Smoking Is Cool?
WRITTEN BY GEORGINA FABER
I would have never given myself the label of being a “smoker”. There is a stigma attached to that label, especially in our society today as we know the health hazards and risks not only to ourselves but to those around us when we smoke, not to mention the environmental impacts to take into consideration as well. When any medical professional asks, dentist or doctor, “do you smoke?” the answer is inevitably always “no”. It feels a bit shameful, like a personal character flaw; a failing on my part as a human being with the human body I have been assigned to inhabit and care for.
I imagine it is an accurate statement to say that smoking is a cultural habit, it’s part of many cultures, a social and personal habit inherited from each generation. My mother was a smoker, and so was her father, but their reasons, or what drew them to this activity were different and yet rooted in the same thing: conformity. Grandpa picked up a cigar because his father gave him one to try as a proverbial masculine rite of passage, he then migrated to cigarettes as he grew older because they were more accessible, less expensive, travelled well and of course all his buddies smoked them too. Mum wanted to be thinner, she chose this habit not only because all her girlfriends smoked, but because she wanted something to distract herself from her hunger. When asked why cigarettes she would say: “I thought they would make me skinny”. Of course both of them did eventually quit their cigarettes. It turned out to be an unsustainable habit, prices increased astronomically, health risks exposed and widely spread, and again social pressures from those around them ultimately influenced their final decision.
While smoking is a social activity, it is also a fantastic excuse to be anti-social. Some of my favourite moments at an event exist in the space where I can escape a crowd either by myself or with a fellow conspirator to explore a pensive moment of “fresh air”, social withdrawal, gossip about no one too close to overhear, or to step away with some guy I’ve spent the evening flirting with. Tell me a more perfect excuse than “come outside for a smoke with me”!
My vice is never really cigarettes, but a sparingly infrequent joint when I feel prompted. And where I occasionally sit on my high horse with this activity is that I do not find it to be an addiction but a personal indulgence, and so would still not label myself a smoker. Stupid really, as there truly is no distinction of what activity it is that you are doing, whether a cigarette or joint, smoking is smoking. And yes, of course I have indulged in the occasional cigarette as well, usually always influenced by what the person I am with is smoking. Conforming the way most of us have done many times in our lives before. But I have found that there is actually no logical justification for this activity, except to say it’s something I enjoy doing, and why deprive yourself of something you enjoy, especially when everyone else is doing it. And I mean, EVERYONE else is doing it.
When I do take part in this activity, I try to do it as responsibly as I possibly can. No smoking anywhere near any non-smokers (second-hand smoke is real, and just as I can exercise my right to smoke freely, those that choose not to, can exercise their right to avoid exposure), smoking as infrequently as possible (we’ll see…), and disposing the waste produced as appropriately as I can. And the high horse rears its ubiquitous head once again: one of my biggest, newly found, pet peeves in recent years is when people toss their cigarette/joint butts on the ground. For many reasons, but mainly for two very distinct reasons: 1) 4.5 trillion cigarettes pollute our environment on a yearly basis, and this is considered a toxic form of plastic pollution, and 2) my dog eats them off the ground no matter how hard I try to stop her from doing so.
I will dispose of mine in the nearest trash, and try to implore the fellow smokers with me to do the same, or will collect them if a trash is not nearby until one materialises along the day’s or evening’s journey. Many people do not have the patience for this and will not do it, and no one will say the words “I don’t care”, but it is what they mean when they say: “What difference does it make if I don’t toss it on the ground when most people do?”. And truthfully that is not an inaccurate statement, one single individual consciously disposing of their cigarette waste appropriately will not make enough of an impact to mitigate the damage done by the collective world’s cigarette waste, but why contribute to it at all?
And I guess that’s the answer? A question for a question. Quite literally the opposite of an answer, and how fitting to end this piece of writing the way it started. I am honestly not sure what the answer is or how to solve this. I know I won’t stop myself from this indulgent activity, and others won’t either, and the answer can’t be to ask people to refrain from doing something they enjoy, but why not explore how we can continue to participate in the things we enjoy doing, no matter how unhealthy, and limit the negative impacts to those around us (non-smokers and innocent fur babies all), and the natural world we as earth inhabitants need to survive? Will the questions never cease? I have many more of them and plan to bring them to Eau daCité’s Cigarette Charette this year. Who’s joining?