Sales of smoking fetish pornography have risen 58% since the start of the year, according to adult content marketplace Clips4Sale. The platform also reported that 'smoking' was the sixth most searched term in the UK on its site, indicating a growing demand for content that combines sex and cigarettes.
The trend coincides with smoking's return to fashion among celebrities. Singer Charli XCX has been dubbed a 'cigfluencer' by some, while Margot Robbie was filmed on the set of the Ocean's Eleven prequel with a cigarette in hand. One fan commented that Robbie was 'looking so stunning and hot while smoking.' Dua Lipa has also been accused of making 'smoking cool again' after being photographed with a cigarette multiple times, and reportedly had bowls of cigarettes at her wedding after-party for guests.
Online Confessions: 'Hot as F**k'
Multiple men have confessed to being attracted to women they see smoking. 'I don't know why but whenever I see a woman smoking, whether that be in real life or in movies, I just find it super attractive and sexy, it makes the girl look so badass and cool,' wrote one on Reddit. Another said it was a '100% yes, hot as f**k,' while someone added: 'Nothing more sexy than a pretty woman with a cigarette.'
Not everyone shares the sentiment. Others branded smoking 'completely irrational' and unpleasant. 'I hate smoking with every ounce of my being,' wrote one, while another called it a 'disgusting, unhealthy, and stinky' habit.
Why Smoking Can Be a Turn-On
Psychosexual therapist Becky Crepsley-Fox tells Metro there is rarely a single reason someone finds smoking sexy. 'Usually it's a combination of aesthetics, psychology and a bit of cultural conditioning,' she explains. 'For some, it's purely visual. There's something they find elegant, almost cinematic, about the act itself — the way the breath is drawn in and the smoke slowly exhaled. It's slow, deliberate and performative, which can feel sexual.'
She points to the lips as a key factor. 'The lips are one of our most sensitive, intimate areas,' Becky adds. 'The act of wrapping them around something phallic and slowly drawing the smoke in, the imagination can wander straight towards oral sex.'
Cultural associations also play a role. 'Ever since the early days of Hollywood, cigarettes have been the accessory of the glamorous, the wealthy and the powerful — so, for many, they still hold an air of allure and control,' she says.
The Allure of the Taboo
Another selling point is the sense of doing something forbidden. Becky continues: 'We now know smoking is bad for us, and doing something you're "not supposed to" can feel deliciously rebellious. In that sense it has a lot in common with sex. Sex is an entirely natural human behaviour that many of us still feel we have to hide, and for some people that forbidden quality is exactly what's arousing.'
Power dynamics can also be at play. 'An erotic charge in watching someone do something that's "bad" for them, or in the sense that the eroticism of the moment outweighs any thought of the consequences. When desire wins out over risk, that can feel powerful in itself,' says Becky.
Turn-On Versus Fetish
Becky distinguishes between a turn-on and a fetish. 'A turn-on adds to the experience, whereas a fetish is something a person genuinely needs to be present to get aroused,' she says. 'So, yes, smoking can be a fetish for some — but for many others it's just something they find sexy, rather than something they can't get there without.'
Fetishes can often be traced back to early experiences, frequently around puberty. 'It might be an association formed while watching a glamorous smoking scene at the very age our sexuality is coming online — or a stretch of time where smoking and those first sexual feelings happened to overlap, and the brain wired the two together,' says Becky. 'Fetishes can form almost anywhere, but smoking offers a particularly rich mix of imagery and meaning for that to latch onto.'
