Posted on 08/13/2006 7:05:24 PM PDT by at bay
Sex and the ciggie
If your teens watch "Sex and the City," the sex isn't the only thing you have to worry about. Virtually every teen girl interviewed as part of a new Health Department report on smoking said the show influenced their deadly habit.
"Whenever I think of how to smoke, it's the way Sarah Jessica Parker exhales, and I'm like obsessed," one 10th-grader said. "I love her, and the way she exhales is very memorable. She kind of ... elongates her neck and exhales into the air."
About 11% of teenagers smoke, according to the Health Department. The highest rates, about 35%, are among white girls.
Researchers ventured into a private high school and asked more than 30 middle and high school girls between the ages of 13 and 18 about smoking.
"Because smoking is a decision-making process at that age, we thought it would be interesting and important to find out how decisions get made," said Elizabeth Kilgore, a research scientist at the Health Department. "This does not represent all teenaged girls, but it's one more piece of the puzzle."
Some of the girls said they smoke because they think it makes them look sophisticated, while others say it helps them deal with stress. Some are afraid to stop because they think they will gain weight.
Kilgore said researchers were surprised to see how many girls view smoking as an accessory of sorts.
"It just goes with everything, you know, your perfectly polished hands," said an 11th-grader who smokes.
On the other hand, some of the girls said there is peer pressure to stay away from smoking.
One of the things all the girls - smokers and nonsmokers alike - agreed on was that they don't want to be preached to by adults about the issue.
"It's better for it to come from other kids," said a ninth-grader who doesn't smoke. "You don't want stupid videos about like peer pressure and stuff. You just need something that's not fake."
I'm torn on this.
On the one hand, I'm usually adverse to the "what about the children" rhetoric you see from politicians these days. The mere fact that Hillary is the grand dame of this movement tells all.
On the other hand, as an ex-smoker, I can say that there were always three impetuses for me to light up: 1) After a meal 2) Having a cup of coffee and 3) Seeing a TV/Movie character light up. It's hard to describe, the effect that that could have on me, a grown adult, but it worked.
I would have to come down on the side that it's the producers' decision if they want to show smoking on screen, but nevertheless I feel very strongly that smoking is one of the most horrible, useless, and damaging "habits" in history.
Yeah, haven't smoked in decades, but the sight of Bogey lighting up makes me crave a smoke to this day. Just have to remember just as his life was going so great with Bacall and he had it all, he lost it all to lung cancer.
"It's better for it to come from other kids," said a ninth-grader who doesn't smoke. "You don't want stupid videos about like peer pressure and stuff. You just need something that's not fake."
Who then went home and put on her Ashley Simpson cd as she read her copy of Vogue and put on her five inch heels and fake nails
If I read this aright, they all became smokers??? I don't believe that.
I quite a long time ago - so long ago, the smoke is at worst an irritant. I'm really happy to have non-smoking sections in restaurants (sections where the smoke doesn't even creep in, unlike the poorly-designed ventilation in some places), but frankly the extreme prohibitions coming down lately disturb me a lot, for all that I "enjoy" the results. (A beloved relative is such a heavy smoker that even midwinter we close the vents, open the windows and block the doorway space -- only to get gassed in the morning anyway.)
We're selling our rights down the river in this country, for all sorts of stupid causes, and if there is ever a "Smokers' Rights" organization formed I might just sign up -- I may not especially like the exercise of this right (unless it's kept downwind), but if the line isn't drawn here it will have to be drawn somewhere else.
Or maybe we go with the flow, once we have total control, and make liberalism a capital crime. (Don't want to go there either -- got too many friends on the left.)
Correction, throat cancer
Well he made his choice as we all do..
Well so they emulate just the smoking? Why didnt they ask em about the drinking and the whoring?
What does that have to do with any of the arguments FReepers make against the government telling grown men and women what they can and cannot do for their own pleasure?
"Virtually every teen girl interviewed" probably was edited down by a crunchmaster/editor from "virtually every teen girl who had become a smoker that was interviewed.." The article listed the per cent of teen girls smoking.
Right, but it was an uniformed choice back then, no? I still remember smoking as a teen and wondering why my heart was racing, or why I would wake up with both arms asleep. In Bogey's time ads were still running showing doctors recommending menthol smokes, etc.
Nanny State Ping.
The bigger questions should be why are girls this age watching these type programs and, even moreso, why are these busybodies asking them about it to begin with?
"I am appalled at the insults leveled at Cindy Sheehan."---Gabz
Just so we know who's blowing smoke.
I remember the good old days. There were people called "parents." They cared about their children, and taught them right from wrong. They kept them from watching programs that were inappropriate for children. Ah, the good old days.
There are more than a few, and we promote the rights of a business owner to choose his/her clientele. It has nothing to do with the rights of anyone to be smoking anywhere......it's a fight for property rights and against the misappropriation of legitmate science to "justify" a political agenda.
Oh BTW - this "study" had just how many people in it??????????
What a joke you are.
What was his ACTUAL cause of death???????
Link please
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