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No smoke without fire: new research into the stigma of smoking

Posted on 28 February 2012

With any mention of the name ‘Frank Gallagher’ in a tabloid newspaper, there is a strong chance that one or more of the descriptions ‘drunken’, ‘feckless’, ‘slob’ or ‘scrounger’ won’t be far away – along with a photo of the Shameless television character leering at the camera, a tower of ash teetering on the end of his ever-present cigarette.

Gallagher  -- lynchpin of the Channel 4 TV series -- has long been the UK’s poster boy for socially unacceptable behaviour and neatly illustrates a connection between smoking and antisocial behaviour that is reinforced by UK tobacco control policies, according to an article in the current issue of the Journal of Social Policy.

‘Smoking, Stigma and Social Class’ by Professor Hilary Graham, of the University of York’s Department of Health Sciences, warns that whilst public health policies have played a central role in protecting health by increasing public awareness of the risks of smoking, they have done this by increasing the social unacceptability of smoking and, by extension, smokers themselves.  In 1950s Britain, smoking was considered an aspirational activity and was popular among men and women across all income groups. Since then attitudes have changed, with smoking rates having fallen fastest among higher income groups. Today, smoking is predominantly a habit of poorer groups.

For more information visit http://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2012/research/smoking/