People always complain about strong perfume and cologne, but I’d rather those heavily-scented individuals intoxicate me with those smells than stand, or sit, next to people who haven’t washed their hair in two weeks! I’m talking about some of the smelly people who sometimes happen to sit near me on the metro transit buses! The other day I had to sit on a fairly-packed bus on a sweltering day behind this “gothic-looking” person with greasy black hair. Every fucking time hot wind from outside had blown in the windows, it blown the horrible stench of that individual’s dirty hair right in my face! I was feeling nausious the whole time until she got off! Why don’t some of you fellow passengers shower? I know some are too poor to shower regularly so this message is JUST to the greasy-haired weirdos who choose to be dirty and stinky: Take a fucking shower and clean the rat’s nest on your head, or stay the fuck away from me! I shouldn’t have to move to another seat because of you! Don’t be so lazy! Be your own person by not bathing as much as the norm, but don’t subject me to your funk PLEASE!
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 6, 2008.
It’s too bad that some people’s odours disgust you. However, most of the people who complain about perfume and cologne are actually made sick by it and not just “disgusted.” Suck it up. There are other humans in the world. Or, stop riding the pig truck.
On one hand, suck it up. it’s summer. people are going to sweat. sweat smells. we all smell. in fact, isn’t there soemthing about pheremones? but on the other: is it really too much to ask for some basic hygeine? Showerings one thing….but on the extreme level, I was once waiting at the emergency room with a pal last winter, and while we were there, a cop brought in this older homeless guy (by the look of him). while the orderly confiscated his bottle of listerine, from which he was chugging, the rest of us struggled to breath- the man literally stank like an outhouse. over the course of the next hour or so, people gradually drifted from the main waiting room to the tiny little overflow chairs in the hallway….when a nurse came by and looked at us puzzled as to why we were all squeezed there, we just gestured and told her to go smell. it was so bad sitting there literally made another girl wiaitng have to run adn vomit. THAT is extreme, but my point is that more people are unable to handle, legitimatly, really heinous body smells than perfumes et al, which I think have taken on this spoilt princess aura of cool (the cool kids are all ‘scent sensitive’- ooo look how fragile I am!)
I think it’s some kind of right of passage. Every young bo-ho has to go through a year or so of not showering regularly. That, and rolling in patchoulie oil and experimenting with dreads. It’s kind of cute really….as long as you don’t stand too closely.
“which I think have taken on this spoilt princess aura of cool”That attitude reeks of someone who can’t realize that some people are different than them (and not just in personality). I don’t give two shits if it’s trendy to hate scents, some people are made really sick. Honestly, and genuinely fucking ill. With different symptoms for different people or depending on different chemicals.You’re lack of sensitivity to people that are not the same as you, just because you can’t relate, has me close to vomiting.That said, in extreme cases, I agree. That’s gross. However, do you honestly expect a homeless listerine drinking man to be able to shower?OP, just like you shouldn’t have to change seats because of someone’s smell, my friends shouldn’t have to get off the bus altogether because someone didn’t think soap and water was good enough and doused themselves in perfume.That’s life.
If you want to travel with the great unwashed on Transit then you better be prepared to live with the stench!
Some people are made close to vomiting by the teeniest tiniest, often self-suggested, things…
I’m just saying, how often did we hear about these oh-so-many scent sensitive people 5 years ago? Myself, I don’t like walking down the laundry aisle at grocery stores- that powdery dryer sheet scent makes it hard to breath, and if someone’s put one of those sheets in with my laundry, it makes me itch. BUT I handled it myself, and didn’t expect the whole world to bend over backwards and give up their scented deodorant on my behalf!now, when I do wear scented products, do I make sure I follow my grandma’s rule- meaning that someone should have to be standing in my personal bubble to smell it? yes. People do have legitimate sensitivities, and that’s fine. I just think a lot of folks have gotten carried away with it; a lot of people seem to confuse ‘scent sensitivity’w ith just not liking a scent. or as I said before, it’s almost trendy to be sensitive now. and while there are some people who are legitimatly bothered by scents, there are I think very few who are actually physically endangered or bothered enough by them to merit the current rash of scent-nazi that’s going around.how close to me do you have to stand to be bothered by my scented deodarant?
I’ve said this before, but I think the more scent-free the city becomes, the more sensitive its residents become. Our bodies acclimatize to all kinds of things when they are present but they lose this “immunity” when they aren’t.Before nurses made this scent-sensitivity thing trendy and popular with the unionists and the cat-sweater people back in the early 90s it was totally unheard of.
Cat sweaters. Now THERE’S an interesting topic.How does one become a cat sweater person? Is a person born a cat sweater person, or is it a choice the cat sweater person makes, perhaps in response to an overbearing mother, or continuous rejection by non-cat sweater people?
Sounds like instead of the world changing for you, maybe you could change your attitude for the good of the world. “I shouldn’t have to change to another seat because of you!” followed immediately by “Don’t be so lazy!”… okay, there, Hypocrit-eeees.
I’m always fascinated by cat-sweater people. Their outward goody-two-shoes-edness, and sweetness, and seeming airheadedness. Until they witness someone breaking some unwritten rule, like smoking behing a CRV, whereupon they become the most judgmental, nastiest, rattingest, stuck up little bitches you’ve ever heard. They never raise their voice or lose that sweet goody-two-shoes tone in their voice. But you KNOW if you were one of their children they would lock you in a closet with a glowing picture of Jesus and five rosaries and wouldn’t let you out until you REPENTED, you DIRTY DIRTY LITTLE BOY.Yeah I think they are created in much the same way as Stephen King created Carrie’s mother.
I think the story of how the cat sweater person came to be deserves it’s own Jammie/Homer-esque epic telling… don’t be afraid to post it during the bitching hour, either…
personally, i can’t stomach the stench of pungent perfumes and the like. then add a bit of body odour to the mix, and you’ve get an olfactory feast of sweet smelling grotesqueness.is it really necessary to douse yourselves in an obnoxious cloud of ARTIFICIAL stinkery?i mean, if you smell like a pile of pooh, no amount of perfumery is gonna cover up that fact. you’re just gonna end up smelling worse than a steamy pile of shit and everyone downwind of you is gonna notice that you’re desperately trying to cover up your BO with artificial scents.take a bath, wash your box, and be done with it.
Oh, man, I don’t know if I’m up for another one…Never know though…watch this space…
It’s OK if you can’t, jams. I’m going to read the other one about 42 more times before bed tonight anyway.I agree – covering up BO with perfume or cologne is plain nasty. I like the advice – wash your box and be done with it. Words to live by.Now if you’ll be so kind as to return to your seat and refrain from making any calls from your cell phone, I have a building to crash this bitch into.
I think the OP secretly wants to do it with a goth chick after reading between the lines.
Okay… I have particularly sensitive skin, so therefore, I can’t wear scented products.. I have unscented AP, and I DO shower every day (sometimes twice-depending)… However, what is it with the “studs” who wear “AXE” like it’s a weapon? I see it (smell it) everyday, mostly at Scotia Square… There’s a language school on 2nd floor… one of the lessons should be: Assault by Body Odour.. It’s mostly Pakistani and Lebanese men who seem to douse themselves… I got on the elevator at LL (lower lever-Mall) and it stopped at G (Ground-Duke St)… two guys got on who smelled like they worked in the AXE factory… But after they got off on the 2nd floor, we proceeded to stop on 3 other floors before I was able to “dismount” and the AXE still stunk!!
and then there’s the ridiculous Febreze shit that megacorp Procter & Gamble are choking us to death with. that vile crap is nauseating.when there are malodorous molecules funking up the air space, why not simply open the windows, and just let in some fresh(er) air??fact is, we already dump waaay too much synthetic/man-made chemical crap/pollution into our environment; do we really need to be dousing our bodies in stinky perfumes and spraying scented chemical soups (like febreze) into the furniture??
OK. YES, there a normal whiffiness that happens to all of us, especially on a hot , muggy day . . . but THEN there is that “I’m not bathing because it’s bourgeois” idea that certain academic types like to resurrect every few years.There is a couple in our building who are both profs at big universities in this city . . . and they, never, EVER bathe or shower. I am not talking about skipping a day, or getting sweaty from work or exercise. They simply . . don’t. Why? Because they have made an intentional choice that not bathing is “their thing”—and that the rest of us are too sensitive and should just get used to — and enjoy — their “natural” filthy smell. I dare anyone to stand in an elevator with either of these freaks and then tell me that this is just “normal human odour.” I am not exaggerating when I say that you get a blast of stink from more than 2 metres away, and that yes, the stench is literally strong enough to cause a person to vomit. These two people smell like shit and they KNOW it.I am sure their lucky students point this problem each and every semester, but I get the impression that this only strengthens their stance as truly elite pioneers of progressive thought. The world is a crowded place. Do us all a favour and try to make your body odour bearable — or don’t act all surprised when nobody wants to talk to you because they can’t stand to be anywhere near you.
ewww, RJ, that’s just gross… smelling bad on-purpose??and university profs eventhe pair of them should be handed bars of soap and mercilessly blasted with high pressure water cannons, with special attention given to their naughty bits.couldn’t they be deemed a public biohazard or something?