Daily showering, cleaning unnecessary

Breeze Reader's View

Why do you shower so often? Why are your clothes always in the washer and dryer? Why do you change your clothes every day? I was under the impression that college was about embracing new ideas. I was under the impression that college was about changing who you were.

So many of you — my fellow students, my friends and even some of the most radical-thinking individuals I know at this university — are unable to change or even question your beliefs about cleanliness. You accept them blindly, not even questioning why you have them. Maybe it was your parents' teaching ever since you were little. Maybe it was the smelly boy you made fun of until he cried all through your pre-college days. Maybe it is your fear that if you smell funny or don't look clean, you will never find anyone to love you.

Well, I question even my most fundamental beliefs and do you know the results I've come upon? There is no reason for this obsessive cleaning that goes on in our society. Where has it come from? If you watch television, you can see that somebody clearly wants you to buy his or her cleaning products. From scary cartoon germs and bacteria to women having orgasms from shampoo, we constantly are bombarded with the idea that cleaning is not only safe, it's cool and fun, too.

Is there any evidence backing these commercials? Is there any evidence backing some of our fundamental beliefs about cleanliness? I recognize that cleanliness is definitely important in lots of situations, especially in medical situations and, of course, we all know that germs cause sicknesses, but have we taken this too far? I have lived the unclean lifestyle to tell you, yes we have.

Let me tell you something that may be shocking to you at first, but if you think about it, it really isn't that big of a deal. I shower once a week. I wear the same clothes every day that same week. I rarely use deodorant. I rarely use soap when cleaning my dishes. This kind of thinking would have scared me when I first came to college. If someone would have told me they did this, I would have laughed and made fun of them. As a freshman, I would shower once or twice a day. I would wear my clothes for one day and then they would be dirty. I would use half a bottle of soap when cleaning dishes. Deodorant was applied daily.

Then, something happened. I noticed my friends didn't wash their clothes all the time. I skipped a shower every once in a while. Then, I thought, why do I hold these beliefs about cleanliness? I was dumfounded. It just seems pretty obvious to me that you shouldn't do something if you have no justification backing your belief to do it.

After that, I started holding off showers, testing myself to see how long I could go. I started sniffing my clothes — when exactly did they get smelly and did it even matter if they were smelly? Deodorant was applied less and less. We know where stains on our clothing came from, but have no idea from where the cleaning detergent came. Finally I started embracing my own smell, my own natural body odor.

I've had difficulties, I admit, and do wash after exercising, breaking my once-a-week habit. I've been taught by society to be ashamed of my body odor, to want to hide it. I've been taught that no one will like me if I smell. I've been taught that I will never find love if I smell. I chose to embrace the change, though. I don't know where these cleaning solutions come from; I don't know the long-term detrimental health effects that come from applying them to my body daily. Also, I just can't legitimize to myself the time it takes for cleanliness and the cost of cleaning solutions now that I know the truth.

I'm sick of being scared into buying cleaning products. I'm sick of being scared into bathing daily. I'm sick of wondering what people will think about me if I wear the same clothes day after day. Most of all I'm sick of believing things for no other reason than the fact that I've always believed them and, hence, should continue to believe them.

So, come on, join me. Let's make every classroom on campus smell like a human being rather than a product forced upon us by an industry and a culture that uses fear as its weapon of choice. Embrace change; embrace the fact that you have no legitimate reasons for your obsessive cleaning habits. We shouldn't just follow the examples of society blindly; we should challenge the social norms and find the real reasons why we act the way we do.

Jared Bowie is a junior philosophy major.