Ladies Home JournalOne of the great social issues that is apparently in vogue to discuss today in political circles is what role, if any, popular media has in influencing our way of life and perceptions of what is good, bad, cool, sexy, and acceptable. There is no ground more fertile upon which to grow this issue than the World Wide Web, where every imaginable niche behavior translates into a plethora of home grown and professional sites devoted to them. Today, one only has to log into his or her ISP for a circus sideshow that would make P.T. Barnum jealous.

Sexual Obsessions
An article in Ladies Home Journal entitled ‘Sexual Obsessions’ describes a fetish as the dependence on an object or body part for arousal. Do you have a fetish? Think about which types of adult sites you visit most on the web. What theme really pushes your buttons? Your answer to that question is your fetish. We all have them. And even though we may not be dependent on them for arousal, they sure do help!

“Like a lot of guys, I have this thing for ‘bad girls,’” says Kevin Dunlap, a self-described Internet junkie and a lurker for years at the newsgroup alt.smokers.glamour. “I find women who smoke an unbelievable turn-on.”

Surfers Love Smokers

With smoking being such a proven health risk and increasingly socially unacceptable, what is it about this fetish that is so appealing to many?

“If someone gets a hard-on by looking at big tits…or blonde hair…what society thinks about big boobs or blondes doesn’t matter. And it’s the same thing with smoking – if someone gets hard when they look at a picture of a woman smoking…the surgeon general is the furthest things from their mind.”

The Origin of a Fetish
“We’ve had a lot of discussion about that topic on ASG (alt.smokers.glamous), some of it contributed to by people who are (or at least claim to be) licensed psychologists, and thus qualified by training, as well as experience, to comment. No answers have ever been reached,” comments Landry when asked that question – probably for the 10th time today. “It seems, as most sexual fetishes, to be tied to early childhood experiences. But there’s no straightforward universal factor we’ve ever been able to identify, and not for lack of trying either.”

Mike Smoke, webmaster of sexysmokers.com, explains it this ways: “It’s a question that’s asked a lot – and to be honest, it’s really irrelevant. People who are turned on by something are turned on by it – it has nothing to do with social pressures. If someone gets a hard-on by looking at big tits…or blonde hair…what society thinks about big boobs or blondes doesn’t matter. And it’s the same thing with smoking – if someone gets hard when they look at a picture of a woman smoking…the surgeon general is the furthest things from their mind. People have found smoking sexy for generations (think of the old black and white movies from the 40s, for example) – and that’s no different today. And despite what some people have theorized, the current climate doesn’t “create” interest in the smoking fetish – even psychologists and psychiatrists disagree on what causes a fetish, but it’s pretty clear that it happens early in a person’s sexual development, and has nothing to do with what they see or hear once they become adults.

Early childhood experiences or social influences? An article in the magazine Platinum states that “if you want to draw a bead on the American psyche, look no further than American cinema – the who, what, where and why of how we live our lives is all right there. If it happens on the street, it happens on the screen, particularly when it comes to smoking.” Yes, Hollywood’s golden age is full of the glamorous smoking vamp rebelling against society and seducing the leading man in the process.

Today, famous actresses and female pop singers continue the propagation of the ‘smoking is sexy’ myth (or reality, depending on your perception), no doubt influenced by the generation before them. The bad (and usually hot!) villainesses in today’s movies are usually chain smokers (Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, for example). With so much appealing imagery surrounding the topic being fed to us, it’s no wonder a cult following for the fetish has developed online.

Producing Content You Enjoy
“I have no interest whatsoever in miscellaneous porn…never have, probably never will,” explains Landry. “But running a web site for a smoking fetish video company means more than just earning an income…I’m helping… produce content I’m personally interested in seeing.”

Want a quick introduction to the smoking fetish? Surf by sexysmokers.com, one of the net’s most popular smoking fetish sites. It promises Rated PG to XXX smoking movie clips and pictures, as well as live video chat with smoking models.

“Playing on school boy fantasies of the ‘girl from the wrong side of the tracks,’ he asks: “Who were the girls in school who put out? The girls who smoked!””

“Because the whole idea behind Sexysmokers.com is to target mainstream surfers who find smoking women sexy – the way the site is marketed is crucial,” remarks Smoke.

“It’s not aimed at the ‘hardcore’ smoking fetish folks who are primarily concerned with things like cigarette brands or exhaling techniques – it’s aimed at the more general porn surfer.”

The Bad Girls of Porn
Mike explains his marketing techniques with confidence. Playing on school boy fantasies of the ‘girl from the wrong side of the tracks,’ he asks: “Who were the girls in school who put out? The girls who smoked!” Also, who gives the best head? Women who love to have things in their mouths! And, when you’re in a bar, who are the women you notice? The ones lighting up! This approach, Mikes says, does extremely well.

OK! We’ve established that this fringe fetish is popular, but from a webmaster’s perspective, is it profitable?

“Ratios of 1:200 or 1:300 aren’t uncommon at all. We’ve also found that the curiosity approach (“Have you ever seen a smoking blow job?”) works and converts very well also,” Mike says. But he warns against traditional methods of attracting more hardcore customers.

“As with many other fetishes, trying to market a ‘porn-flavored’ site to hardcore fetishists does not work well…since they’re not interested in ‘porn’ as such – and those who are [distrustful of] the porn world … are very unlikely to sign up for a paysite they see advertised on a typical free site. Frankly, they also won’t pay the types of ‘high’ membership fees that are necessary to regular partnership programs.”

So, if your ambition is to produce a site for an under-served audience, ‘smoking sites’ may provide your ticket. However, before you undertake that task, it’s best to garner an understanding of the fetish. Frequent the newsgroups and surf the sites. Like anything, if it’s appealing to you then you could be successful. If you approach it as a mere money making venture with no personal interest in the subject, you may find your profits up in smoke!

J. Edwards is a veteran staff writer for The ADULTWEBMASTER Magazine. He currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia.