Smoking

Smoking.

We either love it, or we hate it. Simple.

Yet it is responsible for 120,000 deaths per year and cigarettes are still widely available in most shops/supermarkets/etc...

However smoking is a free choice and we choose to engage in it, so therefore we are responsible.

http://www.hypnotize.me.uk/hypnotherapy-nlp-manchester/factsandfigures.pdf

In the lecture we discussed the motivation behind smoking and soon began to realise the significance of smoking in comparison to sex.

We discussed how smoking has that particular feel within society and how the media portrays the habit in a positive and attractive light. We spoke about cinematic productions for example. Characters in films are shown smoking as it represents a cool and relaxed atmosphere, this image therefore becomes desirable.
The smoking of cigarettes are also useful in cinema to portray sex and seduction, especially when 'Hollywood' disallowed sex scenes within productions. The use of the cigarettes are metaphorical for the use of sex and the shape of the cigarette can be represented as a penis/phallic symbol. And this was used significantly in old cinema, especially if the women was smoking.

Personally I do not find smoking attractive! Everything about the habit repulses me; the waste, the stench, even the sight.

However I am not denying the fact that I have smoked a couple in my time, just to try it. Yet, I am in no particular hurry to go out and purchase a packet for myself.

Unlike the stereotype attached to smoking I do not see why women would find their partners habit sexual in any way... I once had a boyfriend who did smoke, and I refrained from kissing and being around him, and this lead to our break-up. I failed to see the coded sexuality and the social power behind the unhealthy habit.

So still, I fail to understand why people are willing to slowly destroy and shut down their bodies for the sake of a cigarette...