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Allow me this rant. Trends come and go, but something being "in" that's highly addictive and harmful and can't be easily dropped is a problem. I'm coming from a place of enormous privilege in that I don't have an addictive personality. I enjoy smoking the occasional cigarette when I'm out with my mates, but I rarely crave and never need it. The thought of smoking often makes me nauseous and that's a feeling I cherish. Seeing it become so ubiquitous in popular culture, whether by influencers or pop stars or all over movies, feels predatory to me. Beyonce lighting a cigarette on stage and lighting her piano on fire was so *goofy*. Big Tobaccco is an evil corporate cabal and I loathe the fact that a bunch of gross men are watching this "trend" and laughing all the way to their third home. They don't give a shit if your mouth starts rotting or your lungs turn black or you have to breathe with a tube in your neck.
Throwing Fits had a great screed about this the other day, minus the caveats to protect the white guy’s IG poses with “darts.” Goofy.
Also, go watch the Michael Mann banger The Insider (1999).
May 14, 2025
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Disclaimer: I’m feeling pissy & this is an opinion I dont fully take seriously cause ppl should do what they please as long as it doesn’t cause harm
~essentially a rant abt a pet peeve~
To me the act of smoking cigs if ur not already addicted to cigs is wildly goofy…
*the obvious :they’re addictive and a money pit
*the look: it can be painful watching someone bum a cig from me and A) puff at it/ theyre clearly in pain B) they light it and effectively let it burn away C) throwing half a cig on the ground
*vibe: I know one girl who will always ask to bum at parties which would be and recently she started buying her own SHE WILL NEVER SHARE W ME AND SHE DOESNT EVEN ACTUALLY SMOKE very much the kind of person who lights a cig just to take an aesthetic photo with their coffee or a cocktail and their brand new copy of The Prophet
May 24, 2024
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Prime example: Tennis players smoking in Challengers!
Seemingly so a lazy screenwriter could get the three of them alone at that party by the beach. Shirley you can come up with a creative reason instead.
And then the rebellious point on the love triangle is still smoking when he’s much older, seemingly to do product placement for Camel. And isn’t Zendaya’s character so sexy and edgy when she smokes with him!
jfc - if you’re getting paid to write a movie or show, take ten minutes and come up with an interesting way to show someone is a rebel or working class or tough instead of falling into the same dumb trope of smoking.
[*Challengers details are as I remember them and could be wrong]
May 14, 2025
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i’m sorry to my nicotine addicted friends, but you see the most gorgeous people out in public and then all of a sudden they start sucking on a fluorescent highlighter looking thing and now the whole place smells like tutti-fruiti.
this especially applies to men in suits and women who are dolled up, it just removes the elegance from their appearance.
(ik i’ll get hate for this, but the action of smoking i think just looks tacky—and drug use)
Feb 16, 2025
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a study issued last month found that dancing is the most effective way of treating and mitigating depression. Walking, therapy, and yoga also outpaced SSRIs. and if you're saying 'oh this was probably funded by Big Dance', there's no evidence of that and if you're saying 'that's just what a Big Dance shill would say', well honey you're right
Mar 4, 2024
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Reminder that most of what we do is a performance
Feb 24, 2025
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