Growing up in Bangladesh, I had seen my father smoking since as long as I remember. However it wasn’t until I was 16, going to boarding school in Thailand that I had tried my first cigarette. I still remember the first puff, a girl from a senior grade offered a puff and of course I accepted — not only so that I don’t appear to be displaced in this group but also out of personal curiosity. That night I had my first full cigarette, and over the next two years continued to smoke at every offer from friends. At the time it was not the nicotine that attracted me to smoking, as I could function perfectly normally through the holidays when I had no access to cigarettes. I also wasn’t peer-pressured to smoke, I enjoyed it as an act of rebellion against the innumerable rules that exists in a boarding school environment. It also provided me with a sense of control over the larger cultural forces of the environment in which we have little to no control, and most importantly it provided a sense of affiliation with this smaller group of multi-cultured people that I had come to call friends. Eventually, after leaving high-school and moving to China to live with my family, I became a regular smoker when I was 18 years old. A regular smoker is defined as “an adult who has smoked at least 100 cigarettes inter life time, and who now smokes everyday”, this definition which categorises and isolates this group of people combined with my personal experiences in smoking give us cause to the fact that smoking cigarettes or tobacco has evolved from a social behaviour and into a global contemporary subculture.

Whether it was the crave of nicotine or how I substituted the loss of this group of friends that caused me to start smoking is hard to answer at this time, however it was a culture that I had become part of. Globally, smokers make up an international subculture where smokers from various ethnic, religious, or regional backgrounds share a common set of beliefs, rituals and behaviours, individually or as a collective body. These rituals stem from both social queues and the smoker’s own behavioural queues. This thesis explores the reasons why smoking should be considered a subculture, however, even as a smoker I condemn the act of smoking. Thought the thesis will explore self-harm, it will not aim to answer if smoking is morally or ethically acceptable. Before choosing to explore cigarette smoking as a subculture, I had also considered to look into the phenomenon of e-cigarettes (vaping), or the culture around smoking marijuana. Both these phenomenons consist of a much easier subculture to examine. Looking aside the debate of whether either act should be illegal, there are certain positive aspects in both phenomenons that helps to create a subculture out of it — both have been commercialised, has a cult following and, faces less and less stigma everyday. The marijuana culture is certainly the more evolved between the two, being associated to freedom, freewill, a relaxed lifestyle, with it’s own style of music, fashion, symbols and rituals. Vaping on the other hand, a fairly new phenomenon, has risen extremely fast in recent years due to it’s claimed healthier life-style aspects. Cigarette smoking on the other hand, is the opposite. To a non-smoker, there are no benefits, and no positive aspects in terms of smoking. It is an interesting phenomenon to explore, as it’s an entire subculture built with self-degradation and at it’s core, however we, as smokers, in the process of chaining ourselves to this habit, choose to see it as freedom of will instead.

In current times, cigarette smoking has been stigmatised in most, if not all, developed countries, the health risks are known and proven, and there has been mass public education on the benefits of immediately quitting cigarettes. It has been stigmatised to such an extent that just seeing advertisements of smoking will make us feel uneasy. Cigarette advertisements has become a thing of the past, however only in developed countries. The tobacco industry is still making billions in profits in developing countries such as China, Indonesia, India and Bangladesh. Although denounced, smoking is still legal, globally and available to us as a consumer product. The tobacco industry worldwide is enormous, estimated to have “…combined profits for the six largest firms of $35.1bn” according to The Guardian in 2012. These companies are not concerned with what smoking would do to the human body, but rather that these individuals choose to smoke in the first place. Tobacco advertisements are already heavily restricted around the world, and the products are offered to the public with warnings and graphic imagery of the consequences of smoking. Nevertheless, we continue to purchase and choose to smoke ourselves. Stigmatising this act, yet leaving it legal to smoke has led to the design of selective spaces for smokers in urban design, airports, restaurants & bars, and in public spaces. Prohibiting smokers from smoking in a certain place allows them to gather in a common space, where smoking becomes the basis for a social tool. At social get-togethers, stepping outside with a fellow smoker gives the smokers a chance to breakaway from the larger group and have a brief bonding moment. These spaces, such as a smoking room in an airport, the smoking area of a gallery, or the ashtray outside a bar also becomes a place for meeting strangers and having short conversations that last the same amount of time as a cigarette. Ironically, the symbol that is meant to oppose the subculture itself, i.e. the No Smoking sign, has become the strongest advocate of producing this untypical subculture. An internationally recognised symbol combined of the “No” symbol and a lit cigarette — this sign while successfully protecting non-smokers from second hand smoking it also enforces smokers to find a secondary, common place where strangers can exercise their habit in unison.

Popular culture in entertainment and literary works have certainly helped this particular phenomenon and though it may be fading in television and films in recent years due to the stigmatising, it’s hard to deny the power it has had in shaping the image of a smoker. Movies and shows such as Casablanca, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, A Street Car Named Desire & Mad Men, among many others have had famous scenes that involved it’s main characters fashioning a cigarette that helps to create this allure of the style and power a cigarette can bring. Images of smokers on television has faded in recent times, however popular newsmen, cartoon characters and even cowboys in cigarette commercials in the past has attributed to the popularity of cigarettes and contributed to the mass addiction of nicotine. The much publicised Marlboro Man in U.S distinctly represented freedom, ruggedness and an all-American way of life — though ironically, 4 of the actors that portrayed this character famously died due to smoke-related diseases. Similarly, many other notable public figures that we associate smoking with, such as Sigmund Freud, Winston Churchill, Steve McQueen and Clark Gable, the heroes of this subculture have also perished at the hands of cigarettes. In recent times, there has been a bigger public outcry against imagery of smoking and companies are held responsible when it comes to influencing the society, especially the youth. Though the image of Sherlock Holmes and his trusty, wooden pipe is synonymous, as society develops into being a more healthy body, the character of Sherlock in the ongoing highly popular tv show of the same name, gets away with portraying the persona as someone who fights nicotine addiction and resorts to nicotine patches instead of a tobacco pipe. There is a small but memorable moment in one of the episodes where Sherlock is seen using 3 nicotine patches, and much to the shock of Dr. Watson, he justifies his actions by announcing that “this is a 3 patch problem”. While this new tv show did not commend the act of smoking, it did not condemn it either. The scene associated the act of infusing oneself with nicotine as something beneficial to a problem-solving situation.

To consider oneself as a smoker, the person has to successfully convince themselves that smoking gives him certain benefits. Stress-relief and relaxation is one of the many benefits that a cigarette can provide as claimed by smokers. These claims have been directly disproven by research, showing that smoking actually raises our blood pressure and heart rate, thus doing the exact opposite of relaxing our bodies. Nevertheless, we continue to smoke for various reasons, individually and as a group. The company that we smoke in often also can provide various levels of interactions and mean different things. Even the act of smoking a cigarette alone can represent various state of minds for the smoker. It can be a quiet, peaceful time, a time when one is lost in their own thought, or it can be a time of ecstasy, at a concert or at a busy nightclub scene. For some it’s a continuous habit that makes every activity better and less mundane. It can even be an activity in itself in order to simply kill time. Smoking cigarettes as a couple or group of friends is a time of bonding. Short conversations that span the time of a cigarette, there are brief pauses between cigarettes but the conversations continue as cigarettes keep being lit. Smoking between strangers, is a time of chance — a chance to meet a new person, to make some small talk, regardless of any similarities between the strangers in terms of cultural heritage, age, religion or race. If a smoker is given a cigarette by another smoker, the first smoker is almost obliged to offer the giver a short period of his time — the cigarette is a tool for transaction and the giver has just bought a moment of conversation from the receiver. A relationship is formed between the receiver and giver, with the act of smoking at its centre. Even the act of lending a light, or lighting another person’s cigarettes can have several meanings. The act of lighting another person’s cigarette is an act of respect and politeness between smokers. Between heterosexual couples, it’s often common for the men to light up two cigarettes at once and pass one to the women. These acts and what each smoke represent, hold surprisingly common characteristics globally.

Much like any culture, the act of sharing a ritual is very much alive when it comes to smoking cigarettes. Smokers will often compare brands, offer each other new brands to try, or speak of their daily habit of smoking. They will also share and gift each other accessories such as Zippo lighters or leather cigarette cases. The simple act of borrowing a lighter or ‘bumming’ a cigarette off a stranger is also a sign of the subculture that smoking has become. Smokers will gladly lend a lighter or a cigarette to other smokers. Between them, they also share a common vocabulary or gestures that gives two complete strangers a common point of social interaction. “Got a light?”, “bumming a fag”, “ciggie break”, or even gesturing a cigarette or lighter by hand are commonly understood and shared between smokers. Colleagues or students that smoke, orchestrate their break times to fit into the group’s smoking schedule. Between a group of smokers the end of the smoke break is signalled automatically once the last person has finished their cigarette. There’s no further need for any verbal communication that the break has ended.

Most smokers are completely aware of the fact that the cigarettes are harmful to their own bodies, however in most cases this does not completely discourage the smoker to stop. A cigarette to a smoker can be seen as a symbol of individual agency that provides them with a personal fortitude. A bad habit it maybe, however it is the smoker’s own bad habit; doing something simply because we can is a grand gesture in terms of exercising our own free will. We see the harmful effects of smoking as not an immediate threat to our well-being but rather something that is extremely far away in our future. Stories of people who have lived up to an old age despite being heavy smokers also encourage us to continue smoking with the thought that ‘only other smokers will die from smoking’. The idea that smoking is not an immediate threat is also one that gives us encouragement to continue smoking, we are concerned with our current state of happiness in the present moment and much less concerned about how smoking will lower our life expectancy towards the end of our lives. Many smokers justify smoking by claiming that our lives can end in the blink of an eye from various innumerable random accidents, this also provides a sense of empowerment or ownership over our own bodies, emanating from the fact that by smoking, we are taking our fate in our own hands.

Analysing the various stages of a smoker’s life also shows signs of patterns throughout this phenomenon. Smoking as a subculture is learned, not inherited, it’s learned by the smoker through peer-pressure, friendship, personal curiosity or for the young smoker, a personal will to fit in to a certain social group. Once in the group, the young smoker feels accepted, they find power in numbers and feels proud to be in this group that performs against the normal social behaviour that is expected of them. Along with their projected image of being a ‘bad boy’ or a ‘bad girl’ a sense of freedom, confidence and an element of immediate happiness or satisfaction emerges. The smoker now in his early 20s, continues to smoke for various social reasons, to meet like-minded people, to escape from awkward gatherings, or to even have a moment of nostalgia of the good old days. The smoker at this stage of life, may consider themselves a social smoker as opposed to a regular, everyday smoker, and starts to hold certain values and follow certain rituals. They take solace in the fact that they are not an addict, and will never become one. They delude themselves by smoking only in the presence of others, socially, during drinks or only when offered. They also start to pick up common smoking rituals such as the act of “packing” a new packet of cigarettes before opening, i.e tapping the unopened packet upside down on their palms, or flat surfaces so that the tobacco in each cigarette is packed tighter. Another version of this is, gently tapping a cigarette filter, vertically onto a flat surface. The act of packing is a ritual that is learnt by smokers, even if there are many smokers who have no idea what it actually does. Other rituals involve twisting, flicking, blowing smoke circles, or even superstitious ones such as taking out a cigarette from a new packet, making a wish, and putting it back in upside down. The superstitious smoker believes smoking this cigarette last will make their wish come true. For social smokers, smoking is a tool for social display, to project their version of identity out to the world. However the delusion of each cigarette being a social lubricant, slowly starts to fade as the smoker begins to associate each cigarette to the person that offers it to them. This person, typically someone who has been smoking for much longer, becomes our subject’s gateway and access to cigarettes. At a certain point, the social smoker becomes the lead instigator, announcing and convincing the rest of the group that it’s time for a cigarette. As the smoker gets older, this thin line between socially smoking and needing to smoke vanishes and it becomes an integral part of their daily life. A time for a smoke is signalled through certain social occasions, or simply because it’s time for a smoke. The smoker, an addict now, claims that smoking will help to release stress — ironically, the nicotine dependency in the body of the smoker is the element raising these stress levels. The depletion of nicotine is relieved once nicotine is injected back into the body, thus making the smoker feel good. Many of the conversations held between smokers at this stage, are often related to how both parties have or will attempt to quit smoking. Smokers at this stage are fully aware of their addiction, and the disillusion of smoking as a tool of individual agency fades, and we realised how we’ve imprisoned ourselves to this physical addiction all in the name of freedom.

Tobbacco companies, completely aware of this superficial belief of smokers, continue to find ways to promote the habit by creating promotional activities that appeal to smokers. Marlboro’s most recent ‘Don’t be a maybe, be Marlboro’ campaign is an example of the nowness, freedom of will and the concept of having one’s fate in one’s hand. The advertising campaign has been critiqued to be of bad taste even by smokers themselves. Smoking as a subculture, is a culture full of contradictions and projected identity. We have become part of a culture stemming from a negative, harmful element in our physical lives. Governments and society, enforcing restrictions while decreasing the volume of smokers, causes us to find common places and condone to safety in numbers, forming a closer bond through superficial, ironic conversations of our favourite brands of cigarettes and how we are planning to quit. The evolution of pop culture into a more health-conscious body has decreased and protected our youth from seeing prominent public figures smoking. Though popular culture continues to play off of the decreasing value of cigarettes by portraying characters as giving up smoking, it still often makes connection to the allure of a smoker.

Regardless of how we deceive ourselves to neglect the health risks that is attached to smoking, the physical addiction of our bodies to nicotine, contradicts with the idea of cigarettes being an agent of free will. Once a person has become a regular smoker, certain psychological associations are made that imprisons the smoker to a strict schedule when nicotine must be administered into the body. These associations are triggered through various factors, but there are common signals that occur in individual smokers, such as that first stimulating cigarette of the day with a fresh cup of coffee, or through that sense of accomplishment after finishing a big task, and even that euphoric cigarette post-sexual satisfaction. Each of these moments are often triggers for lighting up and enjoying a brief moment of complete gratification. However, for a non-smoker these brief moments come naturally. As smokers we knowingly prison ourselves and we justify reasons to not quit due to it’s social and perceived values. This contradicting act in the name of free will is quoted eloquently by the Nobel Prize winning-economist Amartya Sen. When defending the argument for smoking-ban regulations against attacks by the Financial Time’s chief economics commentator, Martin Wolf, Sen writes , “I agree with Mr Wolf that freedom is centrally important. But how should we see the demands of freedom when habit-forming behaviour today restricts the freedom of the same person in the future?”.