![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annwfynThis is a ramble, as Sally's LJ entries often are.
Yesterday I was bimbling about the internet, and I came across this massive piece of TMI about personal hygiene. In this entry there is an extended discussion on whether it is unhygienic to go to the toilet at 'one's time of the month' without changing one's tampon (because urine may get on the tampon string', and it then deviates at one point into whether it's icky to wear a bra more than once without washing it.
I'm not particularly going to get into the hygiene debate, but one thing that did occur to me was how terribly spoiled most western people have become in the last fifty years. We have this notion of what is acceptable personal hygiene which is entirely based on:
I'm not saying this is bad. At the end of the day, I wash my hair every couple of days, wear deodorant etc. I do buy into this too, but it is odd realising how much we've created this world in which that is the norm, when I don't think it has been for most of human history. I also wonder to what extent it is as important as we think it is.
The human race has survived wearing the same clothes for more than a day without washing them. It doesn't actually increase our chances of dying from dysentry and I'm fairly sure that no one has ever found themselves less capable of functioning if they do wear the same pants for two days running. I'm also pondering how this exaggerated notion of what basic cleanliness is has tied into the horrible determination to keep consuming, rather like a swarm of locusts, that seems to have befallen our society. We want more energy, more food that we really need, more resources than are reasonable. We are running through fossil fuels at a rate of knots because we really need to keep the endless gadgets and electricity running and running. And why?
Apparently because it's really gross to wear the same bra two days running.
Oh, in other news, I managed to break my glasses last night. As I am currently without contact lenses, due to my last set of soft lenses doing something horrible to my eyes and nearly killing me, this means I'm rather blind at the moment. I'm heading up to the optician's in a bit in the hope that they can provide me with something that I can wear which will get me into college, but otherwise I may be slightly screwed.
So, if I'm not about hugely or if I seem strangely detached from the world when you do see me, it may be blindness.
Yesterday I was bimbling about the internet, and I came across this massive piece of TMI about personal hygiene. In this entry there is an extended discussion on whether it is unhygienic to go to the toilet at 'one's time of the month' without changing one's tampon (because urine may get on the tampon string', and it then deviates at one point into whether it's icky to wear a bra more than once without washing it.
I'm not particularly going to get into the hygiene debate, but one thing that did occur to me was how terribly spoiled most western people have become in the last fifty years. We have this notion of what is acceptable personal hygiene which is entirely based on:
1) lots of labour saving devices being available to us. I am entirely sure that the 'it's gross to wear a bra two days running' crowd would not be saying that if they had a big tub of water in the kitchen and a scrubbing board.
2) an assumption that it's normal to have a lot of disposable sanitary products which are cheap and can be just thrown away. Again - this whole tampon thing is based on the assumption that tampons are easy to buy, and you'll be changing them over a flushable toilet, I'd guess.
3) the environment not having fallen over just yet. As far as I'm aware, nappies, tampons etc are really quite bad for the environment and I'm sure upping your usage of them beyond the standard 'one per X hours' isn't going to be any better.
4) access to a lot of chemicals such as aerosol cans, which let us maintain this level of finickiness about sweat, for example. We douse ourselves in chemicals daily in order to maintain these artificial collections of scents and sterility and call that 'clean'.
I'm not saying this is bad. At the end of the day, I wash my hair every couple of days, wear deodorant etc. I do buy into this too, but it is odd realising how much we've created this world in which that is the norm, when I don't think it has been for most of human history. I also wonder to what extent it is as important as we think it is.
The human race has survived wearing the same clothes for more than a day without washing them. It doesn't actually increase our chances of dying from dysentry and I'm fairly sure that no one has ever found themselves less capable of functioning if they do wear the same pants for two days running. I'm also pondering how this exaggerated notion of what basic cleanliness is has tied into the horrible determination to keep consuming, rather like a swarm of locusts, that seems to have befallen our society. We want more energy, more food that we really need, more resources than are reasonable. We are running through fossil fuels at a rate of knots because we really need to keep the endless gadgets and electricity running and running. And why?
Apparently because it's really gross to wear the same bra two days running.
Oh, in other news, I managed to break my glasses last night. As I am currently without contact lenses, due to my last set of soft lenses doing something horrible to my eyes and nearly killing me, this means I'm rather blind at the moment. I'm heading up to the optician's in a bit in the hope that they can provide me with something that I can wear which will get me into college, but otherwise I may be slightly screwed.
So, if I'm not about hugely or if I seem strangely detached from the world when you do see me, it may be blindness.
