Why have we developed an aversion to natural smells in civilized societies?

In developed countries, indoor plumbing, hot water, soap, shampoo, and deodorant are very available and affordable. During the 20th century, people were happy to trade their weekly baths for daily showers. Normal body odors disappeared and, over time, became abnormal and repulsive.

Nevermind, what @SadieMartinPaul said.

Personally, I can’t stand most strong perfumes/ colognes and only use lightly scented lotions like lavender and sage.

But why did we desire to begin bathing and such? Other animals don’t. They’ll get in the water for various reasons, but it usually isn’t to “bath” per se.

I wonder if it might be a way to elevate ourselves above other animals. We don’t like body smells because they remind us that they have a biological purpose – and we like to think that our actions are governed by the mind, not driven by the body.

Mm. Good thought @glacial.

Maybe it had something to do with hunting? Being the smart animals that we are, we might have wanted to get rid of our smell so other animals couldn’t smell us so easily?

Or…do you suppose that there was a time when people didn’t worry about it? Have you ever read Shogun?

@Dutchess_III I thought it originated with French prostitutes actually.

@Dutchess_III I don’t think that bathing became something that humans did willingly until long, long after we were a prey species for any predator. I think we rather feared it, thinking it would bring disease, until only a couple of centuries ago.

I was actually going to reference Shogun in my answer! I remember well Blackthorne’s fear of getting the flux by bathing.

I didn’t know that @KNOWITALL! Interesting.

Yeah, I heard people would sew themselves into long johns for the whole winter, leaving a flap for using the bathroom.

@Dutchess_III The American ‘mountain men’ were notoriously stinky from living in high altitudes while trapping and not bathing for ‘safety purposes’. I mean they were alone in the wilderness.

Well, being clean means fewer bugs. Less body lice, fleas, etc. Who wants to be itchy?

The Celts and Vikings had soap over 2000 years ago. The Medieval Church made bathing out to be vain and sinful (Some nuns still bathe with a robe on, lest the Good Lord Above glimpse their naked bodies. Apparently he can see through walls, but is foiled by undyed linen.)

A large part of the shift probably had to do with us developing an understanding of bacterial infections, fungal infections, external parasitism, internal parasitism, and tooth decay.

Civilised society?

But what is civilized about it, @ragingloli?

@KNOWITALL “I mean they were alone in the wilderness.”

With good reason, it seems!

@Dutchess_III
Nononono, you completely misunderstood me.
I was questioning your use of the term ‘civilised society’.
There is nothing civilised about apes.

Oh. OK. I can go with that. :)

Ph, because we forget we are animals. Some people don’t even think we are animals. We think we are some highly advanced creature that shouldn’t have to deal with anything “unpleasant”, but I like all those smells. Dog, BO (if you are healthy and sweating, your BO should not be terrifying, in fact I think it can smell good, even attractive, on a person you are attracted to), etc.

Read here disgust

“the emotion of disgust has evolved as a response to offensive foods that may cause harm to the organism. A common example of this is found in human beings who show disgust reactions to mouldy milk or contaminated meat. Many researchers have claimed that the emotion of disgust functions to protect us from disease. Disgust appears to be triggered by objects or people who possess particular types of features that signify disease.”

Self-report and behavioural studies found that disgust elicitors include
body products (feces, urine, vomit, sexual fluids, saliva, and mucus)
foods (spoiled foods)
animals (fleas, ticks, lice, cockroaches, worms, flies, rats, and mice)
hygiene (visible dirt and “inappropriate” acts e.g. using an unsterilized surgical instrument
body envelope violations (blood, gore, and mutilation)
death (dead bodies and organic decay)
visible signs of infection
The above-mentioned main disgust stimuli are similar to one another in…....read on at link”

@annabee Body odor is not harmful. It is a natural scent. There is a difference between the way a healthy person who hasn’t showered in a while smells, and the way a person smells when they are sick, which we would have an version to.

Our aversion to the natural smell is a social construct.

Just like a woman not shaving her arms or legs. In Europe, it’s fine. In America we feel “disgust.” There’s no real, biological reason to feel that way.

[Edit]

I was just wondering this today as I was sitting next to someone who wreaked. Then, while defecating, I also pondered why I think shitting is so awkward. I can’t wrap my head around it! Regarding the original question, I’m still skeptical about the reasons presented. It’s so weird. I don’t remember a time when I liked the smell, and I don’t really start getting scared that I’m going to get sick when I smell it.

When I was young I remember I didn’t mind it either.

When the wife washes her lady garden in the shower, I like to smell her fing…oh shit, what have I said now?

(@Dutchess_III I said the opposite.)

I DETEST perfumes and aerosols that are designed to make stuff “smell good”. The truth is that crap is nothing more than chemicals, and none of them have been tested for safety in the human body, but the FDA certainly doesn’t have a problem with it. I have known so many people who get massive headaches from being exposed to these perfumes chemicals. The people who have it the worst are the ones who have to work at perfume counters. It’s sad. I’d rather smell bad bad body odor all day long than that.

@Dutchess_III

It is a projection. Body odor is an indication of harm. Body odor that smells fruity is a sign of diabetes. A bleach like smell is a sign of liver/kidney disease. Sweating profusely during normal conditions is a thyroid-gland disorder, etc. Since there are too many indications of harm, all forms of foul emitting odors (even one’s that don’t cause harm) will cause disgust.

@annabee I don’t buy it. Humans are smelly. There’s no way that primitive man was able, on even a subconscious level, to deduce that a fruity smell was linked to diabetes. If they reacted at all to the way they all smelled, the entire thought process was probably “Ugh. You stink.”

And if we ever had that ability, it certainly isn’t what makes us move one seat over on the bus on a hot day.

Because your freakin’ armpits STINK, that’s why! :D

@annabee, Yes, in people who have those diseases smell bad in that way. There shouldn’t be an aversion to normal body odor in healthy people.

@WillWorkForChocolate I’m wondering if we have been conditioned to think they stink, just like we’ve been conditioned to think that arm pit or leg hair on women is gross.

^ For serious.

I used to spend an inordinate amount of time depilating every reachable inch of my body. Now, I just can’t be arsed most of the time. I make sure to shave my underarms if I’m wearing a sleeveless shirt, and if I happen to go out in a short skirt, I’ll shave my legs for the occasion. Otherwise I don’t even bother. Of course, I’m a blonde Irish girl, and I don’t have much hair anyway. I really don’t even notice it.

@Dutchess_III Nope. When your pits smell like rotten onions, they STINK. ;)

I haven’t. People who never wash do truly smell putrid, but natural body odor is a good smell to me. Likewise the smells I can’t name in without a NSFW disclaimer on the question.

I think most of my fellow Westerners are overly susceptible to the purely greed-driven messages that advertisers bombard them with. You don’t want to smell like a natural human being when you could smell like something that comes from this, now do you?