Cigarettes have been around for a very long time, yet in recent decades, strong campaigns against smoking cigarettes have emerged. D.A.R.E. taught us students in elementary school that cigarettes were killers, and we should always “just say no.” Some time ago, a study caught my eye that claimed people with profile pictures on social media featuring cigarettes were more likely to be perceived as less attractive than without cigarettes. Obviously, this is a blanket statement that needs more prodding, so I started to do some research. I wanted to find out the true social consequences of cigarette smoking. With all the negative information we have about cigarettes, do we treat or view cigarette smokers differently?
The act of smoking a cigarette in plain view, smelling of cigarette smoke, or even casually mentioning “buying a pack” are all expressions given off, for which interpersonal reactions will vary. However, as a society, norms and deviances change vastly over time [and place]. So, while smoking cigarettes was acceptable in public in the United States a few decades ago, now it is prohibited. In my travels to Europe and from internationals, I’ve heard time and time again that smoking cigarettes in high school (secondary school) is much more common and accepted in several countries in Europe than in the United States. So, how deep does the stigma against cigarettes run? What does this mean for smokers and Big Tobacco?
Cigarettes used to be allowed everywhere. It is now a widely known fact that cigarette smoking is leading cause of preventable death in the United States, so that second-hand smoke became viewed as dangerous and thus banned from indoor places (a formal deviance). In the past few decades, many efforts have been made to staunch the distribution of cigarettes, including laws that banned the advertising of cigarettes to any audience under the age of 21, like on T.V., radio, and magazines. Cigarette ads also cannot present cigarettes as a way to be cooler or to attract the opposite sex. This helps to form the idea of informal deviance regarding cigarettes, meaning that while they are not illegal, they are no longer as socially acceptable as they once were.
Cigarettes are also highly taxed as an incentive for people not to smoke. While laws around the world often have restrictions on smoking, nearly 6 trillion cigarettes are still produced every year, which represents a 12% increase in the last two decades. Still so many are smoking, yet the social climate has changed as a result of anti-cigarette campaigns reminding all that smoking kills. The media certainly gives us a stigma, with campaigns boldly named “The Truth” feeding the public negative information about cigarettes and turning people against "Big Tobacco."
Some of the most shocking statistics I read included the slanted percentage of advertisements as well as smoking rates among minority and disadvantaged groups. According to the CDC, 15 out of every 100 adults smoke, whereas 26 out of every 100 adults living below the poverty line smoke. Moreover, in majority black city neighborhoods, there are up to 10 times more tobacco ads than in other neighborhoods. The consequences of more advertisements include increased chances of trying cigarettes and lower harm perceptions of cigarettes in minority and impoverished areas.
These discoveries make me think of the term stratification, which sociology describes as a system in which people are sorted in groups based on hierarchies. It is clear that in this kind of system, some groups have more advantages than others, precluding the creation of equal opportunities for everyone and thus social mobility. For poor people and minorities, they are victims of this in several ways. I had never realized that the fact that one was poor or a minority meant that they were more likely to experiment with, and get addicted to, cigarettes. The advertising industry targets most the people who can least afford to spend money on cigarettes and who can least afford good health insurance for nicotine-related diseases. Moreover, many studies show that smokers are less likely to get a job and generally earn lower wages.
Thus, my big discovery was not exactly how people view cigarette-smokers, but rather a significant factor in the stratification of - particularly striking to me - poor people. Cigarette production is increasing, the income gap is increasing, and so are the number of poor people. I do not claim causation at all, but find it interesting to examine this trend. And, of course, perhaps the discovery that poor people and minorities are more likely to be cigarette smokers brings back original question, do smoking and the presence of a stigma have a correlational relationship? And how does the social group one belongs to fit into this equation?
I felt I had reached the culmination of my project when I discovered a fact sheet titled “Tobacco Use and Homelessness.” It suddenly seemed obvious that homeless people are more likely to be addicted to nicotine, and that they are less likely to quit smoking (two facts I discovered). Homeless people have even less access to healthcare and addiction programs than minorities. The National Coalition for the Homeless also reported, “Besides health consequences, the most common reasons for wanting to quit are personal appearance and presentation (similar to non-homeless smokers).” This information finally gave me some qualitative (and quantitative) data that I had been searching for all along; interviewed homeless people recognize the negative social implications that smoking has.
While I did not find exactly what I started out questioning and researching, I did get to put a microscope up to cigarettes in society. Cigarettes are something I am much more familiar with now as a college student rather than a small-towner attending an upper-middle class high school. Initially, I was put out of my comfort zone as I realized what a big impact cigarettes have on the social and economic lives of people, especially minorities and disadvantaged groups. Hopefully, this premise of questioning will bring about some discussion on the way this legal but harmful issue impacts people.
Very fascinating blog post! I do not find smoking that appealing at all, especially because it can lead to so many lung ailments. I do believe that anti-smoking campaigns, especially "The Truth," have played a factor in my life, negatively shaping my opinions on smoking. I found it very interesting that poor people are targeted in these smoking advertisements over wealthier people. It makes me wonder if these smoking populations are in their younger or older years, or possibly both. I have had experiences in my high school years where you were considered to be “cool” if you smoked. Also, I have heard that smoking is generally accepted in third-world countries. Are smoking companies increasing their cigarette sales by retracting activity from first-world countries and targeting third-world countries instead?
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! I had my post on a similar topic, though mine did not stretch out as broadly as yours did. I did not think to address the simple stigma that has been developing over cigarette smokers, and how that stigma is leaning towards exclusive to the United States. This broader perspective of cigarettes was very eye opening and also something that we can all easily relate to and understand quite well. On my blog post, I showed some examples of different kinds of tobacco ads that feature young, good looking people posing and looking satisfied with their cigarettes. I believe one thing I may have overlooked is a certain sex appeal that comes not only with cigarettes, but with thousands of other different consumer products.
ReplyDeleteI'm very interested in the topic of you blog post. My grandfather smoked a lot of and started smoking cigarettes when he was sixteen. He smoked all the time and was in and out of the hospital with heart and lung problems toward the end of his life. I remember visiting him at the hospital at a young age and couldn’t believe my eyes when he, an 80 year old man, got up out of his hospital bed, struggling with all his might just to sit up, walked out of the room and smoked a cigarette, coughed extremely hard for minutes and then slowly crawled back into his bed. Sadly, one of the few memories I have of him really showed me how strongly cigarettes can take control of you. One of my really close friends from high school started smoking cigarettes, half of the senior class at my school smoked cigarettes. Teenagers have way too easy of access to cigarettes and tobacco. I stopped trying to get him to quit because he gets offended any time I try to say anything about cigarettes. I think the ignorance of advice by cigarette smokers comes from the addictive element in them. I think that my friend knows it’s bad, but he can’t do anything about his craving for them. And since minority groups and teenagers are targeted by the tobacco industry, it could very well translate to the homelessness situation you talked about in your second to last paragraph. Most teenagers and minorities from poor communities are already low-income earners. It makes sense that these low-income people become addicted and keep forking out money on cigarettes. It hurts to see homeless people smoking, because you want to give them spare $ if you can, but obviously don’t want it spent on cigarettes. The fact that so many people smoke cigarettes probably means that the school is required to have the designated smoking areas around campus, but they shouldn’t be near the buildings. I’ve been pretty fed up though with the DSA that is just outside my dorm’s building. I constantly breathe in second hand smoke, which I believe is one of the most silent killers of them all in my opinion. I think the second hand smoke contributes to the deviance behind the process of smoking them. The smoke from cigarettes KILLS, and I think a lot of people overlook the medical expenses resulting from cigarette and tobacco use. Researchers calculated that “8.7 percent of all healthcare spending, or $170 billion a year, is for illness caused by tobacco smoke”(reuters.com). When my grandfather was in the hospital (practically on life support), my dad had to pay all of his bills. I remember noticing that my dad was starting to worry for his own financial situation when the bills just kept piling in. And if my dad had a good steady income at the time, I can’t imagine people living in these poor communities being able to easily afford the healthcare that comes with cigarette addiction. I too would like to see more discussion by higher-ups about the danger in cigarettes and cigarette addiction, especially regarding these poor communities that are experiencing even more poverty, homelessness, and lower incomes.
ReplyDeleteI came to a similar kind of realization when coming here to Lewis & Clark where there definitely seems to be a more visible smoking culture than my hometown in Illinois. We were drilled with the same kind of anti-smoking campaigns: D.A.R.E, "the truth about tobacco", you name it. It was taboo when some kids would go out for open lunch to smoke a cigarette or try to smoke on school grounds, and school officials would get involved to try to keep them from smoking. I've definitely seen the graphic you included before, pointing out all the harmful things wrapped up into one cigarette. One interesting difference, though, about the community back home vs. cigarette culture here was that vaping/"juuling" (a type of e-cigarette) is much more common, while that's almost shunned here. It's interesting to think about sociologically where these preferences come from, especially considering most of LC's student population comes from the upper-middle class when cigarette smoking is typically more common in poorer communities (as you showed in this blog post). What kind of identity is the LC student trying to pick up when they start smoking cigs here, and what identity classification are they trying to avoid when not smoking e-cigs? Very interesting topic to think about.
ReplyDelete