Smoking, Stigma, And The Purification Of Public Space Analysis

Anytime you can stop a person from lighting up a cigarette, whether they resent the fact or not, you’re doing them a favor”- (Poland). In Poland’s article, Smoking, Stigma, and the Purification of Public Space, he addresses the many problems smokers go through in a day. From public ostracization because of health concerns, to restrictions on when and where they can smoke in public spaces. Smokers tend to smoke more often when surrounded by other smokers, as well as hide the fact that they smoke the more it is made to seem shameful. Throughout the nineties’ many governments used public policy to ban smoking in public establishments such as restaurants, grocery stores, and bars, though these laws were rarely enforced legally, the public behavior
One interviewee described smoking at her desk at work with other coworkers who smoked, which is no longer allowed, and described smoking much more often in this situation than she could now with the new restrictions. The candidate also described feeling judged when smoking in public, and would refuse to smoke in the places she felt people would “turn up their noses” at her (Poland). Another interviewee stated that while the new restrictions encouraged people to cut down on their cigarette intake or quit smoking altogether that she believed that smokers would just hide their addictions better. Closet smokers would become the new norm as the stigma around smoking would become larger and larger, making smokers “hide out with the rest of the lepers”
In the interviews one candidate stated that “Everyone makes a smoker feel guilty. I know I felt terribly guilty. When I smoked, I felt like I had the plague. You know, like I’m an unclean, unfit person because I smoked, and that’s a terrible feeling. Do you know what that does to you, really? That makes you feel like hell” (Poland). Many statements such as these were recorded throughout the interview, showing just how bad it has been portrayed to be a smoker. The stereotypical smoker portrayed in the educational programs geared against tobacco as homeless, unemployed, unskilled manual workers, and welfare recipients (Poland). This is a far cry from the formerly prominent smoker imaging, the “fat cat on Wall street,” or the cool teenagers who smoke while racing cars (Kleiser), or even cartoon characters who smoked big cigars (Craig). While these demographics were still very much smoking, it was the blue collar, working class people who were punished the most in social settings, as the stigma had grown to