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Permalink Reply by Shy Anne on October 21, 2013 at 6:42am

I think the fascination goes back to the 50s and 60s when pinup models were used to promote smoking, so a great deal of the shots featured women smoking. The live pinup was actually the 'cigarette girl' who wore a sexy uniform and went around in clubs offering cigarettes to the patrons, 

so while we know today that smoking is bad for you in so many ways, in the 50s it was advertised as glamorous and sexy 

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Permalink Reply by Tahitia Belle Fille on October 21, 2013 at 10:15am

I couldn't agree more Aoife that not smoking is a great and easy way to look young for a very long time! A girl I've known for a couple years just told me that she assumed I was her age, 22. That totally made my day :)

I know what you're saying that it's a classic look, the smoking pinup but I honestly think it comes down to what Shy Anne and Brandi said about it just being something from another time when the long term health effects really weren't understood.

Seeing the results of a lifetime of smoking first hand on a regular basis though at my job, and seeing what a lifetime of smoking did to someone that I love and miss so much has turned me off smoking and even the "look" of smoking for life.

There are plenty of other ways to make a modern pinup look mysteries and edgy without going down that road again :)

Also I don't think it's a weird topic at all Aoife, 

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Permalink Reply by Ellie Mae Berry on October 21, 2013 at 3:17pm

The image of someone holding a cigarette, smoke flowing from their slightly pursed lips, has always been a glamorous image. 

Personally, I love looking at photos and videos of people who are smoking. 

The after effects are of course, terrible, and one of the many reasons I will never touch a real cigarette. But it is an incredibly sexy look.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer McKeever on October 22, 2013 at 8:32pm

I think the pinup look and smoking go together because back in the 50s and 60s everyone smoked, so for photo shoots I get why they use cigarettes as "props"

I can't deny a sexy ass pinup girl does look even sexier smoking! I asked my husband why this is and he said its a bad girl thing, like tattoos, and motorcycles, it turns men on to see a women do "naughty" things, think of Bettie Page!  In real life smoking is disgusting but just for a photo shoot it does complete that look.

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Permalink Reply by Emmy Stone on November 2, 2013 at 9:11am

Shy Anne makes a good point about adverstising. It's quite amazing when you look back at old cigarette adverts, they claimed it would help you to stay slim and used that as a selling point to young women. The only reason smoking is considered glamorous is because it was (sometime still is) used as a prop to a sexy scene. If Mae West was photographed seductively holding a plate of kippers, I'm sure kippers would have also been considered "sexy". Unfortunately my husband is a smoker (I've never smoked myself from being an asthmatic and not really feeling the need to 'join in' when I was a teenager) - and I think any non-smoker around smoker would agree there is nothing sexy or glamorous about inhaling second hand smoke.  In terms of modelling / photo shoots - I'm sure most, if not all, models can achieve a sexy, mysterious shoot without having to hold a cigarette - it's just a case of being a bit more creative. Personally I wouldn't find a shoot with someone smoking any more glamorous that a model swigging gin out a brown paper bag or shooting up, although that is most likely because I associate smoking with cancer and death, as a result of my grandmother dying from lung cancer.

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