Smoke Screen: Women, Smoking and Social Control - Softcover

Greaves, Lorraine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1857270584 ISBN 13: 9781857270587

Publisher: Scarlet Press, 1996

Synopsis

Smoking can help form and maintain identity, often in keeping with oppressive cultural images of women. Smoking can make women compliant and unhealthy, but tobacco industries continue to expand female markets across the world. Smoke Screen looks at the range of ways in which tobacco affects women; the evolution of cultural pressures on women's smoking; the meanings of smoking to women; the uses of smoking for women; the benefits for societies of keeping women smoking; and the impact of health and tobacco policy on women's smoking prevention and cessation.

About this title

Synopsis:

Why do women smoke more than men and why is smoking among young women on the increase? Are women passive victims for continuing to smoke or active resisters to life's pressures? Whether women's smoking is a form of rebellion and resistance, or a means of coping with patriarchal reality, it is a form of social control which cannot be ignored. It is ironic that the tobacco companies have perfected the notion of women-focussed advertising and promotion, while the health promotion lobby has taken several decades to understand the gender aspects of nicotine addiction. Using historical and social analysis and giving voice to women smokers' views, this study provides a starting point for theorizing women's smoking. Smoking can no longer be seen as a gender-neutral health issue but a sociopolitical problem that persists in developed countries and threatens to grow in the developing world.

About the Author:

Lorraine Greaves is the Director of the Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children in London, Canada.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scarlet Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 1857270584
• ISBN 13: 9781857270587
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 148