• more about #breatheless
    Baroness: Can I just say how much I love the broad in the first commercial? She strides towards the camera, lights up, looks at the camera with contempt- Yeah,... more »
    Vivien Smith-Smythe-Smith: Shit- I was so distracted by trying to figure out if the male voice over in the ads was a Kiwi or an Australian, that I completely forgot to celebrate... more »
    NewsBunny: I was always a Malboro Lights girl myself. It's been ten years. I miss those Malboros. more »
    LvV: RE: Carrie Bradshaw Virtually every teen girl interviewed as part of a new [2006] Health Department report on smoking said [Sex and the City] influenc... more »
    J.D.Regent: Good old corporate America, co-opting feminism since before it was cool. It's kind of weird how smoking is considered manly because of the phallic nat... more »
    NatelysWhoresKidSister: Know who else is a completely gorgeous icon of smoldering tobacco-scented sexiness? Why, me, of course. Ayn Rand considered it man's triumph over nature. more »
    save jinger: Cigarette smoking is a type of oral fixation. Oral fixations stem from breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is an amazing thing that women do. Women doing ama... more »
    Flackette Goes Retro: Being a slave to tobacco companies is the least liberated thing I can think of. There is nothing feminist about bowing to marketing campaigns asking y... more »
    BabyJane: I was a heavy smoker for years and I have the sexy burn holes in my clothes to show for it. more »
    morninggloria: Everything can be a feminist act. Showing disrespect to your male sexual partner, eating foods that are terrible for you, belching loudly, laughing at... more »
    Rare Affinity: I don't understand why otherwise smart, intelligent young women are still smoking. They don't have the excuse that they didn't realise how addictive a... more »
    greengrey: You forgot GG as a woman who smokes. I like smoking, it's a social anxiety defense mechanism. Nothing says "I don't give a fuck" like smoking. It mak... more »
    judgingamy: I remember in Women's Studies we had to read an article that basically argued that women who smoked were more liberated, since it showed they didn't c... more »
    Penny: I smoked for a few years and NEVER felt hot while doing so. That said, I think that with certain film characters and in print, it can be really sexy.... more »
    Schrodinger's Cat: Women smoked long before 1969; I know because I watch Mad Men! And I remember that direct mail campaign... Those cigarettes have shiny, pink foil cam... more »
    AtomiClash: humanitarian misanthrope: Oh man, while this article has made some seriously good points, all I want right now is a cig. more »
    BeckySharper: NB: just because an act is transgressive, that doesn't automatically make it a feminist act. Particularly when that "feminist" act will make you sick ... more »
    angelheadedhipster: Talk about blowing smoke up the patriarchy's ass... more »
  • #breatheless

    Vintage Commercials Show Smoking As A Feminist Act

    The 1969 Virginia Slims commercials, embedded after the jump, focus on how women have "won" their rights, at last. This means they can smoke cigarettes "slimmer" than the "fat" cigarettes for men. More »