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In the new romantic dramedy \u201cMaterialists,\u201d<\/a> about 21st-century dating, Dakota Johnson loves cigarettes.<\/p>\n Playing Lucy, a New York matchmaker, she\u2019s puffing when she gossips with a pal during a work party. Later, she holds a lighted cigarette near her face while flirting with an ex. There\u2019s no hand-wringing over her smoking. She\u2019s just a smoker. And she\u2019s wildly on trend. That\u2019s because, at least in the world of entertainment, cigarettes are once again cool.<\/p>\n \u201cMaterialists\u201d is just the tip of the ash. The musicians Addison Rae and Lorde both mention smoking in recent singles. The stars of \u201cThe Bear\u201d are smokers on- and offscreen. The \u201cHousewives<\/a>\u201d count many among their ranks. Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd smoke in the big-screen comedy \u201cFriendship,\u201d while the chic Seema (Sarita Choudhury) on the series \u201cAnd Just Like That\u201d does as well. In the kitschy video for her track \u201cManchild\u201d Sabrina Carpenter uses a fork as a cigarette holder.<\/a> Even Beyonc\u00e9 has lit up onstage during her Cowboy Carter Tour. In one instance, she throws the cigarette on a piano, which artfully ignites as she performs \u201cYa Ya.\u201d If Beyonc\u00e9 is doing it, you know it\u2019s reached the upper echelon of culture.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n And these smokers are largely celebrated. The overwhelming sentiment is: Sure, cigarettes are bad for you, but they make you look good \u2014 as evidenced by Lucy, who keeps her smokes in an elegant silver case, perhaps to emphasize how sleek the habit is, and brandishes them to show just how effortlessly hot she can look bringing one to her lips.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Jared Oviatt, the man behind the Instagram account @Cigfluencers<\/a>, which features photos of celebrities glamorously smoking, told me he had noticed an upswing in material recently. When he started the account in 2021 he had to look harder to find content.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the early days I was really dipping into the archives,\u201d he said. \u201cThere weren\u2019t a lot of new examples.\u201d Now, he said, \u201cevery week there\u2019s at least one or two people where I\u2019m like, \u2018OK, that\u2019s new.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Oviatt started @Cigfluencers, which has more than 68,000 followers, after coming across an image of Dua Lipa mid-puff. \u201cI was like, \u2018That is so crazy that this gorgeous woman that is a household name is so openly smoking cigs on her IG grid,\u2019\u201d he said. While Oviatt is a casual smoker \u2014 not \u201cPost Malone-level multiple packs a day\u201d \u2014 he said the appeal of a famous person smoking boils down to aesthetics.<\/p>\n \u201cThat general star power makes it that much cooler,\u201d he said, noting that these people don\u2019t seem to care whether their teeth or hands are damaged from the tobacco.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Cigarettes can also be evocative for other reasons. In the Rae and Lorde singles, there\u2019s a wistfulness to smoking. For \u201cHeadphones On,\u201d<\/a> Rae sings, \u201cGuess I gotta accept the pain \/ Need a cigarette to make me feel better.\u201d The beat is jaunty, but the words are melancholic. A cigarette is a chic way to deal with existential angst.<\/p>\n The same goes for Lorde\u2019s \u201cWhat Was That.\u201d<\/a> She\u2019s reminiscing about a past relationship when she and her partner took MDMA and kissed for hours. \u201cI remember saying then, \u2018This is the best cigarette of my life,\u2019\u201d she sings. \u201cWell, I want you just like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Lorde enjoyed that cigarette, but it also reminds her of the past.<\/p>\n Both Lorde and Rae have worked with the singer whom Oviatt credits with the smoking revival: Charli XCX, the Brat Summer pioneer who is a proud smoker. She even once received a bouquet of cigs<\/a> for her birthday from Rosal\u00eda, another notable smoker. (The bouquet evoked the bowls of cigarettes Mary-Kate Olsen reportedly<\/a> set out at her 2015 wedding to Olivier Sarkozy, a subversive, very French detail.)<\/p>\n Charli\u2019s personal brand has been wrapped up in a hedonism mixed with nihilism that is in keeping with smoking. In Charli Land you party now, think about the consequences later or possibly never. For someone like Rae, who was once a squeaky clean online personality known for TikTok dances, aligning herself with Charli, and highlighting her cigarette habit, is a way to break free of her bubble gum persona.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n These smokers also stand in contrast to the celebrities who flaunt their healthy lifestyles and hawk wellness treatments or Erewhon smoothies. Oviatt said the celebrities can rationalize the habit: \u201c\u2018If I smoke and I look bad, well, just in 10 years I can get a face lift to reverse the effects of smoking,\u2019\u201d Oviatt said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That mentality is in keeping with the \u201cciggy mommy\u201d aesthetic popularized by the reality star and podcaster Gabby Windey, who became a fan favorite on the latest season of \u201cThe Traitors.\u201d<\/a> Windey has explained that her oversized<\/a> sunglasses have gotten her branded with the moniker \u201ccigarette mom,\u201d which has little to do with actually smoking cigarettes or being a mom. Instead, it means she just looks like a parent who takes puffs out of exhaustion. But she has embraced the title, inventing what she calls a \u201cciggy mommy cabinet<\/a>.\u201d Her vice president, secretary and treasurer are all members of the \u201cReal Housewives\u201d franchise.<\/p>\n Does Windey\u2019s hilarious stream-of-consciousness logic totally track? No. Does it make sense on a cosmic level? Yes. A ciggy mommy embodies the modern idea of a smoker: Someone with a dose of hedonistic nonchalance who is also a little bit over everything going on in the world. (Windey went viral for a monologue about being \u201clethargic.\u201d<\/a>)<\/p>\n These pop-culture smokers are aware that the habit is not good for you. With period dramas that feature copious smoking \u2014 even recent ones like \u201cThe Brutalist,\u201d in which Adrien Brody nearly always has a lighted cigarette between his lips \u2014 viewers experience a dash of irony. After all, those characters don\u2019t have the knowledge of the health risks that we do now. In \u201cThe Bear\u201d or \u201cMaterialists,\u201d that is not the case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n No one, for instance, would think of the tortured chef Carmy Berzatto on \u201cThe Bear\u201d as a model of good health, mental or otherwise. Still, the actor Jeremy Allen White uses Carmy\u2019s cigarettes as a way to both emphasize his appeal \u2014 those arms sure are on display \u2014 and his sadness.<\/p>\n Lucy in Celine Song\u2019s \u201cMaterialists\u201d also has a hole in her heart that smoking fills. She works for wealthy clients, trying to make them feel good about themselves, even as she\u2019s wise to the ways the dating market is unfair. Her cigarette is a symbol of her jadedness. But it also represents something powerful for Lucy. It gives her an edge that she can wield in her interactions.<\/p>\n Power is also what Beyonc\u00e9 projects when she lights up onstage during \u201cYa Ya,\u201d a song in which she proclaims, \u201cI just wanna shake my ass\u201d even as she pointedly critiques the American dream. And perhaps that\u2019s the ultimate reason for the cigarette revival: A desire to burn it down, lungs and all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n