Fashion Fix: Call me a closet smoker

 

GCSUnade.com

Issue date: 1/27/06 Section: Variety

By Vanessa Voigt

Call me a closet smoker, but there's just something embarrassing about lighting up around lots of people. 

I feel like I am wearing a big fat sign that reads, "I don't care about myself or the people around me."

That might sound a little harsh, but are my closet smoking tendencies justified? Or am I being paranoid about how fashionable I look? 

Well now I have one more reason to kick the nasty habit. In a survey taken of 50 GC&SU students, people say 4-1 that smoking is generally a turn off. This means that smoking is definitely out of fashion. 

Not only is it out of style, it is bad for my health. I'll spare everyone more medical information, we have all heard it. But it is easy to say if you quit smoking just for one day, you will feel healthier, and great benefits would come if you quit indefinitely. 

But what is it about smoking that makes it somehow 'in vogue' in our culture, and the world's? 

We all have seen the posters of the cool fashionable James Dean with his cigarette dangling from his lips. He is literally the poster child of what is considered cool. Plus there are the celebrities we see smoking: Ben Affleck, Brittany Murphy, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, just to name a few. 

But those images are not what people should be basing their reality on. These celebrities must deal with the addiction just as anyone else, including being sadly outdated and a turn-off. 

If you are still a smoking fiend, then here are some etiquette rules for your smoke breaks. Fortunately all you need for these is common courtesy. 

-Don't smoke in enclosed places that non-smokers have to walk through. 

-Don't light up in someone's house without asking.

-If you don't have cigarettes, limit your bumming to three. 

-If you are smoking in someone's car, be careful not to burn anything. 

If you want help quitting, there is a Smoking Cessation group on campus. For more information just call 478-445-5331. 

If these reasons are not enough to quit smoking, then digging through your empty purse all day might be enough motivation to stop.

http://www.gcsunade.com/2006/01/27/fashion-fix-13/