Second year BA(Hons) Art History and Visual Culture students Aspen Somerton, Karoline Engelund, Lily Sanders, and Sofia Parr have curated a showcase exploring the intersection of smoking and gender at Mithras House.

Want a cig? How smoking has been gendered and viewed historically

A new student-curated exhibition is opening at the University of Brighton located in the Mithras building. This exhibition brings together both the history of smoking in material culture and social culture to explore the diversity of ways in which gender and class have been perceived/marketed through smoking from the 19th century to today in the Western world.

Bringing together historic cigarette packets, print advertisements, marketing campaigns and archival materials, the exhibition outlines how tobacco companies targeted specific consumers. From the rugged branding marketed to working-class men to royal, exclusively made cigarette cases, the strategic segmentation reveals the reasons behind the tobacco industry’s success and how the media influences and reflects society.

Central to the exhibition is an investigation into how smoking was sold to women as being liberating to women in the mid-20th century, yet it simultaneously constrained women to a reinforced ideal of beauty, thinness and gender roles. Whereas masculine marketing relied on tropes of physical toughness, labour and patriotism, turning cigarettes into markers of one’s class identity and masculinity.

“Smoking has always been about far more than tobacco or nicotine,” says curator Sofia. “Its visual culture tells us who was allowed to be rebellious, who could be glamorous, and who was expected to conform. Cigarette and tobacco design was a tool to sell social aspiration.”

Today, smoking becomes increasingly stigmatised and associated with public health campaigns. The gory imagery on cigarette packs is now unavoidable. The exhibition invites visitors to reflect on the shifting narratives and stigma surrounding the social habit. Once a fashionable accessory and even a medical recommendation, cigarettes are now commonly framed as a symbol of ill health or taboo, in certain contexts.

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For more information and images please contact: (Curator Sofia Parr) S.Parr1@uni.brighton.ac.uk

Notes to Editors:

-The exhibition runs at the University of Brighton 12th December-1 June 2026.

-This exhibition was curated by students Aspen Somerton, Karoline Engelund, Lily Sanders, and Sofia Parr.

-Follow updates on the exhibition via Instagram: @wantacig_exhibition