Smoking was Sexy?.......... Really

[idun]

I have just watched a program The Smoking Years on BBC 4. 

 I have never smoked.

 

Apparently it was very very sexy.

 

I have always been 'odd'. And this sort of confirms it completely. What I would see was people with stinking fags in their mouths, or wafting them round in an affected manner, and usually in my face, the smoke they blew out also ended up in my face. And I'd get home and my clothes would stink for days.  Did I think anyone looked sophisticated or sexy, NEVER! The idea never acrossed my mind. I never envied anyone smoking and had no intention of joining in and also looking ridiculous.

 

What would people, well, boys have thought of me then? It never crossed my mind that they would have thought there was something wrong with me for not smoking, but maybe they did. I have to say, that I was quite shy and timid and had a distinct lack of boy friends in my mid to late teens. Bit of a slow learner, but I did learn how to get boyfriends eventually, in spite of not smoking.

 

In the pub we went to regularly before we left for France, there was me and a good friend who didn't smoke and the room we frequented wasn't very big, but held thirty usually and up to fifty at a push and everyone smoked, everyone. Were they sexy, nope. And of that group of people on a couple still smoke.

 

I'm glad that few people smoke these days.

[Théière]

You would have looked just as sexy eating your banana

[Moriarty]

I can remember going to the cinema and watching the film through a haze of fog and whirls of thick cigarette smoke, as probably half the audience had a fag in their mouth!

[NormanH]

Smoking is as sexy as incontinence, but then there are some....

[britgirl]

Never smoked as I hate the smell of stale tobacco.

As for being sexy? Don't think so, bit like kissing an ash tray[+o(]

[idun]

But the truth was that  there was little choice, so kissing an ashtray was the only option. If I had been that fussy, I would probably be sat on my ownsome now and not writing this.

[Théière]

Or living with someone who is just as fussy which could be a problem.........I'll put down my spade right away [:)]

I tolerated an ex who smoked because I was punching well above my weight and didn't want that to be an issue but I miss her like toothache [:D]

[idun]

[quote user="Théière"]You would have looked just as sexy eating your banana[/quote]

But that would just making 'eating' sexy, but it isn't; surely that sharp bite after one has inserted a banana in one's bouche is eye watering rather than sexy? Or maybe that is just me, being obtuse.

[Théière]

Be as obtuse as you like [:$]

[just john]

Where were you lot in the sixty's? Smoking was a rite of passage, especially for teenagers out on the pull, and of course later arriving home with the groceries [Www], Sexy smoking scene all that of course before we were better informed. I gave up just after meeting my intended who didn't smoke, I'm even better informed now, you don't need to smoke to die of cancer. Unfortunately you can't put wise heads on young shoulders and it seems almost as popular amongst the young today. 

[just john]

[quote user="idun"] But that would just making 'eating' sexy, but it isn't;  .[/quote]

Tom Jones eating Scene - I guess it's a matter of interpretation, a nibble is not a sin[8-|]

[Frederick]

  You dont see women with blue hair these days much .... I thought is was just a fashion when women went grey and had a blue rinse until a hairdresser told me it was to  cover the yellow nicotine stain the hair got from the smoke .

[NormanH]

I thought it was to show their Party membership [6]

[Will]

[quote user="NormanH"]I thought it was to show their Party membership [6]
[/quote]

Is that why there is so much red hair dye around in our part of France?

Although I share Idun's lack of understanding abut the appeal of smoking, some of us are old enough to remember when smoking was promoted as beneficial to your health. Apart from the obvious cancer risks, smoking is still believed to be a good way of avoiding obesity in many people, it can also, apparently, prevent Parkinsons Disease, it helps some heart medications work better, and it can delay the need for joint replacement surgery (though in the last instance it has been pointed out that knee and hip replacements are often needed for people who exercise a lot, and not too many smokers can be seen out jogging). [;-)]

[Polremy]

It's threads like this one that make me wish there was a "like" button.

Norman's post was a great example.

[Thibault]

Like Idun, I have never smoked, but everyone in my family, apart from both my grandmothers did.  I spent my childhood in a nasty, smelly fug.  It was certainly enough to put me off for life.  I never even wanted to try one '...to see what it was like.....'  Thank goodness for the recent smoking bans in UK and France.  I can visit a pub in comfort and even eat in a French restaurant without the people on the next tables smoking between courses.....how they ever tasted what they ate, I'll never know.

[idun]

When I was in junior school, and about 8 years old we had some people come to  school to give a talk about the dangers of smoking and in two big jars they had a healthy lung and the blackened lung of a smoker. So that would be about 1961, so obviously people knew then.

Will, a woman I knew well in our french village was a runner and a smoker. In fact apart from one, all the very thin french women I knew were smokers. N died of cancer in her early forties and strangely everyone was shocked and I wasn't just very sad.

TeaPot punching above your weight, ah when we are young and believe in such things. It isn't the them being better or more beautiful or anything like that  it is all smoke and mirrors we hope to see what we want, but it is just an illusion with some people. And I have friends who always get got by the smoke and mirrors and end up rather unhappily with someone, yet again that they come to detest. Well that is how I see it.

[Val_2]

I never smoked either, tried it once and coughed my insides up. Saw a science programme where they showed the preserved lungs of a heavy smoker and they were black with tar against a pair of lungs from a non-smoker, that really put me off too I can tell you.

When I used to walk up to the primaire and collect my children at 4.30pm, the other mothers would all be there puffing away and to be honest, I have never seen such a spotty,yellowy brown fingered, sallow complexion and stinking group in all my life, nothing sexy there!

[JohnM]

Smoking is one of the things that I am a snob about. I try to be a caring snob.... I understand that it is an adiction and as such it is very very difficult to give it up so I do take pity on people who can't get through the day without their drug. But, if a smoker tries to claim that they are better than me, I do point out that I am more than capable of coping with all that life throws at me without have a drag of nicotine.

[Quillan]

As a smoker I would hardly say it was sexy. In fact I never thought I stood more chance of 'pulling' if I smoked. I smoke because I enjoy it, bit like asking somebody why they pick their nose then eat it (I don't do that by the way).

I think that if they really wanted to stop smoking then they could simply ban the sale of it yet the truth is that with just under 40% of the population being smokers (Source - Cancer Research UK) and the high amount of tax paid on them it would make a major impact on tax revenues within the UK just in he same way as if they were to ban booze etc. I noticed by the way when I visited the Cancer Research website that they are very careful what they say leaving others to make up their own mind. For instance "More than half a century ago, the causal link between lung cancer and tobacco smoking was established." (not the word casual) and also "Today, tobacco consumption is recognised as the UK’s single greatest cause of preventable illness" (note the lack of the word cancer) but on the other hand it then says "Around 86% of lung cancer deaths in the UK are caused by tobacco smoking". I believe there are two sides to every story and it should always be balanced.

As a smoker I don't smoke in other peoples houses, I never even ask. Perhaps the people in the house I visit also smoke bit I still don't ask. When we had segregated areas in restaurants and the people we were with didn't smoke we were happy to eat in the non smoking section and go out for a smoke. Nothing about being self righteous more to do with manners.

The irony in the UK with the smoking ban in bars, pubs and restaurants is that it is not for the benefit of the non smokers. If you check it out you will find that actually it was bought in to protect the staff. There are now some (very few I have to admit) bars (and hotels) in France that allow smoking. Your in a separate room, there is no physical bar and you have to go out in to the main area to get your drink and take it back. Staff do not enter the room (unless they volunteer) and the room is cleaned when nobody is in it and it has been vented. I was in such a place last Saturday in Perpignan. This to me seems far fairer than having a blanket ban. The problem in the UK now is many smoke outside the pub which really is not on. Smokers don't want to be outside and non smokers don't want to have to walk through them to enter the pub. I think most smokers would be more than happy if there were proper segregated areas for smoking and non smoking but it would have to be much better than before. Clearly a curtain or the possibility of the smoke entering the none smoking area via the bar itself is not acceptable.

As Warren Mitchell's outer ego Alf Garnett said "If you don't smoke, don't drive and don't drink (alchohol) your not patriotic"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLtcMa3xyDo

 

[KathyF]

I'm one of those who, as a shy new university student in 1965, was taken in by the "smoking is sexy" line and spent the next 10 years trying to give up. I finally did so at the age of 30 and now can hardly bear to be in the same room as someone who is smoking. Thank goodness for the smoking bans.

[Frederick]

As a side issue    Why should smokers be permitted so much time out of their working day to slope off for their fag ? I can only speak about hospitals where staff are not permitted to smoke ....even in the grounds  . They are seen standing outside the boundary  in the road . A bit of a trek from wards . I dont smoke but know I would be a bit peeved to be covering for those who do while they wander off for a puff .

[Quillan]

Another urban myth in the UK. I can't speak for France but in the UK everyone is entitled to a break or more to the point number of breaks. There is a minimum number of breaks, three time per day under UK law but this can increase depending on type of work and number of hours worked in a day. Longer breaks outside these legal requirements are normally negotiated between employer and employee or union. So basically to answer your question a smoker gets no more or no less than a non smoker. One can only imagine what would happen if an employer gave more or longer breaks to smokers once the union gets involved so they simply wouldn't and don't do it.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/WorkingHoursAndTimeOff/DG_10029451

 

[idun]

Breaks, have you read that? 20 mins if working more than 6 hours and that can include the meal break!

When I worked people smoked at work, they would have one of those moments several times a day, where they would stop, lean back and enjoy their fag. Now could I, the only non smoker in the office have had a moment where I had downed tools and leant back in my chair and gazed into the distance. Not on your life could I.

Smokers had it good. Now fortunately they haven't and I am glad.

For those that smoke, well don't do it near me and I don't care.

[Val_2]

For the past year I have been tothe local hospital a lot both visiting a good friend for the six months he was there until he died and recently my dear husband and it never failed to shock me at the sight of so many patients attached to their drips, in wheelchairs and all in their bedclothes puffing away in the garden area outside the main entrance. If their illness didn't finish them off, or the cold getting through their nightclothes then I think the fags would have.