This goes for all of us comrades. Don’t be stinky

  • Sanctus@anarchist.nexusEnglish
    30·
    5 days ago

    Have you tried showering every fucken day!? And then my towel also gets like dirty and needs to be cleaned wtf!? This place sucks ass

    • Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem]@hexbear.netEnglish
      132·
      4 days ago

      Genuinely, showering every day is a completely arbitrary standard rooted in classism and colonialism that’s effectively impossible (or even counterproductive, depending on things like climate and hair texture) for many people to achieve. I’d go so far as to say that what constitutes a “bad smell” to begin with is to a large extent (but far from totally) socially conditioned. I won’t say that these facts justify being stinky at the org meeting, but they are worth pointing out as an example of the inherent tension between prosocial and antisocial behavior in a popular revolutionary movement.

      This being said, I interpret the Soviet poster as more being about e.g. washing your hands and face every day, which to me seems a lot more doable, reasonable, and environmentally friendly than showering every day.

      • lorty@lemmy.mlEnglish
        10·
        4 days ago

        Must be nice being in a climate where discussing not showering every day is reasonable.

      • Omegamint [comrade/them, doe/deer]@hexbear.netEnglish
        81·
        4 days ago

        I would say a lot of the dynamic around showering daily is kinda unnecessary, but it really depends entirely on how one approaches it. If I didnt have sebderm I definitely wouldn’t wash my hair every day. If you dont do anything physical that gets you to sweat a ton you can probably skip showers (as long as you put on some kind of deodorant, or at least wash off your pits with a wet towel, etc). The problem is people will go way further than this and make their stink everyone else’s problem. It honestly devolves into an antisocial behavior.

        • Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem]@hexbear.netEnglish
          7·
          4 days ago

          Yes, being stinky is antisocial behavior, but what I’m saying is that there is a tension between prosocial and antisocial behavior in communists: it is not always good to be prosocial, and it is not always bad to be antisocial: these terms as I use them only describe adherence to social norms, nothing else. To be a good communist you must simultaneously be the most prosocial and antisocial you can possibly be: Prosocial, because you must be animated by a profound love for humanity and a desire to uplift all the people around you, and because you must appeal to and mobilize millions if not billions of average people for your movement to succeed; and antisocial, because you must recognize all the harmful norms of society imposed by the ruling class and internalized by the same people you’re trying to mobilize, and fight to overthrow those norms. To be fully prosocial alone is to accept the status quo. To be fully antisocial alone is to show a total disregard for the people around you. To be fully prosocial and fully antisocial at the same time is to be a revolutionary. This is my point.

          Bringing this back to personal hygiene: What I mean to say is that if you go around with stinky pits in a culture where this is taboo, then it does not matter if you can eloquently describe that taboo’s origins in the ideology of the ruling class, or how hypocritical society is when other smells that you absolutely cannot stand are seen as perfectly normal, if not the epitome of fragrance. Your words do not matter if you stink, because most people don’t want to hang out with people who stink. Most people won’t hear you out, and whatever revolutionary movement you claim to represent will just become “those stinky weirdos”, and it will fizzle out and die. The theory of connotations of smells being socialized is correct, but the praxis of disregarding those connotations entirely, is incorrect. This is the real reason why it’s bad to be a stinky communist.

          This is ultimately largely the same point as you’re making, but I think the change of framing is important.

          • Omegamint [comrade/them, doe/deer]@hexbear.netEnglish
            6·
            4 days ago

            A lot of what you’ve said just reminds me of how behavior in online spaces like this just don’t really translate well into the real. I’ve seen a lot of people here advocate some pretty extremely antisocial behavior that may be some justifiable in a way, but just doesn’t work out when you’re out in the world. It can be frustrating because it’s often a “well you’re not completely wrong, but…” situation.

            Anyways sorry, I’m not being super eloquent today as I’m like 4 beers deep on a day off I didn’t intend to take