Rebellion, modernity, and romance: Smoking as a gendered practice in popular young women's magazines, britain 1918–1939

Abstract

In Britain, the feminization of the cigarette is a 20th-century phenomenon. Prior to 1900 few women smoked, but during the 1920s and 1930s smoking amongst women increased dramatically. Set in the context of the increased prevalence of smoking among women during the interwar years, and negotiations around the meanings of gender and gender relations in this period, this article examines some of the ways in which popular young women's magazines represented smoking as a gendered practice. An examination of the fiction and illustrations featured in popular magazines, as well as articles and advertisements, reveals that representations of women smoking were employed in the interwar years to convey and develop key gender issues—these were rebellion, modernity, and heterosexual intimacy.