The ‘disgusting and stinky’ fetish men and women find super attractive

Stood outside the pub on a Saturday night, wine in hand, you’re often hit with a waft of smoke as someone puffs on their cigarette.

But, if you turn your nose up, you’re actually in a growing minority.

While it might once have been considered a dirty habit, we’re now increasingly turned on by the idea of smoking, with sales of smoking fetish porn up 58% from the beginning of the year, according to Clips4Sale.

Smoking was also the sixth most searched term in the UK for the porn site, pointing to an insatiable demand for sex and a smoke.

We know it’s become chic again for celebrities, too, with certain A-listers like Charli XCX even dubbed ‘cigfluencers’. Margot Robbie was filmed on the set of Ocean’s Eleven prequel with a cigarette in hand, with one fan saying: ‘She is looking so stunning and hot while smoking.’

Dua Lipa has also been accused of making ‘smoking cool again’ after being pictured cigarette in hand multiple times, and even reportedly having bowls of cigarettes at her wedding after-party for guests.

And, multiple men have confessed to being enamoured with women they’ve seen puffing. ‘I don’t know why but whenever I see a woman smoking, whether that be in real life or in movies, I just find it super attractive and sexy, it makes the girl look so badass and cool,’ wrote one on Reddit.

Another said it was a ‘100% yes, hot as f**k’, while someone added: ‘Nothing more sexy than a pretty woman with a cigarette.’

But not everyone understands the allure of this aesthetic, with others branding smoking ‘completely irrational’ and unpleasant.

‘I hate smoking with every ounce of my being,’ wrote one, while another called it a ‘disgusting, unhealthy, and stinky’ habit.

Why can smoking be a turn-on?

As for those who do find it a turn-on, psychosexual therapist Becky Crepsley-Fox tells Metro there’s rarely one single reason someone finds smoking sexy.

‘Usually it’s a combination of aesthetics, psychology and a bit of cultural conditioning,’ she explains. ‘For some, it’s purely visual. There’s something they find elegant, almost cinematic, about the act itself — the way the breath is drawn in and the smoke slowly exhaled.

‘It’s slow, deliberate and performative, which can feel sexual.’

Few of us can forget the moment Sandy from Grease stepped out in her leather jacket, voluminous perm and cigarette she stumped out with her red stiletto.

Of course, for others the appeal can be more of a suggestive one. ‘The lips are one of our most sensitive, intimate areas,’ Becky adds.

‘The act of wrapping them around something phallic and slowly drawing the smoke in, the imagination can wander straight towards oral sex.’

It’s an act that carries a lot of cultural weight, too, according to the sex expert. ‘Ever since the early days of Hollywood, cigarettes have been the accessory of the glamorous, the wealthy and the powerful — so, for many, they still hold an air of allure and control.’

The taboo

Another major selling point for smoking is that it’s a little but, well, wrong.

Becky continues: ‘We now know smoking is bad for us, and doing something you’re “not supposed to” can feel deliciously rebellious.

‘In that sense it has a lot in common with sex. Sex is an entirely natural human behaviour that many of us still feel we have to hide, and for some people that forbidden quality is exactly what’s arousing.’

There can also be a power dynamic at play.

‘An erotic charge in watching someone do something that’s “bad” for them, or in the sense that the eroticism of the moment outweighs any thought of the consequences. When desire wins out over risk, that can feel powerful in itself,’ says Becky.

A turn on or a fetish?

It’s important to note though, that being turned on by seeing someone snoke, is different from it being a fetish.

Becky explains the distinction: ‘A turn-on adds to the experience, whereas a fetish is something a person genuinely needs to be present to get aroused,’ she says.

‘So, yes, smoking can be a fetish for some — but for many others it’s just something they find sexy, rather than something they can’t get there without.’ 

As for where a fetish can come from, they can be traced back to early experiences, frequently around puberty.

‘It might be an association formed while watching a glamorous smoking scene at the very age our sexuality is coming online — or a stretch of time where smoking and those first sexual feelings happened to overlap, and the brain wired the two together,’ says Becky.

‘Fetishes can form almost anywhere, but smoking offers a particularly rich mix of imagery and meaning for that to latch onto.’

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@metro.co.uk

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