Torches of Freedom

"Torches of Freedom" was a phrase used to encourage women's smoking by exploiting women's aspirations for a better life during the early twentieth century first-wave feminism in the United States. Cigarettes were described as symbols of emancipation and equality with men. The term was first used by psychoanalyst A. A. Brill when describing the natural desire for women to smoke and was used by Edward Bernays to encourage women to smoke in public despite social taboos. Bernays hired women to march while smoking their "torches of freedom" in the Easter Sunday Parade of 31 March 1929,^[1] which was a significant moment for fighting social barriers for women smokers.

^ Photo, Times Wide World Photo Times Wide World (1929-04-01). "EASTER SUN FINDS THE PAST IN SHADOW AT MODERN PARADE; Lone Prancing Team in Stream of Gleaming Motors in 5th Av. Recalls Bygone Days. TOP HATS GLINT IN CROWDS Throngs, Bigger Than Ever, Are a Riot of Color as Churches Let Out to Music of Organs. PARADE OF JOBLESS PUT ON Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of "Freedom"-- Resorts Near City Well Filled. One Fleeting Note of the Past. Resorts Have Parades, Too. Cameras Click by the Score. EASTER SUN FINDS THE PAST IN SHADOW Style Copyists Take Movies. Gray Predominates for Men. 500,000 at Atlantic City. Special Services at Sing Sing. (Published 1929)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-02-23.

[1] Photo, Times Wide World Photo Times Wide World (1929-04-01). "EASTER SUN FINDS THE PAST IN SHADOW AT MODERN PARADE; Lone Prancing Team in Stream of Gleaming Motors in 5th Av. Recalls Bygone Days. TOP HATS GLINT IN CROWDS Throngs, Bigger Than Ever, Are a Riot of Color as Churches Let Out to Music of Organs. PARADE OF JOBLESS PUT ON Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of "Freedom"-- Resorts Near City Well Filled. One Fleeting Note of the Past. Resorts Have Parades, Too. Cameras Click by the Score. EASTER SUN FINDS THE PAST IN SHADOW Style Copyists Take Movies. Gray Predominates for Men. 500,000 at Atlantic City. Special Services at Sing Sing. (Published 1929)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-02-23.

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