Are cigars really just "a guy thing?"

A while back I received an email forwarded to me from a Famous Smoke Shop Customer Service agent. It was from a woman customer who wrote: "When you send out your emails, make them more gender neutral. I’m tired of seeing all the reference to guys in the emails. There are plenty of woman smokers too."

Here's the deal: With regard to writing the emails, I never thought I was being sexist; I was just relating to my fellow BOTL's ("Brothers of the Leaf"). Wondering if there are any "Sisters of the Leaf," I googled the acronym "SOTL." What came up was "Scholarship of Teaching and Learning" at Indiana University, Bloomington. So I tried a search on "Sisters of the Leaf" and got "Tea Leaf Green Live at Three Sisters Park," "Caroline Leaf and Her Two Sisters," and "Fall Leaf Quilt Pattern by Four Twin Sisters." Not exactly very much to do with cigars. But I digress.

Now, a lot of guys will tell you there's nothing sexier than seeing a woman smoking a cigar. OK, maybe some women, too (not that there's anything wrong with that). Not surprisingly, I've stumbled upon many a cigar website with pix of chicks smoking cigars. They grab my attention, but other than being used as a prop, I doubt as to whether any of these girls actually smoke cigars.

The sexual aspect aside, I not only enjoy meeting women cigar smokers, I respect women cigar smokers. Truth is, you just don't see all that many women smoking cigars. Or to put it another way, you really don't find many serious women cigar smokers, but I know they're out there. I did an article on women cigar smokers a few years ago, and these ladies were smoking some pretty serious cigars; not the mild or flavored fare some might suspect of a stereotypical female cigar smoker.

Moreover, I see plenty of women cigar smokers at the IPCPR trade show every year, many of whom are cigar store owners, so you know they have a vested interest in the leaf. Online, you'll find sites like FumeeWorld.com, started by Heather Waibel Haddad, and CigarWoman.com, a site dedicated to women cigar smokers. Then there's Jennifer Jordan, senior editor at SavorEachGlass.com, who blogs regularly on cigars.

I guess the sexual divide has mostly to do with the origins of cigar smoking, which throughout history has been a male-dominated practice. Take it to the next level, and maybe one of the big reasons a lot of men band together to smoke cigars is because, let's face it, it's one of the few times they can get away from their "significant others."

So is smoking cigars just "a guy thing?" I think for the most part, yes. But let's at least give our cigar-smoking "sisters" some cred.

Your thoughts?