For decades, cigarettes were a symbol of status, rebellion and freedom. Long before the dangers of smoking were made explicit, children were taught to smoke and teenagers were influenced to walk around with packs in their pockets. Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean were great associations of smoking with sensuality, luxury and success.
After many attempts to revert the tempting and glamorous image of cigarettes to something negative, smoking has become both a symbol of purposeful sloppiness and a marker of something “dirty”, reverberating chaos and disobedience as a form of style. Today, even with science proving its harmful impact on health, young people insist on using cigarettes as a symbolic item. But what is behind this return?
The Brat aesthetic
Chosen as the word of the year in 2024 by the British dictionary Collins, the term “Brat” was linked to a confident, independent and hedonistic attitude. Charli XCX, the singer who named her album after the expression, told the BBC that being “brat” can also mean “a pack of cigarettes and a Bic lighter”.
The cigarette resurfaces through the nostalgic, carefree image it symbolizes, a concept that the “brat” style illustrates perfectly. Artists are constantly expected to perform with precision and project a flawless image, and this relentless performance is exhausting. Maintaing the appearance of a perfect, healthy lifestyle may seem like the socially accepted standard, but, like any practice built on constant restrictions and sacrifices, the world of “wellness” can start to feel like prison.
Cigarettes, then, return as a form of escapism and a glamorous rebellion. Charli XCX is not the only influential public figure today who uses cigarettes in her personal image. Chappel Roan, Dua Lipa and Anya Taylor-Joy reproduce the image as well as Kate Moss in the 90s, when she posed with bundles of Marlboro in her hand.
From the 50s to the “Messy Girls”
Smoking a cigarette was never just for the consumption of the substance, but for the aesthetics that carry the act itself. In the 1950s, the most coveted women, actresses who illustrated success and powerful men who lived luxurious lives, had cigarettes in their hands. The aesthetics of smoking were linked to status and conveyed a sense of glamour.
With a lack of studies to understand it’s harms at the time, smoking was not an exclusive action of adulthood. Children were taught that cigarettes reflected maturity, and teenagers smoked for belonging and credibility. Little by little, with the discovery of the risks and deaths resulting from smoking, cigarettes ceased to be a symbol of the elite and became synonymous with sloppiness.
The Punk style, in the 80s, brought with smoking an idea of rebellion. Messy hair, shabby clothes and smudged makeup established the cigarette as a symbol of the “anti-system”.
Later, in the 90s, Heroin Chic used the cigarette as a marker of authenticity, representing aesthetic rather than ideological rebellion. Unfortunately, the aesthetic was misunderstood by society, which associated it with illness, fragility, and self-destruction, so cigarettes soon became a visual symbol of decay.
Now, the “Messy Cool” aesthetic is back in the spotlight. The “messy girls”, as they call themselves on social networks, reverberate an unpretentious natural look. It’s the girls who leave their dark circles exposed, except when they use makeup to make them more evident, wear scruffy hair, and hold cigarettes in their hands that embody the essence of the trend. The idea of life as messy and exhausting is an antithesis to the “wellness” world, but it is nonetheless performative in the same proportion. And instead of elements of the wellness lifestyle, cigarettes take center stage.
Harm to health
The dangers of smoking are widely known today and the trivialization of them by young people is worrying. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the world, with more than seven million per year according to the World Health Organization.
It is estimated that one in five smokers develop respiratory diseases, such as chronic bronchitis and pulmonary emphysema. The pneumologist Ana Carolina Lima Resende explains that smoking has several damages to health, much more than is normally believed. “It causes direct damage to the entire airway, so it can increase the risk of lung, bladder, bowel, mouth, throat, breast cancer… promote premature aging, increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, diseases related to embolism… so the impacts are diverse and long-term.”
“Many patients start experiencing symptoms but don’t associate them with smoking, or they simply don’t want to admit that smoking is the cause. The symptoms may include coughing, mucus, recurrent pneumonia, low immunity, altered speech and taste, fatigue, and decreased oxygen levels.” She adds. It is important to seek medical help. Today, there are several treatments for quitting smoking: psychotherapy and behavioral therapy are key components of treatment, as well as in combination with medications.
It is worth mentioning that some of the damage caused by smoking can be reduced from the moment you quit. Little by little, the body is conditioned to regenerate, so quitting smoking is also a way of regaining control over your own body.
By the end, cigarettes may be making a comeback, as a vintage accessory and a performance complement, but in the real world, it remains as negative and harmful as it has always been.
—–
The article above was edited by Julia Galoro.
Liked this type of content? Check Her Campus Cásper Líbero home page for more!