My answer to the Smoke Challenge
Jul. 16th, 2005 12:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beelikej(The Challenge that inspired the rant)
So am I alone in the fanfiction community in thinking smoking is not sexy but stinky and stupid? I am not a writer, but I just had to respond to this challenge and especially the reactions to it, because it really annoys me that people get excited about this. I was unpleasantly suprised to read people's remarks on the picture of a smoking actor. Seeing someone smoke makes me very sad but mostly very dissapointed. (Not to mention what it does to me when a person in my vicinity decides to light up... the stories I could tell...)
I'm not going to mention again that well known fact that it's bad for you, but will remind you that smoking is the only addiction of choice that actually hurts other people.
You can drink 'till your liver explodes and be very annoying doing it, but while you're taking that sixteenth beer, you don't force others to put alcohol in their system. Same applies to injecting, snorting and swallowing any other stuff in your own body.
Smoking is a whole other thing though, 'cause every time you light up and you're not in your own private space, there will be someone else inhaling whatever it is you're not.
I admit to being a food-whore: I am a total chocolate addict and -yes- eating it does make me feel good, but I never really understood the 'acquired taste'-thing: if something tastes disgusting the first time you try it AND you know it's not particularly healthy for you, why try it again? Why allow yourself to get addicted to it? Because others make you believe it's cool? Peer-pressure really is a sad excuse. You have a mind of your own, don't blame someone else for the choices you make.
(If you actually enjoyed your first sigarette, let me know, you'll be the first)
I'll limit my rant to the smoking-issue, but I will aknowledge that society does do a good job of making bad behaviour look attractive. I think being 'naughty' is secretly admired, because not being (mentally) restricted by any rules seems very liberating.
For many years it was suggested that smoking was not only good for you, but socially very acceptable if not required. People in the public eye didn't hide the habit, but embraced it and having your picture taken with a cigarette was nothing to be ashamed of. Nowadays it's completely different, but I'm not sure that's a good thing.
It's a lovely thought that if we hide bad habits from sight, people won't be tempted, but it's rather naive. It seems to me that not allowing people to see pictures with smokers (stills or the moving kind) actually makes it worse. It turns smoking into something naughty and that sadly makes it an attractive thing to try.
I'm against any form of censorship, I just hope in the future 'the media' will start to treat smoking as a choice people make and not use it as a device to let us know certain characters are bad and therefor somehow more interesting (for example good Angel vs evil Angelus)
But what I really want is people to not start smoking and that's not gonna happen as long as being stinky is considered to be sexy. Addiction just isn't very attractive.
Confession There are people out there that I'm fond of even though they smoke. I don't like it. It hurts my little heart and I'm very very dissapointed when I find out someone I admire (for their craft, talent or just because they put up with me;) decided to take up the habit. It's impossible for me to respect that choice, but I'm trying real hard (who am I kidding)to not let it have an effect on my judgement of their personality. Although I must admit Mr. Spacey finally fell of his pedestal after I read about him 'smelling like bananas and cigarettes'. I knew he was a smoker (I was so in denial), but reading that description was a real turn off: EHW. (I got nothing against bananas;)
So am I alone in the fanfiction community in thinking smoking is not sexy but stinky and stupid? I am not a writer, but I just had to respond to this challenge and especially the reactions to it, because it really annoys me that people get excited about this. I was unpleasantly suprised to read people's remarks on the picture of a smoking actor. Seeing someone smoke makes me very sad but mostly very dissapointed. (Not to mention what it does to me when a person in my vicinity decides to light up... the stories I could tell...)
I'm not going to mention again that well known fact that it's bad for you, but will remind you that smoking is the only addiction of choice that actually hurts other people.
You can drink 'till your liver explodes and be very annoying doing it, but while you're taking that sixteenth beer, you don't force others to put alcohol in their system. Same applies to injecting, snorting and swallowing any other stuff in your own body.
Smoking is a whole other thing though, 'cause every time you light up and you're not in your own private space, there will be someone else inhaling whatever it is you're not.
I admit to being a food-whore: I am a total chocolate addict and -yes- eating it does make me feel good, but I never really understood the 'acquired taste'-thing: if something tastes disgusting the first time you try it AND you know it's not particularly healthy for you, why try it again? Why allow yourself to get addicted to it? Because others make you believe it's cool? Peer-pressure really is a sad excuse. You have a mind of your own, don't blame someone else for the choices you make.
(If you actually enjoyed your first sigarette, let me know, you'll be the first)
I'll limit my rant to the smoking-issue, but I will aknowledge that society does do a good job of making bad behaviour look attractive. I think being 'naughty' is secretly admired, because not being (mentally) restricted by any rules seems very liberating.
For many years it was suggested that smoking was not only good for you, but socially very acceptable if not required. People in the public eye didn't hide the habit, but embraced it and having your picture taken with a cigarette was nothing to be ashamed of. Nowadays it's completely different, but I'm not sure that's a good thing.
It's a lovely thought that if we hide bad habits from sight, people won't be tempted, but it's rather naive. It seems to me that not allowing people to see pictures with smokers (stills or the moving kind) actually makes it worse. It turns smoking into something naughty and that sadly makes it an attractive thing to try.
I'm against any form of censorship, I just hope in the future 'the media' will start to treat smoking as a choice people make and not use it as a device to let us know certain characters are bad and therefor somehow more interesting (for example good Angel vs evil Angelus)
But what I really want is people to not start smoking and that's not gonna happen as long as being stinky is considered to be sexy. Addiction just isn't very attractive.
Confession There are people out there that I'm fond of even though they smoke. I don't like it. It hurts my little heart and I'm very very dissapointed when I find out someone I admire (for their craft, talent or just because they put up with me;) decided to take up the habit. It's impossible for me to respect that choice, but I'm trying real hard (who am I kidding)to not let it have an effect on my judgement of their personality. Although I must admit Mr. Spacey finally fell of his pedestal after I read about him 'smelling like bananas and cigarettes'. I knew he was a smoker (I was so in denial), but reading that description was a real turn off: EHW. (I got nothing against bananas;)
