Smoking Fetish Films Gain Popularity

TOBACCO March 1996

So-called "smoxploitation" films featuring attractive women smoking are gaining an audience and a market (Suein L. Hwang, "Drag Queens: Paula Puffs and Her Fans Watch, Enraptured," Wall Street Journal, January 31, 1996, p. A1).

"Smoking is the fetish of the '90s," said Dian Hanson, who is the editor of a fetish magazine, Leg Show. "Anytime something becomes widely condemned and taboo, it will be eroticized."

In the films, fully-clothed actresses smoke -- and do nothing else. Coherent Light of Oklahoma City is one of the largest production and distribution companies for the smoking films, offering such titles as "Paula" (30 minutes, $34.95), "Smoky Kisses," and "The Two Sides of April."