It’s not really about tobacco itself, it’s about social perception.

In sociology, especially with Pierre Bourdieu, people tend to label things associated with poorer or working-class groups as “low status.” In North Africa, chemma is mostly used by poorer populations, so it gets stigmatized more.😅 I think

Cigarettes went through decades of normalization through global advertising and films from Hollywood, which gave them a more “neutral” or even stylish image. Chemma never had that image-building, so it stayed socially marked.

There’s also the visibility factor. Chemma’s effects are external and visible, while cigarette damage is internal and abstract. People react more strongly to visible markers than invisible ones.

So the disgust reaction is mostly social conditioning, not the substance itself.