Being the inheritor of the 60s counterculture, of the sexual revolution and its giddy desire to shock, cannabis culture is strongly linked to sex. It uses all sorts of images of this kind in its desire to provoke, associating the cannabis high to erotic satisfaction as well as to beautiful, and buxom, women, ridding themselves of their clothes and prejudices to the smell of marijuana. Rather than as subjects, they are presented as objects of the smoking experience. These are, like everything, memories from the past, and they will without a doubt quickly disappear along with so many other old stereotypes. As for cultivation and growers’ forums, also not usually frequented by women, the slang used by the community could be playing a role, female plants have all sorts of “endearing” nicknames, going from “bitches” to “shorties”, “skanks”, etc, which do nothing to help recruit female growers. But we are at the dawn of a new era. With the unstoppable legalization and normalization of cannabis, these obstacles will tend to fall over one by one. From medical studies to social awareness, marijuana will find its legitimate place in the lives of women. And there won’t be anyone to stop us. – Fernanda De La Figuera pictured
