Conventional and Electronic Cigarettes Consumption Among Young Chinese Adults: a Perspective on Masculinity and Gender System

AbstractBased on interviews with 21 young Chinese tobacco users, this study explores the gendered symbolic meanings of conventional cigarette smoking and electronic  cigarette vaping in the background of a traditionally patriarchal society. The theoretical frameworks of hegemonic masculinity and symbolic interactionism reveal that smoking and cigarette-sharing as performances of masculinity are embedded in men’s dominant positions in the gender system. In Ch ina, conventional cigarettes are not only a symbol of masculinity but also a carrier of patriarchy and its reproduction. Women smoking is seen as challenging hegemonic masculinity and thus still firmly disapproved. Electronic cigarettes are not sharable and thus not labeled as male activities in so cializing; their popularity among Chinese women is observed nowadays. However, female tobacco users in China still carefully consider the suitableness of smoking and vaping on different occasions and actively negotiate how to express their smoker identity in the gender system.
Source: International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction - Category: Addiction Source Type: research