Women’s all-body deodorants are everywhere.
See Whole Body Deodorants Are Suddenly Everywhere—Here’s How They Work and How Do Whole-Body Deodorants Work, and Are They Safe?. There’s also Why are whole-body deodorants suddenly everywhere? and Whole-body deodorant is trending, but do we need it.
We know that fear of sweat and smelling like sweat keep women out of the gym.
A few of us have written about it. See Mina’s Sweat First, Glow Later and Tracy’s Horses Sweat, Men Perspire, Women Glow: On the Politics of the Sweat-Shaming Debate and then there’s Catherine’s A feminist guide to mid-life sweating.
I’ve written my own account of coming to not mind sweating as part of becoming an adult-onset athlete. See Gonna Make You Sweat.
So what’s the scoop with women’s all-over deodorants? Are they a problem? (Aside from me being annoyed by the ads for them that are taking over my newsfeed.)
It’s complicated. Of course it is.
I mean on the one hand, if these products meet a need and they get more women to feel comfortable exercising, that’s a good thing.
On the other, if they contribute to a culture of shame associated with having a woman’s body, that’s less good.
I remember in high school when they started marketing scented sprays for “female personal hygiene.” I think they still market scented tampons and pads though I’m past that stage of life. There is this idea that women’s bodies are particularly stinky and that women ought to do something about it.
Add exercise and sweat to the mix and it gets worse. There are lots of articles out there about boob sweat, for instance. See How to Survive Boob Sweat Season. You can even buy underboob sweat absorbing pads. And then there’s crotch sweat, vagina sweat, or between-the-legs sweat.
In the New York Times article, Wait, Does Your Whole Body Need Deodorant? commentators note that the vast majority of these products seem to be marketed to women.
From the article: “Olivia Stober, a 26-year-old artist living in San Diego, said she had first started seeing ads for Secret Whole Body deodorant on YouTube earlier this year. She took particular issue with one ad that showed a montage of women exercising and hiking that began: “Want to know a secret? More than just my armpits stink.”
“I’m just like, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Ms. Stober said in an interview. “God forbid we go up for a hike and then smell like we have gone for a hike, right?”
In response, she created a TikTok video lamenting the commercial.
“They will invent something new for women to be ashamed of until the end of time,” Ms. Stober said in the clip. “We will never be free from those shackles I fear.”
Ms. Stober said that as a woman in her mid-20s, she feels confident in her decision to eschew whole body deodorant, but that may not be the case for other women and girls. She was particularly worried about tweens and teens hearing about the products and deciding there was something wrong with them that they needed to fix.
“You have a body, and you’re allowed to smell like you have a body,” she said.”
How about you? What do you think about women’s whole body deodorant? Do you agree with the worries or are you a fan?
Aaaargh! What the actual f#$%@? That’s how I feel about more sweat-shaming.
Mina puts it perfectly!