CATCHING OUR BREATH:
A Journal About Change for Women Who Smoke
Chapter Three —
CULTURE AND TOBACCO
How did it come to be that people smoke? Was it always this way? Who smokes today? As smokers, we may have asked ourselves these questions. Smoking is so much a part of our lives that it is hard to imagine a world without cigarettes. Yet, smoking as we know it has only been practised for the past 100 years. There was a time when tobacco was used in completely different ways. Even today, most of the people in the world get through their day without cigarettes. It has taken many years and much effort to make smoking the addiction that it is now.
Traditional Use
The large and leafy tobacco plant is native to tropical America but can be grown in cooler climates. Some researchers believe that the plant has been cultivated here for over 8,000 years. It's possible that the ancient Maya introduced the plant to North American Aboriginal peoples, who honoured the plant for its medicinal properties.
There are several beautiful stories and teachings of how the Creator instructed Native people to grow, prepare and use the plant for spiritual purposes. Many of the stories forewarned of the illness, suffering and death that would befall humans if they misused tobacco. Some of these teachings forbid humans to inhale the smoke or use tobacco for amusement.
People treated the plant with a great deal of respect. The smoke from tobacco that was burnt on sacred fires carried prayers to the spirit world. Tobacco was left on the earth as an offering of thanks. It was carried in medicine bundles or given a special gift. The practices varied according to people and their ceremonies. For thousands of years, medicine men and women carefully cultivated the plant, picking it at exactly the right time and curing it naturally in the sunlight. It would then be blended with the other plants native to the area, such as sage (often used in women's rituals), lavender, sassafras or sweetgrass, to be smoked during rituals and ceremonies.
The Cree mixed tobacco with a variety of other plants and named the mixture "kinnikinnik." As children matured, parents and grandparents taught them how to grow and mix tobacco. These teachings were carefully shared. Elders made clear the spiritual value of the plant and cautioned against thoughtless use of tobacco.
The Native healers who grew and blended the tobacco recognized the powerful effects on both mind and body when it was smoked. In their research, writers Donna Cunningham and Andrew Ramer (1989) found that:
Fire was recognized by the ancients as a changer and releaser of the power of certain substances...Thus the ancients burned or smoked a variety of things. Tobacco was only one, a stimulant, but there were also depressants. There were plants smoked for different parts of the body, healing and balancing them. There were different smokes for different folks and for different times of the year, depending on what was needed for that season...
Like so much else, all of this was to change when the Europeans made contact with First Nations people in the 1400s. The Europeans immediately recognized the importance of tobacco in Native culture, even if they did not understand the spiritual meaning behind its use. Explorers and traders quickly began exploiting the value of tobacco as an important trade good.
The Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company "gave" tobacco and alcohol in so-called "gift-giving" ceremonies to attract Native people into trading with them. Natives and Europeans began smoking tobacco together to seal their trade agreements or in honour of the new relationship between the two groups (Reading 1996).
Native people made a distinction between their original "true tobacco" that they grew themselves and the tobacco grown in South America and imported by Europeans. They continued to use their own tobacco in religious ceremonies and began using the imported tobacco for recreational purposes (Reading 1996).
At the same time, Europeans were taking up the habit of recreational smoking. Columbus is claimed to have introduced the tobacco plant to Spain. It soon became available in other countries. During the 1500s "tobacco-houses" were established for smokers in Europe and pharmacies sold tobacco on prescription only (Greaves 1996). It took over 300 years before we realized the terrible price everyone would pay for the corruption of the tobacco plant.
We now know that the government's ban of all traditional ceremonies made it almost impossible for Native people to use tobacco in their traditional ways. But the traditional teachings about tobacco were never lost. To this day, thousands of Native people use this scared plant in rituals and ceremonies. It is still given as a gift to honour teachers and elders. It continues to be burned in fires during sweat lodges and used in prayer. Aboriginal children are being taught the ceremonial use of tobacco. Native organizations have established seed banks to replenish the supply of indigenous plants, so that Native people can once again grow and cure their own tobacco (see the listing for TNAT under "Organizations" at the end of the book).
Recreational Use
By the 1800s smoking became a common social practice and people were beginning to connect certain illnesses with smoking. Canadian researcher and writer Lorraine Greaves has described how women were key in forming anti-smoking groups during the late 1800s and early 1900s, such as the National Anti-Cigarette League and the Non-Smokers Protective League of America. In Canada, the Women's Christian Temperance Union named the problem the "Cigarette Evil" (Greaves 1996).
These groups advocated for clean air and restriction of tobacco sales to children and warned of the health consequences of smoking. They wanted the government to ban the importing and manufacturing of cigarettes, but they were unsuccessful. They were able to affect public policy and develop educational campaigns (Greaves 1996).
The campaigns were mainly directed at men because it was mostly privileged males who smoked. The small percentage of women who smoked were considered of "poor character." But by the early 1900s this was starting to change. The anti-smoking groups were not powerful enough to counter the general population's growing interest in smoking. New developments in technology made it possible to mass-produce cigarettes. The tobacco industry needed to turn more people into consumers in order to make a profit.
Women represented a huge potential market for the tobacco industry. One of the ways the industry was able to capture the attention of women was to connect smoking to social changes that were dear to women's hearts and souls. Smoking was equated with smashing old rules that kept women down. Cigarettes were linked to important freedoms like winning the vote. Smoking became a symbol of adventure and boldness (Greaves 1996).
Women who embodied these qualities were used to sell cigarettes. The famous pilot Amelia Earhart appeared in advertisements for Lucky Strike cigarettes in 1928, although she did not smoke. Movie stars graced the screens with cigarettes in hand, reinforcing the idea that smoking was glamorous and sophisticated.
Parts of society linked smoking with "masculine" behaviours and believed smoking appealed more to lesbians. The tobacco industry knew that for smoking to become popular, it needed to be thought of as part of a courting ritual between men and women. The Chesterfield company set out to convince women that buying Chesterfields for a man would help to catch him as a husband. Their ad read "After a man's heart...when smokers find out the good things Chesterfields gives them, nothing else will do."
In the 1940s the tobacco industry was even able to exploit women's deep worry and sense of powerlessness over World War II. Tobacco companies encouraged women to ship cigarettes to soldiers overseas as a gesture of patriotism. In the 1950s, when women's roles were restricted to that of wife and mother, the tobacco industry promoted smoking as an important leisure activity for "traditional" moms.
Tobacco companies continue to use advertising as a way to exploit our longing for friendship, adventure, individuality, freedom, courage and wealth by associating these things with smoking. Even good health has been linked to smoking! The Philip Morris company promotes its cigarettes with the slogan "You've come a long way baby!" suggesting smoking is one of the freedoms women have achieved. Of course, claiming that an addiction is in any way liberating is absurd.
Complete reversals of the truth are at the core of all cigarette advertising. A recent example is the portrayal of white, rich professionals enjoying cigarettes over brunch. In reality, these individuals are the least likely to smoke. Another advertisement tries to convince us that smoking will keep us thin and healthy. It shows a slim, beautiful woman on the beach. The caption reads "When a woman is wearing a bathing suit, there's no such thing as constructive criticism."
The young are the most vulnerable to believing messages that equate beauty, adventure and material success with smoking because they are still forming their own identities. The tobacco industry doesn't want to miss the chance to offer some suggestions about what it means to be a woman. It wants girls to believe smoking is a good way to cope with the stress of growing up. The industry knows that once girls are over 18, they rarely choose to take up the habit.
The industry also knows that smoking is losing popularity. It is highly motivated to find new smokers. By the 1970s the tobacco industry was aiming its campaigns at women and children. It introduced low-tar, low-nicotine, "light" cigarettes. The industry hoped these cigarettes would be easier for a young girl's body to tolerate. It knew that stronger brands made girls feel sick and discouraged them from smoking. The "light" and "slim" cigarettes appealed to women for different reasons. Low-tar cigarettes somehow seemed like a "healthy" alternative, which might even keep women slim (Greaves 1996)!
Later, the tobacco industry moved on to promote cigarettes to specific ethnic and racial groups. It developed special brand names which it thought would appeal to African Americans and Hispanics. In the United States, over 90% of the billboards advertising cigarettes are in Black or Latino neighbourhoods (Greaves 1996).
Tobacco companies exploit the fact that gays and lesbians are discriminated against by mainstream culture. The industry has developed advertising which connects smoking with the freedom to be gay or lesbian. It thinks gays and lesbians will feel grateful for these ads and this will result in increased tobacco sales (Greaves 1996).
Tobacco companies are now finding it easier to promote cigarettes in Third World countries, where there are few laws regulating tobacco and where people do not always know the health consequences of smoking. Cigarettes are often represented as symbols of "development" and are associated with the luxuries people enjoy in North America. In many countries around the world, free cigarettes are handed out at rock concerts. Art and cultural events and televised concerts of famous stars like Madonna are sponsored by tobacco companies.
Tobacco companies not only try to sell cigarettes to women, they use them as workers in the production of cigarettes (Greaves 1996). In many countries women plant, pick and cure tobacco leaves. They often do the heaviest work but get paid far less than men. Women suffer from nausea, dizziness and increased miscarriage as a result of the pesticides and the nicotine in the plants. Many women work in tobacco fields with their babies on their backs.
The production of cigarettes, including the growing of tobacco, often supplants the growing of food crops which are less profitable for farmers to cultivate. It requires large amounts of pesticides which rob the soil of its nutrients and put poisons in our ecosystem. It destroys thousands of trees (one tree per 300 cigarettes), which are cut down and burned for the curing process. The outcome of this process is a cigarette which contains over 4,000 toxic chemicals, many of which are known to cause cancer (Canadian Council on Smoking and Health 1989).
Who Smokes Today?
By 1964 smoking levels reached their peak. About 60% of men and 33% of women in Canada were smokers. At the same time the first reports linking smoking with serious illnesses were published. Since then, there has been a steady decrease in smoking among both men and women. However, men have been quitting at a faster rate than women, so the gap between the sexes is now closing. In 1994, 29% of women smoked compared to 32% of men (Health and Welfare Canada 1994).
Another important gender difference occurs with the young. The number of girls smoking has risen over the past five years. It is estimated that 29% of teenage girls use tobacco compared to 26% of teenage boys. A number of factors, including advertising directed at females, mean the majority of these girls will form an addiction to cigarettes and are not as likely to quit as boys. It is feared that if this trend continues, women's smoking rates may actually surpass men's for the first time in history.
Smoking rates remain extremely high among Aboriginal people. The rates vary by region and nationhood, but overall 57% of First Nations and Metis adults are current smokers. Inuit women have the highest rate at 80%. Dene women are next at 65%. Non-Native women living in the same region have a smoking rate of 39%.
Smoking rates vary according to people's age. The highest rates are for people in the 20 to 24 age group, with 40% smoking. The levels in this age group are also highest for Aboriginal smokers. A study in the Northwest territories in 1989 found that by age 19, 71% of Inuit were smokers, compared to 43% of non-Native youth (Health Canada 1995)
Those of us who are unemployed smoke more than employed women (42% vs. 31%). If we work in clerical or service jobs like waitressing, we smoke more than women in higher-paying occupations (33% vs. 23%). The more education people have, the less likely they are to smoke. Only 10% of university-educated women smoke compared to about 33% of those with high school education. In Quebec in 1991, women were more likely to be daily smokers than men. Francophone women and girls begin using tobacco at earlier ages and smoke more than Anglophones. If we live with smokers or if our parents smoked when we were growing up, we are also more likely to smoke (Canadian Council on Smoking and Health 1989).
Around the world about 30% of women in industrial countries smoke, but as in Canada there are huge differences depending on region, age, class and race. "In Third World countries about 2 to 10% of women smoke. In Africa 10% of women smoke, between 10 and 40% of Latin American women smoke, about 5% of South East Asian women smoke, 8% of Eastern Mediterranean women and less than 10% of Western Pacific women smoke" (Greaves 1996).
Research shows that not all women and men are at equal risk for starting to smoke or continuing to smoke. Our families, education, employment status, race and class each influence our dependence on cigarettes. These factors are worth exploring but are beyond the scope of this journal. For our purposes it is important for us to know that society's unfair treatment of individuals often creates personal and political conditions which may lead many people to smoke.
