Personal Deodorants

As a culture we have become obsessed with cleanliness,
personal hygiene, and bodily appearances. What drives this
obsession? Is it coming from within us or from the corporations
selling the 'sanitation' products? Where do our values and definitionsof
'cleanliness' come from? The expression 'cleanliness is next to Godliness'
has underpin Western civilisation. It arose out of a class society in which the
'haves' were clean and the 'have-not' were not.

Those who possessed the wealth and power required to have the leisure to remain
indoors, inactive, scorned the peasants and travellers whose lifestyles involved getting their hands and bodies dirty.

In the past, as in the present, we use cleanliness as a standard of worth by those among us who have the power to ascribe social status. It is these people who proclaim that 'cleanliness is next to Godliness', because it suits their agenda of superiority to do so.

So we value cleanliness, but what is 'cleanliness'? How do we define it? Today, we don't usually define cleanliness for ourselves, but rely on the definition provided by the corporations who market and sell 'sanitation products'. We are looking at three issues:

Sanitation corporations would have us believe that the only way to rid our skin of dirt is to use toxic chemicals. This is clearly nonsense. They would also have us believe that we cannot come into contact with normal everyday germs. This is also nonsense – it has been shown that because many of us live in an almost aseptic environment, our immune system does not have the opportunity to build up sufficient antibodies, and it then cannot fight off more serious attacks to our health. As for smell, we have been told by these corporations that natural bodily odours are 'unnatural' and must be obliterated, disguised, and we must instead, smell like a toxic chemical cocktail!

Are these corporations interested in our health and cleanliness or in their own financial gains? This is surely a rhetorical question.

What do we lose by agreeing with the sanitation corporations? Obsession with removing all dirt and bacteria leaves our body open to infection, by denying our immune system the opportunity to develop antibodies to everyday germs and so strengthen itself. More importantly when we obliterate our natural smells we lose our individual identity and we lose an important communication mechanism. Our natural scents attract us to each other and bond us emotionally to each other through memory and association. We now bond with chemical smells not natural unique scents, so we can find ourselves being attracted to a person who has the same synthetic chemical smell as someone else we love. Confusion!

The natural pheromones that allow us to communicate with each other, and play a major role in our sexuality are now completely overpowered by standardised chemical smells. We have lost the knowledge of what it is to be a natural human being with natural human smells. We have lost so much it is impossible to really understand what we have lost and how this will impact on us and our descendants in the longer term.

There are eight reasons why sanitation corporations want to sell you deodorant.

Eight reasons why Capitalist Sanitation Corporations want to sell you deodorant:

1. Body smells are erotic and sexual. Capitalists don't like that because they are impotent

and opposed to all manifestations of sensuality and sexuality. Sexually awakened people are potentially dangerous to capitalists and their rigid, asexual system.

2. Body smells remind us that we are animals. Capitalists don't want us to be reminded of that. Animals are dirty. They eat things off the ground, not out of plastic wrappers. They are openly sexual. They don't wear suits or ties, and they don't get their hair done. They don't show up to work on time.

3. Body smells are unique. Everyone has her own body smell. Capitalists don't like individuality. There are millions of body smells but only a few deodorant smells. Capitalists like that.

4. Some deodorants are harmful. Capitalists like that because they are always looking for new illnesses to cure. Capitalists love to invent new medicines. Medicines make money for them and win them prizes; they also cause new illnesses so capitalists can invent even more new medicines.

5. Deodorants cost you money. Capitalists are especially pleased about that.

6. Deodorants hide the damage that capitalist products cause your body. Eating meat and other chemical-filled foods sold by capitalists makes you smell bad. Wearing pantyhose makes you smell bad. Capitalists don't want you to stop wearing pantyhose or eating meat.

7. Deodorant-users are insecure. Capitalists like insecure people. Insecure people don't start trouble. Insecure people also purchase room fresheners, hair conditioners, makeup, and magazines with articles about dieting.

8. Deodorants are unnecessary. Capitalists are very proud of that and they win marketing awards for it.

Source: www.crimethinc.com