Cleaning up
Sunday, 24 July 2005 06:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eA massive scam has been perpetrated upon us all.
When I was a kid the Saturday night bath was standard; that was what everybody did. I used to use ordinary, cheap soap on my hair. There were no shampoos or conditioners. When I grew older I used to love the smell of my girlfriend's underarms when we were having sex. And I was aware of the research explaining that humans released pheromones from the underarms -- that it was the reason women's periods would lock-step if they shared much time.
Barely a century ago Queen Victoria bathed a couple of times a year to set a good example for the people of the British Empire.
Now everybody assumes that we all must shower every day and that not to do so is somehow dirty. We all believe that the only way we can clean our hair is to use a shampoo and that it must be followed by a conditioner. Somehow we've allowed ourselves to be brainwashed into thinking that body odor is unnatural and a bad thing.
Our bodies have lost their natural surface ecologies that protect us from invasion by harmful weed organisms. The skin has been daily swept clear of the many species of friendly bacteria which used to maintain our first-line defences.
Our clothes get washed so much that they last only a short time before being unusable. Once upon a time clothes wore out; now they get washed to pieces. And the effluent from all this washing of us and our clothes is wiping out all the life in the streams of the land around us.
I found, recently that for the first time in my life my scalp appeared to be becoming allergic to something, and it seemed to be the petroleum-based shampoo or the petroleum-based conditioner. I tried different more expensive ones and obtained some relief, but it would have cost too much. Remembering the use of soap when I was young, I decided to try it in place of the shampoo, and continue the conditioner. Worryingly, I still had the allergic response. So, still believing all the crap we are fed from the advertisers I very reluctantly tried using just soap.
The result was astonishing. For the first time in ages my hair was really manageable and felt more full than the flat limp stuff resulting from shampoo+conditioner. It no longer shines like nylon hair on a Barbie doll, but big deal! I found that I had to use real soap -- not the solid detergent that most cakes of "soap" seem to be. Real soap can only be found in the laundry part of supermarkets these days.
I am horrified how brainwashed we have all become on this topic. We all fear that others might detect a whiff of natural odor, and have become hyper-dependent upon petroleum products bottled in plastic petroleum products. How the hell have we let it come to this?
Our society is more than a bit insane.
When I was a kid the Saturday night bath was standard; that was what everybody did. I used to use ordinary, cheap soap on my hair. There were no shampoos or conditioners. When I grew older I used to love the smell of my girlfriend's underarms when we were having sex. And I was aware of the research explaining that humans released pheromones from the underarms -- that it was the reason women's periods would lock-step if they shared much time.
Barely a century ago Queen Victoria bathed a couple of times a year to set a good example for the people of the British Empire.
Now everybody assumes that we all must shower every day and that not to do so is somehow dirty. We all believe that the only way we can clean our hair is to use a shampoo and that it must be followed by a conditioner. Somehow we've allowed ourselves to be brainwashed into thinking that body odor is unnatural and a bad thing.
Our bodies have lost their natural surface ecologies that protect us from invasion by harmful weed organisms. The skin has been daily swept clear of the many species of friendly bacteria which used to maintain our first-line defences.
Our clothes get washed so much that they last only a short time before being unusable. Once upon a time clothes wore out; now they get washed to pieces. And the effluent from all this washing of us and our clothes is wiping out all the life in the streams of the land around us.
I found, recently that for the first time in my life my scalp appeared to be becoming allergic to something, and it seemed to be the petroleum-based shampoo or the petroleum-based conditioner. I tried different more expensive ones and obtained some relief, but it would have cost too much. Remembering the use of soap when I was young, I decided to try it in place of the shampoo, and continue the conditioner. Worryingly, I still had the allergic response. So, still believing all the crap we are fed from the advertisers I very reluctantly tried using just soap.
The result was astonishing. For the first time in ages my hair was really manageable and felt more full than the flat limp stuff resulting from shampoo+conditioner. It no longer shines like nylon hair on a Barbie doll, but big deal! I found that I had to use real soap -- not the solid detergent that most cakes of "soap" seem to be. Real soap can only be found in the laundry part of supermarkets these days.
I am horrified how brainwashed we have all become on this topic. We all fear that others might detect a whiff of natural odor, and have become hyper-dependent upon petroleum products bottled in plastic petroleum products. How the hell have we let it come to this?
Our society is more than a bit insane.
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Simple
Date: 2005-07-28 08:31 pm (UTC)When she sweats, its sexy. (Show girl dancing). When you sweat,
YOU STINK!
The caps are theirs, and the last two words cover the whole screen in bold red. Nice. Great ad technique, insult your customers... sheesh.
Thankfully the whole thing was so offensive I actually blocked on the product or company name.
But that's the message droned into the herd hour after hour all day in all media. This is part of why I despise all forms of commercial advertising, and particularly appreciated the book PATTERN RECOGNITION by William Gibson.
The fashion, clothing, soap (opera), hygiene, etc all make billions making US feel hebephrenic. Thus, as a society we get driven to obsessive-compulsive disorder.
I understand where you are coming from here... I grew up in a very poor family way out in the boonies. All we had was soap and HARD water... shampoo was too expensive. Conditioner makes me feel like I am covered in cooking lard or axle grease or something, so I avoid it.
To make matters worse, everything has its own smell, and no one has figured out smell THEMES... so public places have become a stench riot. I can barely stand to go in malls, airports, elevators, etc because of the stench from all of the conflicting perfumes put in everything.
Another variation on the scam is all of the antibacterial versions of products. We must wash hands with anti-bacterial ooze, wipe counters with anti-bacterial wipes, etc etc etc. If we don't, we might get exposed to a GERM!
News flash, America: Plain soap is 'anti-bacterial' thats why its worked so well for the past few thousand years! But at least lye and ash are naturally occuring.
One wonders what new breeds of super-germs are getting evolved out there as we dump more and more anti-bacterial waste into the ecosphere.
I know its hard to keep a sense of humor with the doom and gloom, but on this topic, you might want to check out Invader Zim's episode called GERMS... you will never look at another anti-bacterial product the same ever again.
Now, the counterpoint:
I can, sadly, point to a few examples of people I know who need to bathe MORE, not less. And I am sure that there were lots of times someone wished they could tell me to. I wish they had, but telling people their need to bathe more, or use less perfume is also part of the taboo culture around hygiene.
Also, in previous times, there were not NEARLY so many people crowded together as there are now. Infrequent bathing doesn't work well in the era of the subway, carpool, elevator, office cubicles, daycares, etc.
Re: Simple
Date: 2005-07-29 02:55 am (UTC)Oooh! I hadn't heard of that William Gibson book. I'll have to find it. I've read almost all of his.
When I grew up I don't think shampoo had been invented, nor had diswashing detergent.
I had never thought about the "stench riot" in public places. My sense of smell is almost nonexistent so I don't notice it.
Yeah, I get really angry at those ads that brainwash mothers into thinking that all bacteria are dangerous so that they drench their kids' environment in poison. Meanwhile Australia's asthma rates climb higher and higher. When I was a kid I couldn't help noticing that the mother of a couple of asthmatic friends was an obsessive cleanliness freak, and that the mother of some other friends was always too tired after a long hard day's work to clean, so their house was always messy and "dirty". The kids in that second family were the strongest, healthiest specimens of humanity I've ever met. Our Mum was just a bit messy, and we kids were very healthy too.
I love Invader Zim, and delighted in that episode. Great message in it.
On the point of some people needing to bathe, I know what you mean, but I have a theory that this comes largely from washing regularly, both in the smelly and the smellee. People who wash a lot generally don't get much chance to build up a lot of odor, so they become a lot more aware of the slightest deviation in scent. Some people who do heavy work or who simply sweat more build up odor faster than others, or may simply wash less often, say twice a week instead of every day. The sudden explosion of scent-producing bacteria (manufacturing the scents, from our skin oils) would cause large amounts of odor, which might lessen if their human held off bathing for a few more days till the skin ecology stopped wildly oscillating and settled down to healthy, controlled populations.
I get the impression of my reading about some of the old cities that people were jammed very close together. I think we may not be as closely pressed as we tend to believe. We westerners are the heaviest users of soaps and detergents and antibacterials, yet we insist on wide personal spaces. People in other cultures where washing is common, but generally without detergent, and minimal use of soap, are much more happy to press much closer than we do.
Re: Simple
Date: 2005-07-29 03:41 am (UTC)I agree over-cleanliness prevents the body from developing a stronger immune system. That's the problem with ALL support technology. The crutches reduce the freedom.
Invader Zim: one of my four favorite TV shows, ever. GERMS... just kills me with the Howard Hughes lampooning and the SPACE MEAT!
What got me noticing the stench riot was when I quit smoking.
While smoking, you could run over a skunk and I woundn't notice it.
Then I quit smoking and as my blocked sense of smell returned, so did the urge to vomit at the complete ASSAULT of perfumes, soaps, and other smells built into clothing soap, hair spray, etc.
Just driving across Houston, the various stenches of the various parts of town still make me queasy.
I didn't miss my sense of smell, and more than once I have considered restarting smoking just to get rid of it again.
As far as cultural closeness... if you have been an outsider in one of those group hugs... ew! The stench can be overwhelming. Just have to buck up and take it, but it can be unpleasant in the extreme.
Then there are the Maasai who, according to one story I heard, laugh at outsiders and call Americans 'ilmeet' which loosely means 'those who confine their farts'.
Cultures can be fun.