Smoking is a feminist issue – discuss
Tuesday, May 22, 2018 at 10:02 
Delighted to report that our next 'Burning Issues' dinner in Dublin will feature, as guest speaker, Ella Whelan.
Ella is a freelance journalist and author of What Women Want: Fun, Freedom and an End to Feminism. She was assistant editor at the online magazine Spiked and host of the Spiked podcast between 2015-2018.
She appears regularly on Sky News, Any Questions (BBC Radio Four), Daily Politics (BBC Two), RTE, Channel 4, Good Morning Britain (ITV) and many other programmes. She has written for the Sun, the Spectator, City AM, the IBT, Grazia and others.
She is currently researching a book on feminism, transgenderism and what happens when you ask, what does it mean to be a woman?
Following previous dinners that featured Claire Fox ('Is health the new religion?') and Chris Snowdon ('The Nanny State We're In'), the subject of next month's event is 'Smoking is a feminist issue'. Here's the blurb:
For some women in the first half of the 20th century, smoking was a symbol of emancipation and equality with men. Others believe feminism was used by the tobacco industry to exploit women and acquire a new generation of customers.
This patronising view of women continues today. ‘Slim’ and flavoured cigarettes were banned in favour of ‘gender-neutral’ cigarettes for fear they enticed women to smoke. Plain packaging was introduced, it was argued, because the tobacco industry was conspiring to seduce women with ‘glitzy’ or pastel colours.
Mothers who light up, even in the open air, while taking their child to a park or play area, are criticised and frowned upon for a habit that may be one of their few daily pleasures.
In 2018 Ireland is debating a women's right to have an abortion and control over their own bodies. Does a similar argument not apply to women who choose to smoke? Do we need to revive the rebellious spirit of those early 20th-century smokers?
Last year Ella was the recipient of one of Forest's 'Voices of Freedom' awards so we're delighted she can join us in Dublin.
Reader Comments (4)
Smoking is and was the torch of freedom for women. The anti smoker industry is and was sexist and mysogynist. For example, they never bully men because of their appearance. All nasty and abusive anti smoker adverts, including the "if you smoke you stink" are all aimed at women.
And let's not forget last year's PHE plan to test all pregnant women for carbon monoxide to determine whether they smoke. What they were planning to do to pregnant women who smoke I'd rather not think. The idea seems to have died, thankfully.
No. Smoking is not today a feminist issue. It is a people issue. Even when aimed at pregnant mums.Not every issue needs to be appropriated by the feminist frontline. All that outdated eanestness merely trivialises the universality of the issues we are facing.
As modelled on "The Handmaid's Tale".