Smokin' hot re: smoking bans on stage and screen

In Britain, the British Medical Association has, according to the July 7 issue of the Guardian, asked film censors "to give an adults-only classification to all films that portray positive images of smoking."

The BMA's goal is to end smoking in Britain by 2035, the Guardian says. However, persons with an ounce of common sense have pointed out that many old and beloved children's movies would receive adults-only ratings under such a system. Idiotic? Certainly. But no more so than the current producers of children's favorite Sesame Street hawking early episodes of the series with parental guidance warnings because Cookie Monster not only eats unwholesome cookies, in a parody of the old Masterpiece Theater intro, 'Alistair Cookie' eats a pipe.

Can you imagine?

And in related news comes word that meddlesome busybodies in Chicago have forced the local production of the Jersey Boys to eliminate actors' smoking from the performance. According to Chris Jones' July 7 article from the Chicago Tribune online, someone complained to the police that actors portraying young people in the 1960s were smoking on stage during the show and, under Chicago's draconian anti-smoking ordinance, the "police have no choice but to issue a warning."

But... didn't young people actually smoke during the 1960's?

I do not smoke. (I did -- but I quit, over 20 years ago, after hundreds of attempts.) And I'm certainly not encouraging anyone to take up the habit.

But to tag movies as 'adults only' or to ban characters smoking on stage during a performance, particularly during a performance depicting a period when most people did smoke, strikes me as the height of lunacy.

On the other hand, I quite agree that producers should voluntarily avoid filming scenes with actors smoking for no particular reason. I am willing to accept that our films and TV shows help establish behavioral norms... in many ways encouraging impressionable kids to ape the behaviors they see on screen. And by voluntarily refraining from including smoking scenes, writers, producers and actors aren't being censored, they're simply being responsible citizens, right?

Of course!

And therefore, as long as we're all being responsible, I additionally suggest that writers and producers also stop having their characters use language that would make a sailor blush. Particularly in casual conversation. I realize that 'Great Caesar's Ghost!' may not be the most realistic substitute for the kinds of extreme verbal ejaculations one routinely hears in any shopping center parking lot... but don't we want to try and encourage more civil behavior?

And, while we're at it, why don't we stop portraying young people living together without benefit of clergy... or having children out of wedlock... or having sex on every possible occasion? Granted, all of these things sometimes happen in real life. Young people sometimes take up smoking in real life too.

But many among us are afraid that by showing this smoking behavior on screen our young people will emulate it. Why doesn't this same logic apply to these other problematic behaviors? Is it because these aren't considered problematic behaviors... unlike smoking? Or have we concluded that young people don't emulate these other behaviors just because they see them portrayed on screen... but smoking is somehow different?

I don't see the difference.