How women started to smoke

[SheilaT]

12. All anyone really need do is read

old Life Magazine and pay attention to the cigarette advertizing in the '30s and '40s. It was glamorized. It was recommended by doctors, who, as it happens, smoked in greater numbers than the population in general. Even though by the 1950s a common nickname for cigarettes was "coffin nails", there continued to be an enormous denial around the harm that cigarettes could do. And during the war there was a rise in independent women. Husbands and boyfriends were away. Some women joined the service themselves, and many who might otherwise have been homemakers were now in the work force. Smoking was of course a symbol of their independence, and perhaps even patriotism.

For those who haven't seen it, or have forgotten the details, watch the very first episode of Mad Men. They've gotten a cigarette account (I forget which one) and there's a bunch of both casual and rather pointed conversation around cigarettes. "People like to smoke," says one character.