Billigt blask och piptobak

Om rökning och alkoholförtäring i Starlets serier

Författare

• Kristina Öhman Göteborgs universitet

Nyckelord:

tobacco, alcohol, comics, youth, tobak, alkohol, serier, ungdom

Abstract

In this article, I discuss the presence of alcohol and tobacco in the comics of Starlet, a Swedish girls’ magazine published in 1966-96. This topic is explored through the subject of disgust as a feeling: in the comics, disgust is expressed by some of the consumers of alcohol and tobacco but is mainly conveyed by onlookers or acquaintances. The consumption of alcohol and smoking met by disgust is exclusively carried out by the working class. The smoking and drinking of upper and middle classes never lead to addiction, or gross elements such as bad smell, coughing, or vomiting, why the working-class consumption is to a larger extent connected to bodily practice, excessiveness, and lack of control. The addicted working-class consumers also have problems with the usage of alcohol as a separating device – when the middle class use wine or champagne to mark a special occasion, or the end of the working week, the working-class alcoholics drink during the week, at times even at work.

Furthermore, alcohol and tobacco set out boundaries between ages. Amongst the youths showing a lack of control – vomiting from alcohol or coughing from cigarettes – is the curious teenager as well as the unreliable delinquent. The immaturity, or the antagonistic trait of the cigarette smoker is therefore depicted in these stories. The usage of smoking and drinking in the comics could be an extension of the social debate and the Swedish policy regarding alcohol and tobacco: at the time when the comics were published, several efforts were taken to decrease youths’ consumption of tobacco and alcohol in Sweden. This way of picturing alcohol and tobacco consumption as disgusting or antagonistic could be interpreted as an attempt to make said consumption less attractive to the demographic group that consumed such media as Starlet.