Smoking, Drinking and the Liberated Woman

A couple of months back, a good friend visited Bangalore and we decided to meet up during my office hours. As we stepped out, we could see tens of men and women smoking in smoking corners near the office. Weirdly, my friend was excited to see so many smokers together and told me that she would also begin smoking if she worked in an environment like this. She also suggested why I should start doing these fun activities or else I would stay “ancient” as always.

“Do you even enjoy smoking?” I asked.

She nodded a ‘no’ with a bit of hesitation.

“Then why do you want to smoke?” I asked. “Because I feel women who smoke look cool and progressive. And I want to look cool and progressive.”

Photo credit: Unsplash

Like my good friend, there are many women who begin and continue smoking or drinking to build an identity as a strong progressive woman by engaging such activities that are traditionally associated with men. Now, the question is when or how did we begin associating the idea of a strong progressive woman with smoking and drinking?

Well, thanks to the visual media, almost every pop movie we get to see with a strong female lead takes a drag before making a powerful statement or saying something sexy. Yes, the male lead does it too, but what makes both the scenes different is often the audience’s perception of both actions. The audience does not make that many associations with a man smoking (it is simply passed off as a bad habit) but when a woman is smoking on screen her character in the light of being strong and sophisticated. (There are a lot of movies that try to show such a woman was a bad woman but we are not talking about those cases here.)

This is not to say that this trope never made sense. It did make sense for a long time because to show a woman smoking or drinking was the easiest yet powerful way to depict a woman subverting the stereotypical gender ideas as smoking was a leisurely activity that was exclusive to the male population till early 20th century. In fact, smoking by the female population was considered taboo in most parts of the world. But thanks to the brilliant PR campaigns by the tobacco companies after world war I, today, smoking is a leisurely activity which can be enjoyed by both men and women who choose to take it up.

Today, for a huge audience, when it is not very unusual to see a female smoker, why should every other movie with a ‘strong’ female lead use smoking and drinking to define/ foreground the female character as strong, sexy, and progressive? Of course, female smokers can be strong and sophisticated but they could be weak and regressive as well. Similarly, females who do not smoke can be strong and sophisticated or could be weak and regressive. Therefore, nothing justifies using smoking/drinking to show the strength of a woman's character. When there are many other subversive ways in which a female character can show her strength and progressiveness, why are we still stuck with using a trope that is clearly not a standard or even a healthy one?

When does it become common to see female characters who do not smoke or drink yet are strong and sophisticated? To give some alternative ways to show such characters, maybe the lead character can be depicted as someone very knowledgeable, skilled at something, show leadership skills or someone with a lot of physical strength. I mean look around, you can see women showing strength in myriad ways.

If a story demands it, let's continue to show female smokers but let's also dissociate feminism from smoking and drinking and depict more female characters who do not take a drag before saying something sexy or raising their voice against some injustice.

References

https://theswaddle.com/can-we-move-on-from-the-trope-of-the-woman-whose-feminism-is-expressed-through-smoking-drinking/