# Performative Hygiene & the Fear of Being Unclean | Internet Analysis ## Метаданные - **Канал:** tiffanyferg - **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I2gFznHeLM ## Содержание ### [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I2gFznHeLM) Segment 1 (00:00 - 05:00) Thanks to Nurex for sponsoring today's video. More from them later. Hello my dudes. Welcome back to Internet Analysis. Today I want to talk about performative hygiene. This episode threw me deep into shower talk, the great washcloth debate, and whether we really need a 45step shower routine to be truly clean. — Y'all stink. Y'all smell bad. — Hey, listen. Some of you all stink. You guys just stink. — Get the dirt off my body with the washcloth. — Pick out a shower routine for today. I've taken like the first four layers of skin off. It feels great. — Soap on a rag, on a net, soap and water. — Hygiene tips that no hot girl does. My skin, just look at it. Right after you get out of the shower, you guys, — my work on earth will be done here if I can help one person feel as clean and good as I do now. This kind of content like hygiene talk includes product recommendations plus tips and tricks on how to best clean yourself and stay smelling great. These videos can be very helpful, especially for people who weren't taught these things at home. This is info many of us take for granted, such as how to shower, how often, how to use deodorant and moisturize. Whether you're a kid or an adult, you don't know what you don't know. However, there's another side to these hygiene focused spaces that includes a ton of shame and judgment. If you're not cleaning yourself correctly, you're dirty, lazy, smelly, and undesirable. But is there really one correct way to bathe? According to many creators and commenters, yes. And lucky for you, their exact routine is the one true piece of shower gospel. In researching this, I feel like I've gone crazy watching people argue about the minutia of showering. I do definitely appreciate seeing like dermatologists and aestheticians sharing their professional opinions about personal hygiene, but then we have tons of people acting like microbiologists in the comments even when they don't know how soap works. That being said, I am also just an armchair expert or bath ledge expert. Anyway, this performative hygiene content at its worst or most extreme just kind of devolves into a materialistic competition to show off your elaborate routine and prove that you're the cleanest of them all. As always, nuance is very important and I personally could not care less about what your particular hygiene habits are, whose or what routine is right. I'm more interested in what these debates say about us. Why are so many of us so deeply invested in how other people are bathing? And of course, I'm fascinated by the overconumption of it all because yes, let's be clear, being convinced that you are disgusting if you shower with less than 25 products is wild. Maybe, just maybe, the companies producing these items or the people selling them on Tik Tok shop have an incentive to make you think you need more and more products. So, let's start with the only objectively correct shower routine. I actually found it, you guys. You're going to want to write this down. Dry brush your body shampoo. Double cleanse shampoo with a scalp massager. Condition hair. Hair mask. Wash face. First body cleanse with antibacterial bar soap. Exfoliate. Shave with shaving oil or cream. Use a body wash or shower gel as your second cleanse. Get out of the shower. Use a microfiber towel for your hair. Apply scalp oil, hair serums after shave, deodorant. Then moisturize with lotion or body butter. Then use body oil to lock in moisture. Use your fragrance oil on your heat points for maximum scent projection. Then body mist, perfume, and hair perfume. It's easy. Oh, and if you don't do this every day or even multiple times a day, you're disgusting. Now, for most people, something like this would be an everything shower. It's more intensive than your typical everyday shower. You're going all out. Maybe you have a big date or an event and you just want to feel like 100% fresh. And here's the thing. If you do this for every single shower, I'm not going to stop you. That's probably a little too much exfoliating, but that is between you and your skin. Inevitably, in the comments of these posts, people start arguing. You're doing too much. You're not doing enough. That's the wrong order. Wrong products. Then we get into the bean soup of it all. If you don't know the original bean soup lore, basically someone posted on Tik Tok, "Hey, here's a recipe for bean soup. " And they got replies like, "Well, what if I don't like beans? " So, comments like that are now known as the bean soup phenomenon. If something doesn't apply to you or you don't like it, it's not for you and you don't have to announce that in the comments. There have been some allegations of being supery in the realm of shower routines. Let's say someone posts, "Here's my shower routine. " It would be soup to be like, "M, I don't like your soap. This doesn't work for me. " It's like, okay, don't do it for yourself then. It's my routine. However, I think it's fair to make a distinction for these posts that are framed in an absolute and prescriptive way, like saying, "This is the one and only correct shower routine, and if you don't do this, you're disgusting, and you're never going to possibly get clean. " On those sorts of posts, it is totally fair and valid to comment something like, "Actually, this doesn't work for everyone. " I don't think that's bean soup cuz it's not just for the sake of being a contrarian, but genuinely like to let other people know in the ### [5:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I2gFznHeLM&t=300s) Segment 2 (05:00 - 10:00) comments, hey, this is not actually the one singular correct thing. Okay, figure out what works for you. I understand why many creators frame their content like this. It's obviously for the sake of engagement, some clickbait, some hyperbole classic. However, some people truly do believe there really is one correct way to shower and they're very strong willed about this. I saw so many comments of people like, "I have to do XYZ or I feel disgusting. " And that's cool. You can totally have your routine. But I do think projecting your standards onto others is weird. Disclaimer. Sanitation is important to public health. I know. Of course, we all want the people around us, especially in public, to be reasonably clean. And the closer you are to somebody, the more you're probably going to care about their hygiene habits. But still, personal hygiene is personal. And one routine does not work for everyone. Often in these conversations, people will be like, "All right, as long as you just take one shower a day, you're probably fine. " But honestly, that's not even true for everyone. How many showers should you take, and what time of day? You must shower in the morning to start your day fresh. No, you have to shower at night because you've been gross all day. You have to be clean when you get into bed. Actually, you should be doing both. And you should throw in a lunch hour shower, too. Why not? Not to get into the nitty-gritty of showering, but how many showers you might want or need largely depends on how active or sedentary you are, what kind of job you work, and even the weather. Hotter, more humid climates typically require frequent bathing or even just rinsing to cool yourself off. Ultimately, there are so many cultural differences. Plus, we all have very different hair and skin types. A routine that works fantastically for you might be an actual disaster for somebody else. That being said, of course, there are people who genuinely are not cleaning themselves sufficiently or frequently enough. That does exist. Like, when people say the phrase, "Wash your ass," in these conversations, we mean it. Literally, I've seen horror stories online of people being like, "Just found out my husband doesn't wipe or wash his butt. Our house is covered in stains. I'm getting infections. " Like, oh my god, that is like actually a health issue. That's serious. And on that note, the US needs more bedays. Many Americans are weirded out by them for some reason. And of course, some men think it's gay. Fellas, is it gay to wash your ass? I can't believe this is a battle we're fighting. But bet are very common in many parts of the world. We're a bedet household. I highly recommend. But anyway, for most people, if you have any hygiene issues, they can probably be fixed with a few small tweaks to your routine. Maybe you need to shower a bit more often, change your soap, maybe you need a stronger deodorant. It's also really important to make sure that your clothes are clean and that your sheets are washed. Some people may smell worse because of hormonal or medical issues, in which case you should really see a doctor, which again is difficult to do in the US. But a Tik Tok shower routine is probably not going to be able to solve your exact issue. There are also people who struggle to keep up with personal hygiene either because of disabilities or mental illness. That's why the judgment is not super helpful. I understand spreading information to try to help who you can, but everyone's circumstances are different. I'm just so tired of hearing people act like there is no middle ground between showering once a year and showering four times a day with 50 products. 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You can go to nurx. com/tiffanyferg to get started or click the link in the description. That is nurx. com/tiffanyferg. Continuing on, the washcloth debate. There has been a long time heated debate about how exactly to shower and which tools you need. Are you a handwash girl, a loofah guy? You just rock them with your hands. Do you have a little silicone scrubber or a back brush? I don't know. Does anyone have a washcloth I can use? Ew, washcloths are for poor people or like sponge bats. Huh? Washcloths are gross. Who uses them anymore? Ever heard of a loofah? Okay, wait. If anything is gross, it's lofah. They just harbor a bunch of bacteria. And also, do you think everyone just uses the same washcloth every time? Exactly. We use a fresh, clean one every time we shower and then we throw it in the laundry. Ever heard of it? Wait, one washcloth? Yeah. I start at my face and I move down my body. That's disgusting. I use at least four. Face, body, booty, feet. That seems thorough, but okay. And ### [10:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I2gFznHeLM&t=600s) Segment 3 (10:00 - 15:00) the washcloths have to be white. Ideally, kind of rough. You just carry those around. Yeah, just in case. Anyway, they're white, so you can see the dirt coming off. And also, obviously, you can bleach them. So, I respect your passion. — Wow, I just use my hands. — What? — No, you're kidding. — Oh, I didn't realize that was such a hot take. Gross. How do you scrub yourself? With my hands. And that does not get you clean. You need a washcloth. — Question. You wash your hands with your hands. Soap and water. I think they work. — So, you wash your dishes with your hands? What? No, because they are dishes and like my body is not covered in dried food. They're different things. And you wash your ass with your hands. Yeah, it's a part of my body. Gh, don't touch me. Yes, quite gross to do that in the shower. If only I were in a place with soap and water. What about exfoliating? Your hands can't get all that dead skin off. Sometimes I'll use an exfoliating scrub or I really like my African net sponge. Sometimes you should be exfoliating every day. I actually don't exfoliate every day either. My skin's a little sensitive. I've got to rub my skin raw, otherwise I just don't feel clean. Ouch. Mine would get so dried out. Sure, but that's why we have lotion. There's really no excuse. I guess we can all have different routines, right? Not if I have to sit next to you. It's fine as long as you shower every day. Twice a day. Double cleanse, exfoliate, moisturize. It's not hard. How often are we washing our hair, though? Let's not get into that. So, for some context, at least in the US, the vast majority of the black community are team washcloth. And this is a standard set from birth. Washcloth. I think it's actually common for black folks worldwide. — As a black dermatologist from Jamaica, obviously, I'm team washcloth. There's a cultural aspect to this. I'm Jamaican and that's how we were raised. — But for the sake of this convo, I'm going to focus on black Americans. So then when it comes to white people, there's more of a split. It may not be as ubiquitous as with black folks, but many people are team washcloth as well. I grew up in like a wash rag house or like washcloth, like one of these when you shower. Like that's what you use. — The fact that some of y'all didn't grow up using washcloths in the shower to wash your body makes me incredibly nervous. Like what? — I've seen so many videos alleging that white people don't wash themselves with washcloths. The going rumor is that we just use soap and like shampoo our head and then the soap runs down our bodies and we don't wash our bodies with washcloths. I'm here to beat the allegations. This is what y'all have done to me. I will never be accused of not having enough washcloths. It's so funny. Throughout writing this video, part of me has felt so tempted to prove that like I am one of the good ones in terms of like being clean. But honestly, I have used all sorts of tools and my hands throughout my lifetime. I go through phases or I use different things for different body parts and I am at peace with that. But honestly, there is so much judgment in this topic that I have been deeply overthinking my shower routine for weeks. And a lot of other posts reference this, like people have been judged for using washcloths. — I remember when I was younger and I was like in the shower at a friend's house and I was like, "Oh, do you have like a rag? " And they were like, "A rag? The [ __ ] do you need a rag for? " And I'm like, "To wash my body off. What do you mean? " So many people used lofah. I was like, "Oh, where y'all's wash rags? " And they're like, "Oh, no. This is like what? That's gross. " And I was like, "Oh, my bad. I didn't know. Like, I grew up in a wash rag house. " And then others are judged for not using a washcloth. It's so easy for all of us to assume that everyone's home life or everyone's family's habits are exactly like ours. And that's just not the case when it comes to eating, sleeping, bathing. You don't really know how your friends or other people actually live day-to-day unless you experience it. And there can be some culture shock. And then comes the judgment. Oh, you don't do things the way my family does. You must be wrong then. You're gross. And when people get judged, we may feel shame. Then we get defensive. We double down. I'm sure there are already plenty of arguments brewing in the comments right now. So, I really spent too much time fretting about this and trying to research which option is objectively better. All right, washcloths or hands? Is it possible that hands can clean you or are they in fact disgusting? What's the science? What are professionals recommending? And what I found may surprise you. Both are fine. They work. — Dermatologist here of Triny background and I've been hearing the washcloth debate for years. People love them and feel very strongly about them, but as a dermatologist, I'm here to tell you do not need them. — So, is it enough to use your hands and soap? You know, honestly, yes. Cleansers are designed to effectively remove dirt and grime from your skin on their own, — unless you're dealing with paint. Unless you're caked in mud, you really don't have that much to cleanse that a wash rag would need. — But using a washcloth will give you a deeper clean and some mild exfoliation. — So, if you love it, but you don't need it. Whether you are using bar soap, a Dove beauty bar, shower gel, body wash, on your hands, loofah, washcloths, whatever, they're all probably working as long as you're spending enough time on each body part. And your product choice ultimately depends most on whether you want more exfoliation or a gentler clean, maybe ### [15:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I2gFznHeLM&t=900s) Segment 4 (15:00 - 20:00) more moisturizing ingredients, whatever. I literally have zero desire to change anyone else's routine. Please continue being a hardcore fan of whatever your personal preference is. Or maybe if you want to do something wild, try somebody else's routine. It might be scary, but I think you'll be okay. As entertaining as the washcloth debate may be, I really wanted to use it as a segue into the hygiene Olympics, which is frequently discussed in the black community. I first learned about this a few years ago from an intellectual media video. It's, by the way, this entire channel is gold. Black history, sex, pop culture. Please watch. All of the historical context is so crucial in understanding why this particular issue is so fraught. Some people be like, "Uh, it's not that deep. " Well, it actually can be. The relationship that black Americans have with personal hygiene is inextricably linked to slavery, plus racism, white supremacy, respectability, politics. The racist misconception that black people are inherently dirty, blossomed during American slavery for a number of reasons. With freedom from slavery came a renewed desire for and access to cleanliness. It would be unfolded into respectability politics being better than the stereotype given to us by racism as well as a religious tenant. Cleanliness is next to godliness and plus it made good sense. Andrea Plaid wrote, quoting Yaba Blé, "The level of care and anxiety about care under that system of oppression, it's not about white people. It's about how we communicate our value to one another. that white supremacy will not keep us down. It is also important to note that some of the anti-washcloth sentiment comes from white people being racist and classist. — Do you use a washcloth? — No. Me either. — I think disgusting. — Am I scrubbing my body with a washcloth? — Absolutely not. — I know. I think we're like a UTI waiting. — I think we're in the minority. I really do. No, I think we are. People use washcloths. — I think so. Like for their body. — Yeah. Fun fact about a washcloth. You can wash them. — Thinking, "Oh, only black people use washcloths or poor people use them and therefore they're bad or not a good tool. " — Uh, you're just anti I'm not going to wash my legs and feet. — You think that's just a black people thing? — Clearly, no. I don't think it's a black thing. I think using a washcloth is for poor people, but I don't think that washing your legs and feet is for black people. — I agree. I think the washcloth is a poor person um thing. because I — I've only met pores who use them. — And this is just one example from the long history of white people believing that black folks or people of color are dirty or they don't know how to take care of themselves. The irony of course is how many white people basically brag about being dirty. White celebrities saying they don't bathe their kids or white influencers making not showering a part of their brand. Shan Spear made a really great video about the downfall of anti-hygiene influencers. Highly recommend. This really goes to show who is allowed to be a little bit stinky or unshowered. Wrote Nicole Freyo. These quirky confessions of bad personal hygiene are seldom about access or the dehumanization of being seen as dirty. They're about some kind of personal freedom rhetoric. Not washing your legs or not taking a shower every day is not class rebellion, but a display of which bodies are allowed to be unwashed without stigma attached. So anyway, with all of that context in mind, it makes total sense that the black community might poke some fun at white people. Like there's a running joke, white people don't wash their legs. Though it is actually true for many. Do you let soapy water just kind of run down and assume that your legs are clean, or are you really scrubbing, giving some attention to those legs? Anyway, I just don't have a problem with white people being clowned on, especially in this context. But really, anytime. It's fair game. There are so many fantastic video essays and other commentary videos on this topic if you would like to learn more. And many of these creators admit even if they personally do get some enjoyment from their shower routines or their favorite products. They are tired of the hygiene Olympics. — Get it, girly. You take 17 showers a day. You use a brand new different wash rag on every single appendage of your body. You change your panties every 36 minutes on the dot. And you literally wake up and take a shot of antibacterial soap every single morning. You are without a doubt the winner of the hygiene Olympics. — The constant comparison and competition are too much. It is just so important to approach these conversations with care and compassion directed at ourselves and others. We were all raised in different circumstances, but many of us have at least some level of internalized shame or even trauma about hygiene. — We are having conversations about bathing and scrubbing ourselves in ways that are not necessary. And then we're also putting shame and ridicule on others who don't do exactly what we do. When you think about how bodily autonomy was not something and still is not something a lot of us grew up with, definitely not our mothers and grandmothers. So control and shame has been a very very big part of how we ### [20:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I2gFznHeLM&t=1200s) Segment 5 (20:00 - 25:00) relate to our own bodies and how we teach our daughters about their own bodies. That's why I think it's important to understand and know some of the historical and social context within this conversation, but also hopefully we can move beyond all of these horrible stereotypes and we can all start to unpack those deeper feelings about cleanliness and shame. Continuing on shame and stigma without getting into the whole history of personal hygiene, we know historically people smelled like [ __ ] The world There was [ __ ] on the street. That's not to say that people never bathed, but it was pretty infrequent. And people were big fans of like perfume and other ways that they could at least try to mask some mal odors. They did their best. Before the discovery of germ theory, people essentially believed for a period of time that all smell is disease aka myasmas. Imagine every time you get a whiff of something, you think you're breathing in diseased air. Actually, I think a lot of us that hits home a lot more since co but yeah, it's gross and very troubling. So then people start to learn and understand more about how germs actually work. Then we have indoor plumbing and public sanitation improvements. Great. Things are getting cleaner. Things are smelling a little better. People start to bathe a little more often. But then came the stigma of being unclean and smelly. Also mixed up in this is like especially the American attitudes of like cleanliness, godliness, associating physical cleanliness with moral purity. It's always in there. Then we move into the era of companies inventing new hygiene products. Wow, groundbreaking. But how do you sell a brand new product to people who have been doing fine without it? You can invent a new problem, an insecurity that your product solves. Sell us the idea that we're actually all really disgusting and we absolutely need that soap, that deodorant, that Listerine, those powders and perfumes. There's this notorious ad campaign from the deodorant brand Odor. Oh no. from 1912. Here's a quote from it. There's an old offender in this quest for perfect daintiness. An offender of which we ourselves may be ever so unconscious, but which is just as truly present. That was a horrible transatlantic accent. Yeah. Essentially, the implication was, "Hey ladies, you actually smell bad and you're not realizing it and everyone around you is and like you're going to have no friends and no man because of this. " Through the rest of the ad, a lot of the focus is on the sweetness and daintiness of a woman. They literally say each word like 20 times and there was backlash. People were like, "This ad sucks. " But then Odorono's sales went way up. So, it was effective. Now, these days, many women especially aspire to the clean girl aesthetic, which is less about actual cleanliness, like hygiene or shower talk. It might be associated, but clean girl stuff is more the vibe. You're productive. You look put together. You look clean. You look like you smell really good. That's a very common compliment online these days. Contrast that with the idea of looking like you're depressed and being perceived as dirty and smelly. There's such a massive fear of being perceived as gross or smelling bad. That's actually many people's biggest fear because of how strong our disgust toward bad scents is. Of course, men also have their own hygiene standards and expectations, but I think the pressure on women and fems is so much more intense, and we're being sold and usually willing to buy hundreds of products, one for each and every tiny individual need. The whole point of performative hygiene, like posting about your hygiene or talking about your hygiene, often it is for the sake of combating the shame or avoiding the judgment of being perceived as unclean. You want to signal to everybody in person and online that you're clean, you smell amazing, don't worry about me. And I get it again in response to the shame and stigma. Many people end up kind of overcompensating because they've been so insecure about how they smell or their cleanliness for a long time. You've either heard people say it to you or people around you. Especially women carry really heavy weights and shame of like what your vagina might smell like or your vulva or all these horrible things that we hear even from a young age and we internalize it and you say I am never going to be caught smelling bad. I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure I don't face that embarrassment and that shame. There's just this obsession with cleanliness and desiring the absence of any human scent. We want to be poreless, odorless. To be feminine is to smell good, and that almost always means artificially scented. — They mean by lathering your body with strongly scented body washes, on top of scented perfumes, body butters, oils. — To smell clean or to smell good, you have to smell like something. Smell like a product. That's the best marketing that companies have ever tricked us into. And that is the [ __ ] the soap box I will stand on. No pun intended. All of this performative hygiene begs ### [25:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I2gFznHeLM&t=1500s) Segment 6 (25:00 - 30:00) the question, why do women have to smell good all day long? — And so much of this ties into like the kind of fear and disgust that many women and girls have toward their own bodies again, our natural bodies, that somehow we are wrong and shameful and we should hide. We're not allowed to talk about these things. Another layer is this implication that like perfectly clean, healthy skin and hair has no imperfections. You're perfectly moisturized. You have no acne. you have no KP on your arms. But again, it's like skin and hair conditions exist. Someone can follow a very strict skin regimen and still have skin problems. Or even doing too much actually makes their skin worse and they just get stuck in this horrible cycle of buying more stuff and trying it and they can't achieve that perfect clean girl skin. That doesn't mean that they're dirty, but they're so tied together. It's so hard to break that idea in people's minds. And that's why people with acne face so much stigma. Are the hygiene Olympics or performative hygiene about really being clean or more about seeming clean? Like a clean girl could have not showered in five days, but she's got great dry shampoo. She's controlling her oils with other products. She's got fresh makeup, a fresh outfit on, especially through a screen. We have no idea whether she's a really clean girl or not. I hate that phrase. We don't know how clean or dirty she is. And even in person again, because of all these products and the other, you know, hygiene tips and tricks that we can use, you often probably can't guess like how long it's been since someone has had a shower and how much of that should be our business anyway. Does the technical thought of when their last shower might have been matter? I know some viewers are going to hear this whole video as if I'm saying, "Yep, there's no need to shower ever. All good. Just be as dirty and smelly as you want. " Obviously, again, there are personal and communal reasons why we value hygiene. I do in fact want everyone to be decently clean and healthy. But again, I'm not going to force a specific regiment onto you because it is personal. And we get to the overconumption. According to these influencers, it's a marker of femininity to have a collection of sugar scrubs and expensive body washes and perfumes all in aesthetic packaging. One simple soap bar, deodorant, lotion if you want to wear it. All those things can go a long way. You do not need a whole collection of items to stack onto yourself, to layer onto yourself to feel clean, to be clean. — I understand a lot of the shower talk content. It's very satisfying. It's relaxing. It's aesthetic. There's some ASMR. Similar to many other aspirational genres, it is nice to watch someone who appears to have all their [ __ ] together. Now, when does this cross into overconumption? Because again, yes, all of us have to consume some level of personal hygiene products. We're going to be buying some shampoo, conditioner, washes, and soaps and stuff to keep in our house. Are you purchasing and collecting and hoarding like 10 times or 100 times more products than you actually will be able to use? This is absurd. Why would you possibly need hundreds of different body washes or lotions? That is overconumption. Okay, I don't think that's debatable. Really, I'm just shocked that people have become convinced that buying shower stuff is fun. personal hygiene went from this like utilitarian just practical thing like you're not excited to buy deodorant, right? But if you rebrand personal hygiene into a hobby, suddenly you can make it fun. actually exciting to spend money on those products cuz you're adding to your collection. I also found this girl who's doing a 30 cents of fall challenge where she's doing like themed shower routines. I had no idea this was a thing. It's day two of my 30 days of fall shower routine. Today we are doing apple crumble apple pie. Listen, if I did not already own this body wash, I would be going to every single TJ Maxx in my state looking for it. Paul requested pumpkin marshmallow pie. Starting off in the shower, we have cinnamon pumpkin pie from Dove. Bro, I smell so freaking good right now. Like this is the gourman shower routine of all gourman shower routines. So, it's like you pick like a theme or a scent and the idea is like you want all of your different shower products, hair products to line up as well as like your lotions and everything else and you're stacking the same flavors flavors. M you're stacking scents or like scents that go well together to make you smell like a cinnamon roll for example. And I'm like, okay, I did not realize everybody was scent layering. I'm behind the times. I would use whatever soap, whatever lotion. I'm flopping. I have no cohesive scent profile. I'm not applying on my heat points for maximum sun projection. I also think there's a component of when you are convinced that you need every single type of product that claims to have a use. Because again, companies can tell you all day long, you need this very niche oil for this niche part of your body. There's no way you can handle it with any other product. You need this product. You need your fingertips, palms, forearms. They're all going to need different ### [30:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I2gFznHeLM&t=1800s) Segment 7 (30:00 - 35:00) things. That's just how it is. If you want to be clean and smell good, I don't know if you want to be disgusting, skip it. It is okay to enjoy and get some satisfaction and happiness from like your shower routine or your hygiene. I get it. Like getting ready and feeling fresh can make a lot of people feel better about themselves. They feel confident. It helps them start the day and feel better when we're living in a [ __ ] dumpster fire. But I just think like try to catch yourself. Don't get obsessed with collecting these products. And ultimately, don't turn into an [ __ ] who's judging other people who might have a different routine. And lastly, companies invent new insecurities and sell us the solution. — All right, people. It's innovation time. Give me a new insecurity we can roll out for women. They smell bad all the time, everywhere. I like it. Stay with that. They need deodorant for their armpits like everybody does, but now women need it for everywhere. Yes, their natural state is disgusting. Sanitize, sanitize. If it's natural on a man, it's good. woman, you have to pay to fix it. Right. — Whole body deodorants are a great example of this. As this Vox article by Karen Landman writes, "Why are whole body deodorants suddenly everywhere? " To these critics, the existence of whole body deodorants should raise our curiosity about why we feel the need to smell a certain way or not. They should also make us wonder who stands to profit by changing social norms about sweat, hygiene, and odor. I also fell down a little bit of a rabbit hole about this. It's so uncomfortable to sit on the side of this tub this whole time. Essentially, the sweat in our armpits, for example, is different than like the sweat across most of our body. If you're going to the gym, you're sweating on your chest, your legs, that sweat is not going to smell nearly as much as like armpit sweat, groin sweat. They're different. Scientists comment in the chat. They're different types of sweat and they interact differently and they smell differently. And our BO actually comes from I love me putting on my scientist hat. BO doesn't come from the sweat itself. It's like a byproduct of bacteria eating the sweat and that's where the odor comes from. Fun. So this idea of whole body deodorants, it's like armpit deodorant makes sense. All right. Yeah, that's where we're pretty sweaty and pretty smelly. But the whole body, especially the parts of the body that don't have BO kind of sweat, why do we need a product to manage that and deodorize that when it pretty much doesn't have a scent? And again, of course, there's always different people who maybe have hyperhydrosis or they have other skin conditions or medical conditions. And those are special cases. If you want to manage that with whatever products work for you, great. But again, for the general population, this idea that these companies want to convince every single one of us, you can't just be wearing your underarm deodorant anymore. Disgusting. Ew, the back of your knees are sweating. Get away from me. Obviously, they stand to profit greatly from rebranding sweating and creating this whole new case of like fearmongering about whole body sweat. And the last thing I want to touch on, which again is my little soap box of like not even conspiracy, but it's definitely my most probably crunchy granola kind of take. I'm a little bit more of a minimalist when it comes to products. I just don't use like a ton of things. And I'm also generally pretty anti-fragrance. Aerosols. Oh my god. Again, bad for the environment, very bad for us. I also am just like a little more sensitive to fragrance. And I've become even more sensitive, especially with my baby. I don't want her to be around a bunch of fragrance. But yeah, I find like if somebody has really strong perfume or even like really strong cleaning products or those Glade plugins, it will give me a headache. It hurts me. I feel like I can feel it in my lungs. So that's where I'm coming from, right? The products that these companies are selling us so often, are not necessary, not helpful, and actually sometimes make the problem worse. For example, with like laundry products, there are so many things that, you know, washing machine pros will tell you like, "Oh, that actually ruins your machine or that ruins your clothes. " Yet, people are convinced they need like scent boosting beads and you need like dryer sheets, you need fabric softener. A lot of times like a simple liquid soap or powder will do a great job of cleaning and like that's all it takes. It's cheap. You don't need 10 products. Don't fall for the corporate propaganda. So then in the realm of personal hygiene, so many of these products actually make our hair and skin worse. They can even make us smell worse over time. Like honestly, many dermatologists say in this whole shower debate, like many people are literally doing too much and it's hurting their skin. It's making it worse or you're using really harsh products, you're overexfoliating, and that's actually harming your skin. It's like removing those natural barriers, but also it leaves your skin vulnerable to irritants or allergens. It's removing the good bacteria on your skin that protects you. So then you get in this cycle of you're buying tons of products, then you're breaking out or you have new issues of dryness or oiliness or sensitivity and then you need to buy another product to combat that when actually stopping and pairing it back and creating a simpler routine might actually be better for you and your skin. You can still get very clean without harming yourself. Another soap box I have is like what clean smells ### [35:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I2gFznHeLM&t=2100s) Segment 8 (35:00 - 37:00) like, especially when it comes to like cleaning a house. Really, if something is clean, like a surface, it should have an absence of scent. It shouldn't really smell like anything. It smells neutral, whatever. But again, we've been convinced by these products and these companies that clean smells like a Glade plugin or it smells like Fabreze. It smells like ocean spray, not the cranberry juice. Or if you're a more extreme cleaner, like you want to be inhaling that bleach to really feel like, you know, things have been recently cleaned. We've been convinced to pump fragrance and lather every surface in our homes and in our cars and on our bodies with fragrance and with all these smells to smell clean when that's just not necessary. And also, there are plenty of people who are really sensitive to scent, such as myself. I'm not even a more extreme case, but there are some people who like get sick and they get horrible headaches or migraines um from being around it. And again, not to sound too crunchy granola or conspiratorial, but like I definitely don't trust these mega corporations that own everything. So many harmful products and ideas have been sold to us in the name of hygiene. It is weaponized. Our insecurities are weaponized. These companies do not care about what is actually best for us. They will sell us anything. They will put any claims that they're legally allowed to on their products. They just want to sell us [ __ ] And especially now in the US with deregulation, we are even more at risk of buying [ __ ] that is even worse for us. I'm not one of those people who fearmongers about, you know, what's natural or what's a chemical, but I think there is a healthy level of skepticism. And I think one way to maybe avoid some of these issues, at least what I personally do, is simply trying to use less stuff. It's less stuff that I'm risking, I guess. And that is all. I hope you guys enjoyed today's video. I hope it maybe makes you think a little bit or reflect on your own shower routines, your hygiene, um, and the sort of maybe judgments you make. Maybe you want to go look up old ad campaigns for different products and get mad at more companies. That's a fun one. Thank you again to today's sponsor, Nurex. You can check them out in the description and stay tuned for future internet analysis videos. Also, please check out my second channel where I'm posting some more, you know, casual commentary videos. Trying to post there more often soon. Okay, that is all. Okay, thanks. --- *Источник: https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/44375*