Dirty Hippie

“People don’t realize that the skin does a pretty good job of cleaning itself,” Dr. Casey Carlos, assistant professor of medicine in the division of dermatology at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.

"Why haven't you been showering?"

Me:

For a number of reasons. One reason is environmental. I just know that everytime I am showering, I am rinsing my body with a precious resource. I know that their are people in third world countries that would never let such pure, life-bringing water go down the drain. And so it's hard for me to rationalize the need to flush 25-50 gallons of water down the drain on a daily basis, primarily to remove a little sweat.

Another reason is simply anti-conformist. Recently, I have been noticing more and more that so many things we do, when questioned about why, we don't have a great reason. Or, our reason is some social construct. So why do most people shower everyday, wash their hair with scented shampoo, where deodorant, etc. I think we do it because in this modern 1st world, we are expected to.

But I question, why are we expected to smell like something we are not? Why do humans (animals that sweat just like the rest) expect other humans to smell like flowers or other chemicals that are for some reason pleasurable to our nostrils? And are these smells naturally pleasurable or are we just conditioned to appreciate them and associate them with "clean" and "fresh"?

So, I haven't been showering when I don't really need to. When I don't sweat profusely in a day, I will change my shirt and underwear, but I just can't rationalize the water consumption, to clean away a bit of sweat and the very natural seeming smell that comes with it.

Sometimes I wonder if it is kind of like lieing to wear deodorantscented body wash/shampoo/perfume/etc. Someday most of us will lay naked next to someone else, and then we are going to be forced to smell them for who they actually are. And if we have spent our whole lives thinking that people smell like flowers, we might feel cheated, like they mislead us. Well not me.

I vow that those that are close to me will not be mislead. They will know me by my true smell. And if they are so offended by who I actually am that they can't stand to be around me...that's just too bad. I think people that should be in your life should accept you for who you are.

One other reason I have been evading the use of cosmetic products wherever possible: I think that our fixation with "cleanliness" is partially a marketing scheme by big business. I think beautification products are a HUGE market, and I think it is unnecessary. I don't want to throw money at another industry that produces things that we don't need. Because we have enough stuff that we don't need.

#reflections #why #mediappreciation