The Secret Signals of Cigarettes, Glasses and Make-upMen will often use the Pinch Hold when smoking, especially if
they are trying to be secretive, keeping the cigarette hidden
inside the palm. This gesture is commonly used in the movies
by actors who play tough guys or who are acting sneaky or
suspicious.Smoking as a Sexual Display
Films and media advertising have always portrayed smoking as
sexy. Smoking is another opportunity to emphasise our sex
differences: it allows a woman to use wrist displays (we'll
discuss this in Chapter 15) and open her body to a man and it
allows the cigarette to be used like a small phallus being seduc-
tively sucked between her lips. A man can highlight his
masculinity by holding the cigarette secretively and seduc-
tively. Previous generations used a seductive smoking ritual as
an acceptable form of courtship with a man offering to light a
woman's cigarette while she touched his hand and held his
gaze longer than usual as she thanked him. In many places
today, however, smoking is as popular as a fart in a spacesuit
so the smoking courtship ritual is virtually dead. The key to
the perceived female sexual attraction behind smoking is the
submissive attitude it implies; in other words, it carries the
subtle message that a woman who smokes can be persuaded to
do things that are not in her best interests. While blowing
smoke in a person's face is unacceptable everywhere, in Syria
it's seen as a sexual invitation when a man does it to a woman!How to Spot a Positive or Negative Decision
Whether a person has a positive or negative attitude towards
his circumstances is revealed by the direction in which his
smoke is exhaled, whether it's up or down. We are assuming
here that the smoker is not blowing the smoke upwards to
avoid offending others and that he could have blown the