Last week, after a particularly heinous—particularly smelly—sauna session, I was forced to Google “why don’t people wear deodorant?”
This is what the Google AI gods told me:
“Some people do not wear deodorant due to a genetic variation (ABCC11 gene) that results in little to no underarm odor, particularly common in East Asian populations. Others avoid it due to skin sensitivity, concerns about chemical ingredients like aluminum, or a preference for natural body scent.”
I can tell you firsthand that the people in Asheville who shirk deodorant—and it feels like this population is GROWING—don’t have the ABCC11 gene. Because they reek.
You smell it at breweries. You smell it in restaurants. You smell it at the gym. And before anyone comes for me and tells me that, of course, people are going to smell at the gym, I’m not talking about regular old gym smell. I’m talking about a stench so fucking foul it fills a room and makes people leave.
I complained about this the day after the aforementioned sauna session, where the place was so bad I walked in and walked out. A guy in the sauna defended the perpetrator.
“It’s our natural scent,” he told me. “People have smelled like what you deem body odor for years.”
I brought up my go-to whenever people harken back to how things used to be. “People also used to own people. But then they realized that was wrong, so they stopped.” Fine, a bit apples-and-oranges. I have a health-related one. “People used to only live till like, 40 too.”
He countered that he hates when people make everyone smell their cologne or perfume. Because he apparently is sensitive to those smells. I agreed with him that this is an asshole move. Then I made up that I have a sensitivity to body odor, since we were just making up diagnoses.
People who shun deodorant will often fall back on some wellness bullshit, but I think it’s actually more attention-seeking. Or self-involved. It’s doing something they want to do, no matter how it affects those around them.
As the writer of the 2016 GQ piece The Case for Not Wearing Deodorant writes, “One day, my stick ran out and I just never bought another. I set myself free. When the effects of slathering on deodorant for eons finally wore off a few days later, I discovered that I actually appreciate my own aromatic notes.”
It’s very me-centric. He likes it, so the people around him must like it. It’s no wonder shirking deodorant is a key part of MAHA. You know, Make America Healthy Again, where people also shirk vaccines for their children, because it makes them feel special and, plus, their parents ensured they’d never get measles?
I don’t know that the sauna perpetrator—and I know exactly who he is, because he’s driven me out before—says it’s a health thing, but he has the crunchy look that tells me probably.
He also has a very…frozen visage, if you catch my drift.
AshevilleExplorer 