Marijuana is arguably the most popular and accessible illicit substance in America. It goes by different names, many of which double for titles of rap songs and band names. The drug is now officially legal in two U.S. states. Because most of the people reading this column are college kids, I don’t have to say much more. 
Recently, women’s magazines have capitalized on marijuana’s ever-expanding popularity and published several pieces about the drug. Publications like Elle and Vogue are now talking about an entirely                           different Mary Jane. 
First, fashionable vaporizers were discussed in The New York Times style section in July. Then, in Vogue’s famous September issue, it published a piece by noted food critic and writer Jeffrey Steingarten about cooking with pot. Elle.com devoted the entirety of last week to the green stuff and explored “the way weed culture has infiltrated our daily lives.”  Back in January, Elle even reported on the women who are involved in the                                           profitable marijuana business. 
But the notion of women smoking weed isn’t a hot, new trend. 
Eight seasons were devoted to the tale of a widowed housewife who sells pot to support her family on “Weeds.”  There were even female smokers and dealers in the notorious propaganda film “Reefer Madness,” which was released way back in the 1930s. And with the hilarious “Broad City” — which shows that women, too, can be lazy potheads — returning for a second season early next year, it looks like the pairing of women and weed in pop culture is here to stay. 
Real women are increasingly unashamed of their love for the stuff too. 
Remember the story about Charlo Greene, the news reporter who quit live on-air? She did so to devote her life to legalizing marijuana in Alaska. In 2009, Marie Claire magazine told the story of Jennifer Pelham, a young corporate attorney in Manhattan who, instead of a glass of red wine or prescription pills, got high. 
As a young woman who is friends with both male and female smokers, it’s never been a gendered activity in my mind. Sure, if you go into a smoke shop like Curious Goods or Hi-Life, you can tell who they’re trying to sell Hello Kitty grinders and pink bongs to, but the gendered nature of pot smoking stops there. 
There’s an idea that everyone who smokes weed is nothing more than a “pothead” who only melts on his couch all day. But with weed getting more and more popular among people of every age, class and gender, we need to rethink this dumb stereotype. 
What Vogue and Elle have done with their recent weed-related stories is show women that it’s okay to smoke weed and be a stylish, productive, modern woman. The target audience for some of these publications might have thought that pot wasn’t for them because they weren’t tie-dye shirt-wearing, Bob Marley-obsessed dudebros. 
But after reading sleek stories by acclaimed writers, these women might have rushed to their sons’ rooms, demanding to know how much they can buy a gram for and from whom. 
If a glass of red wine a night is universally acceptable for women to do, why can’t nightly bong rips follow suit?
Maybe in a few years, women’s magazines will be publishing stories like “How to Have the Perfect Date Night with You, Your Hubby and Mary Jane” or “10 Strains of Weed to Help You Lose Weight.”
SidneyRose Reynen is a 19-year-old film and media arts and art history sophomore from New Orleans. You can reach her on Twitter                                  @sidneyrose_TDR.