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Liu Jia lit up her first cigarette seven years ago. “I didn’t intend to imitate male behavior at first,” Liu recalls, “I just thought that it was unfair that men claim female smoking is an offence against decency while they themselves have been smoking their whole lives.” Though she’s clear about the harm smoking causes to her health, it still did not deter her from developing the habit as a show of determination to break from tradition.
According to zdiao.com, a Chinese survey website, people born in the 1980s tend to be more open-minded than previous generations. Eighty percent of those polled reported tolerance of female smoking.
Daniel Wong, a Chinese-American doctor and a former mayor in the United States, says that smoking used to be the male prerogative in a male-dominated society. However, in Western countries, women began to challenge that trend during the early feminist movement that dawned with the 20th century. The rising number of female smokers in China is perhaps a sign that Chinese women are following the lead of their Western counterparts.
A Trendy Killer
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Tobacco companies have singled out women for aggressive marketing of their products. Cnsphoto |
The ever-growing legion of female smokers are driving profit-minded tobacco companies to gear their advertising and packaging to women’s tastes. Cigarettes are now described as “subtle,” “mild” and “mellow,” and the packaging comes in pink or pastel colors, the cigarettes in extra-slim sizes that might appeal to female smokers.
Targeting lifestyles is an old marketing strategy. Allegedly, consumers equate those who make expensive purchases as representing, and deserving, a correspondingly expensive lifestyle. Purchasing a fancier brand has a value-added psychological dimension. Naturally, cigarette advertisements induce purchasers to see things in a certain way, often portraying images of chic and sexy ladies smoking, developing a link between smoking and glamour, smoking and independence, smoking and cutting-edge modern.
Lots of smoke and few close looks in the mirror, it seems. Tobacco companies are trying, and we hope failing, to conceal the harm that cigarettes pose to our health. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention points out in its 2010 China Tobacco Control Report that cigarettes designed for women are no less harmful than the regular kind. On the contrary, smoking is more dangerous for women than men. Among the tragic impacts invited are higher probabilities of prenatal infant mortality, low birth weight and premature births. Every year around the world, over 1.5 million women above age 20 die from smoking. Let’s hope it’s a passing fad. |
