Body Odor and Biopolitics: Characterizing Smell in Neoliberal America - Paperback

by Nat Lazakis (Author)

Originally rooted in stereotypes about race and class, the modern norm of bodily odorlessness emerged amid 19th and early 20-century developments in urban sanitation, labor relations and product marketing. Today, discrimination against strong-smelling people includes spatial segregation and termination from employment yet goes unchallenged by social justice movements. This book examines how neoliberal rhetoric legitimizes treating strong-smelling people as defective individuals rather than a marginalized group, elevates authority figures into arbiters of odor, and drives sales of hygiene products for making bodies acceptable.

Author Biography

Nat Lazakis is an independent researcher who studies how late capitalist institutions affect experiences of embodiment and place. His writing has appeared in the Journal of Radical Librarianship and in Ethics and the Environment. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.