The Role of Cigarettes in Fashion and Ad - Article Example

Cigarettes in Fashion Studies have demonstrated beyond doubt that smoking cigarettes among young women have been increasing steadily since the 1800s. Many of these studies have shown how the increase in women smokers has occurred at the same rate at which cigarettes became featured in advertisements and associated with female stars. Advertising specifically designed to promote the use of cigarettes also specifically addressed women and their growing independence through the years. This has been shown through many analyses of the advertising that were intended to make women associate smoking with modernism, independence, sexuality and superiority. (Pollay and Dewhirst, 2002). This was done through the clever slogans that were used such as “There are many reasons to smoke now,” “We make Virginia Slims especially for women because they are biologically superior to men” and “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby.” It was also done through the use of glamorous-looking women and Hollywood stars seen smoking in the advertisements and in newsreels or films. Women wanting to associate themselves with these ideas of desirability, independence or needed a means of gaining better control over their emotions would take to smoking because they were mimicking the activities of the famous people they see through these media representations. To see how this works, it is helpful to examine how cigarettes have appeared in non-cigarette-related advertising and reinforced these ideas. Vintage Cigarettes started appearing in advertisements early on as a means of emphasizing the self-reliance and desirability of the female individual. Several examples of this can be found in the images collected in Farid Chenoune’s collection of lingerie images Hidden Femininity. One such example is the following image taken in the early 1900s. This black and white vintage photograph depicts a curvaceous woman in a lacy black teddy with high-cut ‘French’ style legs and a low-cut front that blouses mostly open over her chest. This cut emphasizes the curve of her hips and suggests the curves of her breasts. She is also wearing high black stockings that reach to her lower thighs with ribbons tied at the top. She stands in a relaxed pose with one foot relaxed out to the side, her weight on her other foot and one hand resting at her hip. Her head is thrown slightly back and tilted toward her other hand which defiantly holds a cigarette to her lips. Her hair is short and curly, deliberately uncontained and untamed while the background of the image is filled with sumptuous fabric drapery and very little other detail. The photo seems to have been taken from a lower perspective, as if the camera is looking up at the woman while the lighting remains brightest on her bare thighs, her chest and the uplifted arm, making these areas stand out most. As a result of the subject, composition, perspective and lighting used in this image, it gives one a sense of power and strength in the feminine. There is a strong sense of history in its black and white depiction as well as in the concept of what makes up a beautiful figure. In today’s age, the most attractive women are considered to be those who are close to dangerously underweight, but in the early 1900s, the more attractive shape included more curves. There is very little sense of place because of the thick draperies behind the woman, but because of their height, one gets the impression that the woman is standing in some kind of stage setting, perhaps at a gentleman’s club or in a burlesque show. This idea is reinforced by the way that the woman has her head thrown back and her scantily-clad figure in full view, as if she doesn’t care if the world sees her. She knows what she is and has no problems with it so she doesn’t care at all what anyone else might think of her. As a spectator, she makes me feel a bit dirty, as if I’m peeking behind the curtain at her and she knows she’s the one in charge. As a woman, though, she gives off a strong sense of power and self-possession in spite of her social status, profession or costume. This is perhaps because the way the light bounces off the nude portions of her skin, the only truly light elements in the image, reinforce the power of her most feminine and taboo areas. It is this light that helps make the case that this woman is strong because she smokes cigarettes. The light is brightest on the side of her body that has the cigarette and it seems to travel up from her thigh to her chest and on up her arm to the point at which the cigarette makes contact with her lips. By taking such a stylistic approach to analyzing the image, it is clear that this woman’s position and costume would suggest someone nearly powerless to the gazing eyes of the audience, but she siezes this power back for herself because she is aware of the effect she can have on others. This confidence in her ability is expressed in her blatant use of the cigarette to enforce her presence in the room. Her power is translated to the female audience who equate her boldness with the idea that bold people smoke cigarettes and shows how smoking began to be equated with personality traits more desired by women of the age. This same vintage approach can be seen in the following image from Harper’s Bazaar Magazine. In this image, the woman is wearing vintage style lingerie, which was the purpose of the image. This photograph is presented in color, removing some of the historic feel of the earlier image and bringing it more into a contemporary context with the use of setting. The woman featured in the image is seen sitting on a small metal stool in what appears to be an empty warehouse in an inner city setting. A concrete wall fills much of the background area and this wall is covered with grafitti of various kinds like you would see in the inner city areas. The idea that she is inside somewhere is given by the presence of an open door in this wall that is allowing sunlight to fill the doorway, but the woman is not looking or facing in that direction. Instead, she sits on the stool with her knees pulled tightly together and her feet, in delicate black heeled sandals, splayed to either side. Like the previous image, she has one hand on her hip in an authoritative manner and the other hand is raised with a cigarette casually positioned between her fingers. Her head is slightly tilted down and she has a short, bobbed haircut giving her the same kind of saucy expression conveyed in the earlier photo. However, the lingerie she’s wearing isn’t as revealing, consisting of a pink slip with black lace edging and a pink camisole top with black lace detailing. This image again seems to hint at the powerful force of the female sexuality. It does this by its strange combination of costume and setting. Normally, one would not expect to find an attractive, slender woman in flimsy lingerie sitting in an empty inner city warehouse. As has been mentioned, the sense of place is given in the presence of the thick dark scrawls of spray paint on the wall behind her. It just isn’t considered a safe place for her to be. If she is in this position, she is not typically expected to display a sense of impatient waiting as this woman is showing. This is seen in the position of her hands, her feet and her head. Her left hand has the mother’s authoritative ‘hands on hip’ approach that was seen in the earlier image while her feet give a sense of exhaustion. They are tired of the heels and she is tired of maintaining a lady-like position although she’s still careful not to show too much. Her head is bent forward as if she is tired but the expression on her face is one of impatience rather than time to quit. She is not fearful or nervous about where she is, she is just tired of sitting and waiting for something to happen. She appears to be a Hollywood actress as well, perhaps the image was captured as she sits and waits between scenes, emphasizing the unintentional nature of the cigarette being caught within the image yet it is impossible to miss because of the way she is holding her hand and its near central placement within the frame. Because the image seems to have been taken impromptu – not posed – the presence of the cigarette in the woman’s hand is very powerful to the female viewer. This woman is strong and confident no matter what she’s wearing, or not wearing, and no matter where she is. She knows she has the power in the room and she is getting tired of waiting on others to perform their expected tasks. The woman in the image strongly resembles the actress Molly Ringwald and may even be her as she waits between scenes. This concept that Hollywood actresses have inadvertently promoted smoking among younger audiences has been supported in the literature as it was pointed out that actresses like Scarlett Johnson, Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Winona Ryder and Sharon Stone have been featured on and off screen with cigarettes in their hands. These actresses are widely recognized for their performances and their glamorous lifestyles and they are able to make a huge impact on the audience who literally imitate the acts of their idol. (Cincinnati Magazine, 1997). Girls wanting to feel strong and in control of the situation are thus naturally attracted to the sense of power and control offered by having a cigarette in their hand as a symbol of their control. Anti-Fashion Not all images of women smoking have come to us through the world of high fashion and Hollywood, though. Images of women smoking have been taken capable of reaching all levels of society. Although these images are not part of high fashion, they still manage to convey a great deal of information to the public at large regarding reasons why an individual should take up smoking. In these instances, smoking becomes a means of calming emotions, a means of making connections or expressing defiant emotions. All of the images in this section were presented by a very popular photographer artist, Nan Goldin, who used her skills to explore the anti-fashion element of society – those who have openly rejected mainstream values and expectations to find a world more in keeping with their own inner inclinations. Within these images, she captures women in common attitudes within their daily life, most of which include the use of cigarettes in one of the above applications. Images of women captured seemingly spontaneously as they appear in public and in private continue to reveal the important role cigarettes play in helping these women cope with their inner feelings and outer environment. In the following image, a lone woman is seen standing next to a wrought-iron fence with the bare trees of winter blurrily seen in the background. The woman is in clear focus but her gender is somewhat questioned by the severe cut of her hair, leaving no stray locks to move in a breeze and a small cap tilted on top of her head. The wrought-iron fence has sharp tips on the tops of the narrowly spaced poles and little else can be determined about the background other than the time of year. Although the trees are blurry, it is obviously winter as they have no leaves on them. It seems there is a grassy area behind the fence and perhaps a roadway beyond that, but this is only speculation. The woman stands in an expensive-looking tailored coat with a fur-lined hood facing one side of the image so that the viewer sees her in exact profile. She has a handbag dangling from her nearest elbow and heavy woolen gloves on her hand, which is holding a cigarette to her lips. The photograph is presented in black and white, giving it a more vintage flavor, but nothing else about the image suggests historic elements. The photograph seems to be screaming out something about loneliness or isolation even in the face of success. These ideas are conveyed in the woman’s solitary condition within the image as well as the other elements. The background is empty and full of the coldness of winter. The wrought-iron fence makes one think of cemeteries or graveyards and the impression of the empty field on the other side does nothing to make these impressions feel any different. The sharp tips of the fence give off an attitude of an untouchable, like touching it would hurt and these same ideas are related to the woman. Her severe hairstyle and her crisp clothing indicate a woman who is very self-contained and who can’t stand anything messy or out of order. She does not seem to get any pleasure out of her smoking experience, but it does seem to give her a sense of calm as she endures her day. The black and white element of the photograph also speaks of the colorless world she inhabits and the idea that things are either good or bad. The cigarette at her lips is one of the few good things she can rely on to help her maintain her control. This image seems to force a more psychoanalytical approach on the part of the viewer, perhaps because of the context in which it is presented. Nan Goldin is well known for her work with the drug-addicted, violent elements of life in New York. Her images strove to capture the mood of the streets. “Life was bleak on the Lower East Side in the late 1970s … but it was a purposeful bleakness. We liked it that way.” (Fineman, 1996). The image of the woman smoking the cigarette becomes an expression of one of the few joys she indulges in for her life while the rest of the image depicts the bleak hopelessness of the city dwellers during this period of time. For her, smoking became a means of providing emotional control as well as expression and this idea was translated to many of Goldin’s viewers who had the same ideas regarding the reasons why they smoked or why they should start smoking. It became a way of identifying with the crowd that understood there really wasn’t anything much grander in life than the sad existence they had on the street and it was a way of making a connection in a world where connections seemed elusive. Even when connections seem to be obvious and available, Goldin manages to capture images that suggest these women are in different worlds from each other. In the following image, two women are pictured. One woman appears to be seated in front of the other and sits staring at the camera as she holds a cigarette to her mouth. Very little can be seen of her expression and even less can be discerned of her figure. All that is clear is that she wears a dark-colored top and her hair is pulled back from her face. Behind her is another woman who stands casually with her arms resting on the first woman’s shoulders and her hands are wrapped somewhat tightly around the first woman’s neck. It is not a threatening gesture, but seems somewhat constricting all the same. From the woman’s stance, it seems she also has one foot propped up on the armrest or the seat of the chair in which the first woman sits. This is indicated by the strong presence of her knee appearing at about the level of the first woman’s shoulder, giving the impression that the second woman is in the process of climbing over and possessing the first. The second woman stands with an assertive aura, shoulders relaxed but not balanced. She wears a tank top that shows off the strong bony areas of her chest and her hair is also pulled back away from her face. She seems to take no notice whatsoever of the camera as she looks off to the right edge of the picture as if taking part in some other activity in the room. The women are closely backed by what may be a wall and may be a taped up window plastered with a number of posters or papers in a cheap form of window covering. The mood of this image is one of confinement and constraint within a relatively poor environment. Neither of the women is dressed in high fashion or expensive fabrics and neither one has carefully styled hair or makeup. Their close proximity to each other suggests their relationship is closer than the average friendship, perhaps even a lesbian relationship. This idea is reinforced by the possessive way in which the second woman stands encircling the first woman in every way possible. They are in an intimate setting because there is no space for them to move away from each other as the window or back wall is directly behind the second woman and the frame of the image doesn’t allow any more information about the setting to be shared. However, even in such a close connection, there is a sense of disconnection between these women. The first woman stares directly at the camera, indicating she’s not involved at all in what else might be happening in the room. The second woman looks somewhere else, indicating she’s not involved at all in what is affecting the first woman. The hands of the second woman’s hands are wrapped around the first woman’s neck like a loose noose and her leg keeps the first woman from escaping in the direction away from the first woman’s gaze. As she stares out at the camera, the cigarette becomes the only way that the first woman can escape the bonds of her lover or the confined conditions of her environment. Again, a pyschoanalytical approach is suggested in the context of the image presented. The relationship between the two women is obviously a possessive one more than it is a romantic one. The touching between the two women is not shaped in terms of a caress but instead in terms of ownership and belonging. A great deal of Goldin’s work is focused on the street life of those who feel they are rejected from common society, such as lesbians and drug-addicts. “Goldin’s life story – from her sister’s early suicide to her experiences in a drup rehab clinic – is polemically offered up as the single, indispensible key for deciphering the powerful impact of her images” (Fineman, 1996). Within this society, relationships are characterized more by fear of loss and the need to belong than they are by true emotion and real love. “Fear leads to control and passive/aggressive behavior. It leads to inability to reason” (Williams, 2006). This fear is seen in the way in which the second woman clings to the body of the first woman while the inability to reason is seen in the first woman’s blank stare out of the image. There is no sense of happiness or togetherness in the image and the first woman seems to want more in her searching look out of the picture. However, she seems incapable of figuring out what it will take to get her into a happier relationship and a happier place in life. She is trapped in spirit as much as she is trapped in body and the cigarette becomes her only means of escape or expression within this desolate world. Cigarettes are also seen to provide the individual with a means of emphasizing their ideas or establishing their authority. This can be seen in the next image, also from Goldin’s collection. No longer confined in a small visible space, the woman seen in this image has a more positive look about her as she is framed in a dark background that could be the night sky or a darkened room. The idea that this is an outdoor space is indicated by the presence of a small, wire-covered blue light just over the woman’s right shoulder as she sits leaning on her left arm. This arm is resting horizontally across the table in front of her with her hand hidden behind her right arm. Her right elbow also rests on the table with her forearm elevated next to her and her hand dangling a lit cigarette. The woman wears a low-cut, long-sleeved blue flowered shirt that hugs her body and demonstrates her curves. There appears to be a collection of glasses or other items on the table in front of her, but there is not enough detail available in the image to fully identify what these items are. The image seems more positive at first glance because the woman isn’t so trapped within a confined space, nor is she seen to be in a place filled with cold and barriers. However, the expression on her face makes her seem as if she, too, is experiencing a moment of extreme isolation and confinement. She sits alone at the table staring into the middle distance with a complete lack of focus and absence of animated expression. The mood of the image is pensive, brooding. This mood is mostly created by the look on the woman’s face, but it is accentuated by her surroundings. The image is dark, providing no detail of the background and making the woman seem as if she has no roots and no past. At the same time, she is lit by a blue light. Blue can suggest hope and peace, but it can also suggest sadness and distance. That is what it seems to indicate in this picture because the woman is sitting all alone and there is no way to tell if she has been sitting with anyone recently. Although there are things on the table, they may have been things she used herself or they may be things that other people using that table had used before she got there. Works Cited Chenoune, Farid. Hidden Femininity: 20th Century Lingerie. Assouline, 1999. Emmis Communication, (1997) Cincinnati Magazine, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 92 Fineman, Mia. “The Nan Goldin Story.” Artnet. (1996). February 17, 2010 Goldin, Nan. The Beautiful Smile. Steidl, 2007. Goldin, Nan. I’ll Be Your Mirror. Scalo Publishers, 1996. Williams, Patricia. “Possession and Fear in Relationships.” Lifestyle. (October 10, 2006). February 17, 2010 Read More