One of the most popular vaping-related Instagram feeds is “Girls Who Vape.” The account owner posts photos of attractive women vaping. Recently, a naughtier competitor — called “Vape and Boobs” (seriously) — launched. As you’ve probably figured out, the account owner posts photos of scantily clad women vaping. That Instagram feed has been getting a lot of buzz lately, because…you know, vape and boobs. While I fully admit that I enjoy checking out photos from “Girls Who Vape” and “Vape and Boobs,” these Instagram feeds have me thinking about gender roles in vaping.
In many ways, vaping is similar to other nerdy hobbies I enjoy (videogames, comic books, pro-wrestling). In those hobbies, women are sometimes placed on a pedestal and sometimes unfairly dismissed. On the (arguably) positive side, women that vape get the benefit of being “gamer girl hot.” If a young lady vapes or builds her own coils, vaping boys will find her exponentially more attractive. It’s the same deal as nerds encountering a woman that knows her comics and/or games — guys find it hot.
While I’ve seen guys at vape shops drool over gals that can make nice coils, I’ve also seen guys that are wary of female employees at vape shops. I asked several vape shop patrons if they would rather have a guy or a girl build their coils at a store. All of them said that they would pick the guy. There’s no sound logic behind it and many of the people I chatted with own up to that, but the assumption is that guys build better than girls. It’s like gamers automatically assuming that females are inferior videogame players or comic-book fanboys automatically assuming that a woman can’t possibly be familiar with Jack Kirby’s Fourth World.
I’ve seen female vapers get hooked up with free gear and liters of free juice. That’s totally cool. I’m all about female vapers taking advantage of being “vaper girl hot.” It’s not cool that some male vapers are dismissive of their female counterparts, automatically assuming that they know nothing about mechanical mods, can’t build decent coils, etc.
So yeah, browsing photos on the “Girls Who Vape” and “Vape and Boobs” Instagram feeds lead to this column. Ha! Anyway, if you have any stories about female vapers getting props or getting dissed, please share your experiences in the comments section.
I find pics of women vaping to not be good. Honestly women who vape are on the same visual level to me as if they were smoking a pipe, cigar, or chewing tobacco.
Oddly a cigarette doesn’t give me those same thoughts. Maybe it is more feminine?
I dunno, lots of guys like looking at photos of women holding a tubular object against their mouth. The gentleman that runs vapeandboobs left a comment on my Instagram about how it’s similar to the import car scene: http://instagram.com/p/lseR6mgP9O/
I get that I suppose. It just does nothing for me. I love women and lord knows half naked or naked women even more so but it is just unappealing to me.
I won’t argue the point though. Easy Rider magazine has been putting nude models on their pages forever which is more acceptable to me unless they are covered in grease etc. Back to the feminine thing again.
Vaping just strikes me as too masculine.
TL;DR
I like half/completely naked women just fine but prefer them being or doing something more feminine.
Sex sells. Always has, always will. As long as they’ve got it and we want it, the game will never change.
Case in point: In all of the years I’ve been on this site, this is the first time I ever comment in a vaping article.
-M
Me 2…..
That’s great!!! I sell Hemp Vap eCigarettes infused with CBD Cannabidio hemp oil… This will not be good for business…
BTW Hemp Vaps are totally legal in all 50 States, they have zero THC & no high whatsoever…
Find me on Facebook at jeremycg
Yes, sex sells but it’s sites like these that hurt our fight in being able to keep vaping. They’re wanting to ban ecigs in some places and tax the heck out of them in other places. We’re doing our best to fight this and educate people about vaping then we have sites like these come along and make people think badly of vaping. As well, should a woman have to remove her shirt to make it ok that she’s vaping. If she has clothes on she looks stupid? I already hate the comments I get from some people when I’m using an ecig I don’t need sites promoting and/or encouraging these inappropriate comments. I get that there’s attention seeking, low self esteem women EVERYWHERE but the majority of those hobbies aren’t involved in a huge battle like ecigs. As well, there’s a ton of Facebook pages that get a lot of attention that don’t need half naked women to get likes. Obviously, the people running these pages have limited knowledge of ecigs if they can’t create a good page without half naked women so they have no intentions to help keep vaping legal and fairly priced. They just want likes on their page.
I’m not sure why you think “the people running these pages have limited knowledge of ecigs.” I don’t know the people behind girlswhovape, but the fellow behind vapeandboobs knows a lot about vaping and is well known in the SoCal vaping community.