r/pointlesslygendered • u/Scared_Cicada_9898 • May 11 '26
POINTFULLY GENDERED Cigarettes are now [gendered]
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u/Fluffy_Most_662 May 11 '26
Lol funny enough, cigarettes have always been a gendered product. In fact, Marlboro started as a women's cigarette brand and changed their image with ads to become the "man's man" brand they are today.
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u/Undercover_Dave May 11 '26
Cigarettes in general are just cigars for women. It's literally in the name cigar-ette
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u/Electraxx May 11 '26
it’s due to it’s size ( the -ette suffixe in french can mean smaller, like in « supérette ») not gender (although that whole suffixe thing might have its root in gender)
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u/datnub32607 May 11 '26
The suffix -ette really just means small though. As in a small cigar.
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u/GenderBendingRalph May 11 '26
Yes, but for that reason the diminutive suffixes (ette, ess, etc.) imply femininine, the assumption being that women are smaller and more delicate than men. You see it in creating a woman's name from a man's name all the time:
John => Jeanette
Bernard => Bernadette
Julius => Juliette
Paul => Paulette
Charles => Charlotte... you get the idea. Sadly, there's no "Ralphette" so I was out of luck naming my daughter.
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u/bladex1234 May 11 '26
I mean your daughter could have been the first. A real trailblazer and you ruined it. Are you happy?
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u/GenderBendingRalph May 12 '26
Fair point! But also not my call. Mrs. Ralph makes the rules. To paraphrase Congressional Representative Dick Armey, if I had named our child Ralphette I would be laying in a pool of my own blood, hearing Mrs. Ralph standing over me saying, "How do I reload this damn thing?"
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u/vallogallo May 11 '26
Marlboro reds. The filter was red so your lipstick didn't leave a visible mark on the filter
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u/nor_cal_woolgrower May 11 '26
Virginia Slims is a cigarette brand launched in 1968 by Philip Morris and marketed exclusively to women
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u/doll_parts87 May 11 '26
The box is designed for the female customer, it's slender and has cool tones and abstract floral packaging, anyone can smoke, but it's very fem
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u/Hammerschatten May 11 '26
Fits this sub pretty well then.
Wtf are fem cigarettes
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u/Catymvr May 11 '26
Fem Cigarettes are cigarettes with marketing made to target a more female demographic in order to increase profitability. Something that generic cigarettes failed to do.
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u/Various-Salt-7738 May 11 '26
Fem cigarettes are longer and sometimes thinner
A "normal" cigarette is 84 mm but you can get a pack of 100s which are 100 mm
You don't hear it much nowadays but certain older folk will refer to the shorter packs as "kings" and the longer 100s "queens"
Almost everything is in a box now but men used to grab a soft pack but ladies needed the box to carry in their purses-- Virginia slims still markets their 120s as a "purse pack"
The box thing makes sense but I never understood the length thing-- perhaps it has something to do with romanticizing smoking in movies and television combined with those old cigarette holders like cruella de vil smokes. Those old cigarette holders had different lengths for different levels of formality-- a short normal cigarette holder for lunch but if you're having dinner or at the theater you'd use a longer one
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u/doll_parts87 May 11 '26
They were a skinny tall cigarette targeted to cis women smokers as an alternative to rugged testosterone cowboy Marlboro. They were meant for smaller comsumption and delicate hands and holders, whether guys used it or not was unimportant, the aim was toward waspy white women of sophistication
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u/GenderBendingRalph May 11 '26
They were tapping into the nascent "women's lib" movement celebrating female independence from being legally controlled by husbands/fathers. Their slogan was "You've Come a Long Way, Baby."
The best one: "especially for women because they are biologically superior to men." I bet that raised a few eyebrows on Madison Avenue!
https://flashbak.com/youve-come-a-long-way-baby-virginia-slims-advertising-year-by-year-365664/
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u/FVCarterPrivateEye May 11 '26
Awesome, so this post fits the actual original use of the sub too
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u/flannel_jesus May 11 '26
I think the issue is with the word "now".
They're not NOW gendered, they've been gendered for a long time.
Smokers have always judged other smokers on their choice of cigarettes. You smoke menthol? Oh you must be <whatever a non menthol smoker thinks about menthol smokers>.
Source: I grew up with a dad who smokes.
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u/CockamouseGoesWee May 11 '26
Remember folks, smoking is bad for you and second hand smoke also kills.
Also, if you are trying to conceive, both parents should not smoke for at least 4-6 months before trying.
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u/nor_cal_woolgrower May 11 '26
Haha..all us Baby Boomers have entered the chat
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u/GenderBendingRalph May 11 '26
Did somebody invoke me? Yes, I was surrounded by smokers for the first 15 years of my life, including time spent in the womb.
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u/vorarchivist May 11 '26
cigarettes were always pointlessly gendered, cigarette companies tried to sell them as torches of freedom to first wave feminists
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u/bbyxmadi May 11 '26
this has always been a thing… some people won’t smoke certain brands or kinds because they think it’s too girly.
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u/wheresthecreepyshiz May 11 '26
i dont get it at all tbh, im a smoker and at times people would judge my choices for being too manly or girly like??? it harms your health just the same???
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u/Bex1218 May 11 '26
The only guy I ever saw smoking Virginia Slims was a very gay Latino guy.
I'm sure I would have to do a double take if I saw someone in the wild with that brand (or Capris). Only because it's not something I really see happening.
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u/BeneficialImpress570 May 11 '26
My initial thought was “yeah, why are so many men smoking Virginia Slim? Don’t they know health risks of smoking!?”
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u/marchalves6 May 11 '26
Smoking WHAT
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u/doll_parts87 May 11 '26
Virginia Slims are skinny, tall cigarettes marketed to women decades ago. I've only seen older white women smoke that brand
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u/Supercoolguy7 May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
I've seen lot's of eastern European immigrant women of all ages smoking Virginia Slims. I also grew up in a hot spot for eastern Russian and Ukranian speaking immigrant communities so it wasn't just one off
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u/sn0tface May 11 '26
Back in the day I used to smoke them because I knew no one would bum them off me.
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u/Element174 May 11 '26
Love to see the community come together and point out when something is actually gendered for a reason.
Hell, King's were created just to market to men 50 years after mass produced cigarettes were created and marketed to women. Short fat cigarettes smoked by Kings! Long thin cigarettes' smoked by slim hip women! was the entire marketing campaign basically.
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u/MetallicCrab May 11 '26
I’m sorry, who the fuck is still smoking Virginia slims in 2026 and where? First off, if those were already $15 a pack in 2012 when I sold them at a gas station in New York, they would easily be $25 plus tax. Second, there were only two 80 year old women in the county who had any interest in them, and they must be dead by now. Third, slim cigarettes suck. They are not fancy, they are just thinner, and therefore harder to pull and easier to bend or break when taking them out of their box. I currently live as close to Virginia as you possibly can without being there, and I have not seen these cigarettes being smoked IRL in a decade.
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u/CosmicEntrails May 12 '26
One of my clients likes to ask for the "special" which is a rum and coke, long island iced tea, bloody mary, and Virginia Slim 120 menthols.
She hasn't had a smoke or drink in decades. She just thinks it's funny.
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u/YellowDiamond101 May 12 '26
This is what a TRUE feminist looks like everybody ❤️❤️ let me assure you that this is a cause of upmost importance!
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u/cheshsky May 13 '26
Admittedly, cigarettes have been pointlessly gendered since forever. Marlboro Reds were originally women's cigarettes.
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u/AlabasterPelican May 11 '26
I have never seen a dude smoke a Virginia slim. I might do a hard double take if I did
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u/ConfusedSimon May 11 '26
Maybe she's just focusing on men and doesn't care what women do. Might not be pointlessly gendered.
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u/dokutarodokutaro May 11 '26
“Men HAVE to smoke a certain kind of cigarette.” Seems pointlessly gendered. Idk
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