How Often Do You Shower?
A minor kerfuffle erupted on social media last week when a few Hollywood celebrities wrote that they don't shower/bathe themselves or their children every day. Reactions ranged from, "That's disgusting!" to "This is wealthy people showing their un-self-conscious privilege by conspicuously eschewing a luxury [the ability to take a shower, apparently] that not all of us have," to, "Well, that's actually okay and appropriate." ...The latter being said by medical clinicians who wandered into the fray.
I'm with the latter group. I don't shower every day.
No, I don't reject grooming as some kind of bizarre fashion statement.
No, I'm not trying to flex on people who don't have running water. (How many people who lack running water have computers or smartphones and Internet connections and use them to follow Hollywood celebrities on Twitter, anyway?)
I'm simply in the category of not needing to shower every day and choosing not to do it out of social pressure.
I don't need to shower every day because I don't get that dirty. I have a desk job and I work from home. I don't get dirty or even break a sweat at that. I have air conditioning, so even when it's hot out in the summer I can minimize sweating indoors. Understand this doesn't mean I shower once a week or something ridiculous like that. I'm just saying that when I choose to skip showering once or twice a week I'm not a disgusting mess.
Sometimes, of course, I do something sweaty or dirty. I hike on a dirt trail. I swim in the pool (which gets chlorine all over me). I travel on an airplane- which leaves a smell in my hair and who-knows-what on my skin. In these cases I generally take a shower that day. See, that's the flip side of being free of the tyranny of I-must-shower-every-morning. I clean when I'm dirty, even if it means taking a shower in the afternoon or evening.
Keep reading: ...And I Don't Always Use Soap, Either!
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/99053.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]
I'm with the latter group. I don't shower every day.
No, I don't reject grooming as some kind of bizarre fashion statement.
No, I'm not trying to flex on people who don't have running water. (How many people who lack running water have computers or smartphones and Internet connections and use them to follow Hollywood celebrities on Twitter, anyway?)
I'm simply in the category of not needing to shower every day and choosing not to do it out of social pressure.
I don't need to shower every day because I don't get that dirty. I have a desk job and I work from home. I don't get dirty or even break a sweat at that. I have air conditioning, so even when it's hot out in the summer I can minimize sweating indoors. Understand this doesn't mean I shower once a week or something ridiculous like that. I'm just saying that when I choose to skip showering once or twice a week I'm not a disgusting mess.
Sometimes, of course, I do something sweaty or dirty. I hike on a dirt trail. I swim in the pool (which gets chlorine all over me). I travel on an airplane- which leaves a smell in my hair and who-knows-what on my skin. In these cases I generally take a shower that day. See, that's the flip side of being free of the tyranny of I-must-shower-every-morning. I clean when I'm dirty, even if it means taking a shower in the afternoon or evening.
Keep reading: ...And I Don't Always Use Soap, Either!
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/99053.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]