. But I doubt any of these people care how cool we think they are while they smoke. Assuming that they are, in fact, real life smokers.
I mean, come on. Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt aren’t like Cruise, Pitt, and others. They won’t even make movies if they don’t like it. I doubt they’d do anything, let alone smoke in a photo shoot just for the hell of it or to look cool.
Yikes! Kinda heavy handed but personally I’m against smoking myself. I was having this conversation with my friends about why people still smoke this day in age since we know so much about the harms of smoking. Even more so actors who you’d think are all about being healthy. Keeping their looks. Why would they smoke…nevermind…alot of entertainers have worse little vices than smoking. LOL!
I think smoking still is cool–that is, the cultural connotations it rings (Cary Grant, James Bond, etc)–but not this recent fad smoking. The models in those pictures 1)don’t look comfortable with those cigs and 2)don’t even have smoke coming out of their mouth. They’re using them for accessories, not smoking them.
The best part of smoking is the smoke, not the burning rolled-up cancer stick. That iconic smoke is what Hollywood unfortunately has deemed inappropriate, and in doing so, left behind one of the great silver screen motifs.
I agree it’s an entirely personal choice, but we mustn’t all be ignorant of how calculated magazines are. Make no mistake: the photoshoots aren’t really about the people in them (JGL, Bardem or Brolin). Despite how much I personally like all of them, or rather especially because I am not alone in this, they are the perfect medium for magazines (not pointing fingers at GQ or Esquire or anyone particular; everyone does this) to sell us… stuff.
So we must assume everything in the photo is there for a reason. No, it’s not likely any of the above mentioned decided to smoke in the picture. Yes, it’s possible they are all smokers, and hence pictures of them smoking are natural, but in this context, in a carefully crafted photoshoot where everything is significant, the image of smoking is just one more of the things that is being sold to us, the readers.
I have noticed an enormous resurgence in smoking being considered “cool” again. It’s as if those who do, now knowing the risk, are “rebels” because they’re flipping the proverbial bird at their health, their doctors and their loved ones.
Again, this is just my personal opinion. I am not a smoker and never will be, however, I respect peoples’ free choice and their decision to smoke, and hell, I even sometimes think it DOES look pretty badass in photos or with certain people, but that’s exactly why I am disturbed by it.
As a closing thought, I honestly can’t think I’ve ever talked to a smoker (and many of my friends smoke) who doesn’t openly profess that they should quit. Interesting, that.
Cheers,
Ben
“I honestly can’t think I’ve ever talked to a smoker (and many of my friends smoke) who doesn’t openly profess that they should quit. Interesting, that. ”
Is it? All smokers are aware of how unhealthy it is and how much they should quit. I would be more surprised if they expressed any ignorance to possible health issues.
I agree with Ben about the magazines, but disagree on respecting people for their choice. As someone else mentioned, smoking is a sign of weakness (or ignorance, I guess, for some). There’s no benefit, only downsides. It doesn’t look cool or sexy. If I’m out and see an otherwise cute girl, then she lights up, she instantly loses all appeal. I’ve never looked at a guy smoking and said “wow, he looks cool” because he smokes. I also begrudge anyone smoking around me because they are forcing their bad health decisions on me. Thankfully 90% of the places you go these days are smoke-free and outside it either dissipates or you can move.
Yikes! Who could even smell cigarette smoke over the stench of self-righteousness?
I’m an ex-smoker. I smoked for almost 20 years and I tried to quit the last 10. I’ve haven’t had a cigarette for almost a year now (thank you, Chantix!) I’m thankful that I quit and wouldn’t wish a cigarette addiction on anybody.
That said, some of you guys are going embarrassingly overboard with the condescension around here. Smoking is a sign of weakness? Do you say that about coffee drinkers? What about people who like something a little stiffer? What about people who are addicted to Old Navy blazers (Joe?) Despite what you might want to believe or portray, smoking is not benefit-free. It is a highly enjoyable stimulant. A great way to start the day and end the evening, a lovely footnote to lovemaking and an excellent partner to ponder the universe with. I don’t want a cigarette – I haven’t for a while – but if I found out that I was dying or that a meteor was heading for Earth, I can certainly imagine going back to smoking.
I’m not saying you should smoke (God! Don’t smoke!) and I certainly am not saying that the positives outweigh the negatives, because they don’t. But we are all way too old for simplistic thinking – straight out of an old afterschool special – that smoking is just for losers who don’t know better or just too weak to try! That people smoke to “look cool”
(and I also don’t know what you guys mean by a resurgence in smoking. Smoking rates have been dropping steadily in America for decades and especially since the economy fell apart)
The sad thing is that I strongly agree with the basic crux of this article, that mens magazines have to move beyond the either lazy/evil iconography of smoking in their pictorials but I’m too repelled by how it is being delivered. The way to fight smoking (or anything) is not by seeing how big a tool you can be. Nobody cares if they impress you or not. Nobody is waiting for your approval and if you “need” to stereotype people you disagree with, you should probably just keep it to yourself.
* sorry for the rant! I admit it got out of hand*
I don’t personally recall suggesting that people who smoke are weak, but I can see the argument, and agree to some extent, just to the same extent that anything one is “addicted” to is weak. Anything one needs regularly is a weakness if one takes it to an extreme. Every individual draws the line as to what “weaknesses” are acceptable or even desirable for them.
One might say I’m addicted to fitness. I am upset when I cant be active, I need it, crave it, use it to calm/improve a mood, it’s also great after lovemaking and also is a great way of pondering the universe, especially when done outdoors. The great wide world has a way of making one feel very, very small… something that I believe is healthy for all of us every now and then.
So, is this a weakness? I’m willing, as I’m sure many would be, to argue that yes, it is. Not to be redundant, but as I said before, every single person holds their own definitions of what weaknesses are and which are acceptable to them or others (loved ones or even just the person walking beside them on the street).
Where things can be more quantifiable is if one brings health into the fold. Many like to condemn smoking as a terrible habit because it is unhealthy. So are many things. Like everything, it is really only an issue to excess. Unfortunately, it is hard to toe the line with smoking. I know, not everyone smokes much or very regularly, but within my own personal circle, I have seen people very easily lose control, and deeply regret it. Drinking is the same way, although it has avoided much of the social stigma for the upcoming and current generations. Is this right? Arguments can be made in either direction. Much more direct harm comes from drinking than smoking, I would submit.
However, many people who can’t stand smoking or smokers have no problem drinking. Vice versa. Or with addictions to clothing, cars, coffee or more. So we all have our vices. Not many people can accept that their individual perspective is just as valid as anyone else’s, when taken in an isolation.
Where things become more complex is when your personal decisions impact others. Smoking is inately something that affects others around, and many people really do have a problem inhaling second hand smoke. I live in Montreal. It’s everywhere here. I personally only mind it if I’m literally stuck next to somebody with no chance of escaping. If I’m walking by them or even standing and chatting with smokers as they have a cigarette outside, then I have no trouble with it. Yes it’s bad for you, but so are many things.
Hell, the additives in our food and preservatives and what have you are in many ways quite possibly going to give you cancer. Ours is not a healthy world, and many people are aware of this. So people all have their own vices, but often they really only intrude on others’ vices when those vices intrude on them.
If somebody gets wildly drunk and becomes violent, then it is a serious problem. Especially in a domestic situation. Is it more of a problem than giving your family or friends or even strangers second-hand smoke? Arguments can, as always, be made either way.
I am not against smoking as a personal choice. I am full-heartedly behind non-smoking indoors, and in enclosed public places. Any personal choice should be restricted to a personal radius of effect.
I fully disclose that I enjoy the odd cigar. I do not, however consider myself a smoker. Naive? Maybe. I choose my moments though, and only when it is acceptable to those around me. I control it, not vice-versa.
Like supporting no smoking in public places, I do disagree with being sold the image of smoking. And perhaps the hard data does indicate a decrease in smoking (I’m curious as to what the recession related data shows… I recall reading that many people are actually returning to past vices as solace in dark times… I wonder if this is true, or just over-inflated doomsday prophecy. It seems plausible though), then maybe tobacco companies (still alive and well) are fighting back extra-hard to rekindle their decreasingly popular product.
And I honestly think it is working in certain targeted generations. Being in University, I am part of a very young generation. Yet, I am astonished by how many people smoke. Perhaps it is just Montreal, but even in BC, I find the same.
It’s not as overt as “smoking is cool”. Like I mentioned before, it seems to be almost an inverse draw. But there does remain to be a draw.
Is this in itself a problem? That depends on how and why people decide to smoke. This is also intensely individual. Many do choose to for the simple reason that they like it. But I wonder how many (certainly in my age-range) are drawn to it subliminally, STILL. This is what I have a problem with. I think it is a personal choice and should remain that way, but I don’t like how the media works.
Of course, pick your contentious topic… the media supports it and sells the image somewhere, somehow.
Sorry for rambling. Just my thoughts, as they occur, in no particular order. I generally disagree with anything that suggests people who make certain life choices are worthy of less basic, “polite” respect, but when ones decisions endanger or negatively affect others, then I begin to have a problem with it. It is still a matter of scale, however.
I don’t know really… it’s all very complex and multi-faceted. To take a single perspective is overly-simplistic, and risks objectivity.
Cheers,
Ben
@Tim
I didn’t say that it was SURPRISING that smokers all say they want to quit, just interesting. It represents another layer of complexity to the contemporary issue of smoking that hasn’t always (although it has for much longer than most are aware of) been the case.
As a cigar and pipe smoker/lover, I’d much rather see a nice maduro or briar pipe in ads or on an Esquire cover. It’s a much healthier habit and would still give the subject something to do with their hands.