Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball show at the Rose Garden. Images of her smoking.

I’m not a smoker. I might think differently about the mixing of smoking and fashion if I were one. But it’s this sort of thing that bugs me. When there is so much data out there about smoking dangers, negative effects on health, even beauty, seeing it everywhere still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.Where? Take for instance Lady Gaga’s recent show in Portland. She’s not a typical gal, I know. But when her audience is made up of quite a few under 18 and very impressionable girls, I feel it’s inappropriate to glamorize it so brazenly. Hollywood does it. At least half of all movies feature smoking (I forget where I read this statistic, sorry).

Smoking is cool, to who exactly? Are we asking for these images that bombard us? I’m stuck daily in elevators with the putrid smell stuck to smokers’ clothes, there isn’t a street or alley that’s not lined with white and beige buds, and it ages everyone. I get that it’s an addiction, but I’m disappointed in its strong hold on fashion. The only reason some smokers like Kate Moss look as good as they do, and have been smoking close to 20 years, is genetics. Magazine spreads, music videos, whatevers, it’s still everywhere. And it really needn’t be.

Got a reason smoking is valid in fashion? I want to hear it.