Black Women + The Hygiene Olympics (Patreon)
Content
Youtube almost tried to demonetize this video-- please go up for it and comment/like/share when it goes live! <3
Who uses rags vs loofahs? Who doesn't shower every day? Who uses liquid soap but no bar soap? Be honest-- you've probably played in the Hygiene Olympics before, especially if you're a black woman. But where does the overcompensating--- 3-6 showers a day, wearing panty liners everyday, douching, etc— come from? How does it fit into a broader pattern of mainly white celebrities and people sharing that they don’t bathe? And more pressingly— how has the vulva health of black women been compromised due to a desire to escape racist stereotypes? Let's chat!
Sources
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-021-00404-7
https://yourdaye.com/vitals/womens-health/black-women-vaginal-microbiome-thrush-bv/
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2805&context=oa_dissertations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3Kown_HzTE
https://zora.medium.com/the-hygiene-culture-wars-that-started-on-social-media-3e5c0ac8be55
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/13/business/media/13adnewsletter2.html?_r=2
https://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/northup/northup.html
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25073854/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/05/31/feminine-wash-honey-pot-history/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/05/31/feminine-wash-honey-pot-history/
https://www.thecut.com/2022/05/what-happened-with-honey-pot-company-we-explain.html
https://www.allure.com/story/spiritual-bathing-black-community
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/06/i-stopped-showering-and-life-continued/486314/
https://timeline.com/sexist-history-douching-bcc39f3d216c
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/business/johnson-and-johnson-talc-corn-starch.html
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