From: bgonzal@math.rutgers.edu (Bil Gonzalez)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Re: Why Benson Hedges #2 gay cigarette?
Summary: B&H
Date: 15 Aug 92 04:47:43 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

In article <1992Aug15.004804.21140@wam.umd.edu>, jns@wam.umd.edu (J. N. Shaumeyer) writes:
> Bil Gonzalez (bgonzal@math.rutgers.edu) wrote:
>  
> > .... A few months later, when one of my friends
> > got a job at a local convenience store, he told me that a lot of guys
> > came in asking for the B&H DUL's.  He said that he could determine the
> > sexual preferences of customers by the cigarettes they bought.
> 
> Do you suppose that I have a genetic predisposition
> for the non-filtered Camels that I smoke?
> 
> I can't wait to hear how your [I-can-tell-by-the-way-
> they-smoke] friend would diagnose my condition.
> 
> [Obvious deathwish aside.]
> 
> --jns

First of all, I should clarify that I thought that my friend's
attitude was a bit ridiculous.  He is the kind of person who puts
everyone in stereotypes, claims that you can get ANY man into bed with
a little coaxing, and believes that gays should act, dress, talk,
etc., in a certain stereotypical way.  Likewise, any man that may seem
straight, would be suspected of really being gay if he also
demonstrated one of these stereotypical traits.  Although I
acknowledge that there are certain trends of behavior in groups of
people in general, and the gay community in particular, I don't
believe in the stereotypes as I myself can not be easily categorized
by them.

Nonetheless, we did a little study about cigarette smoking, and
noticed that most of the gay man that we knew (in a very closed
University environment) did not smoke for "real".  They did it as part
of an image, and the brands that they selected were part of that
image.  We found that most smoked name brands that had a reputation -
Marlboro or Camels being the most popular among "straight acting" or
tough acting men, B&H being popular with the "regular" or average gays
who were trying to act sophisticated and adult by smoking, and the
"artsy" guys going for the imported variety or clove cigarettes.
There were exceptions to our makeshift rules, but generally they held.  At
the time, I guess, I fit into the latter group preferring Dunnhills,
but also smoked B&H to "fit in" with the pseudo-sophisticado group.

Of course I'm not saying that this is indeed the reason that B&H is so
popular among gay men, but my personal experience tells me that it is
not a far-fetched idea.  I originally responded to a previous post (I
don't remember who the original poster was), in which that person
mentioned that they never saw gay men smoking B&H cigarettes.  I am just
relaying first-hand information to the contrary.

___________________________________________________________________
Bil Gonzalez
bgonzal@math.rutgers.edu
===================================================================
Of course the opinions expressed are my own.
I don't claim they are, nor try to make them, anyone else's.
===================================================================
"Who is she?
 Who was she?
 Who does she hope to be?"
			- Harold
			in THE BOYS IN THE BAND
___________________________________________________________________