Smell, Murder, and Bodies

Smell is vital to who we are, and how we experience the world around us. Nothing makes me feel warmth like the smell of a loved one, the familiarity of the smell of my bed (especially when I've been away from it for so long, and I crave its comfort), and the quick wave of scent we catch passing by a bakery triggering a memory from our childhood home. 

In High School, my class read Perfume during English class, a book mentioned in Ackerman's chapter on smell as well. The story was captivating, and at the same time, confusing- how could smell have so much power, enough to trigger murder and, well even orgies?? But smell is in fact, wildly powerful. It is so intertwined with taste, with memory, and with passion- it is a marker of identity, we all have a unique smell and we choose unique smells to decorate ourselves with. We fall in love with the smell of the people we love- we can chalk it down to pheromones, or we can chalk it down to passion. We smell with our nose, but it truly is a full body experience. 

The smell of gasoline, sharpies, feces, flowers, perfume. The smell of marijuana that stoners inhale with excitement in their eyes, while those who disagree with its' use gag along. How do we decide what smells we like, and how much of it is really our choice. Ackerman states, "Children like most smells until they're old enough to be taught differently" which provides insight on how/ why different groups of people (whether it be different religious groups, different ethnic groups etc) grow up believing different smells are "good" v "bad" and have differing opinions- they are constantly fed varying input.

This idea leads to questions of when this starts, if we are naturally repelled by some smells for purpose of survival and evolution, if different scent receptors can receive different smells in different ways?   

Following this, isn't it interesting to think about the relation of smell and the human body? Some people find body odor sensual and yearn for the smell, while some cultures consider body odor so appalling that it can literally exclude you from joining the military. Biology plays a factor in body smell of course, especially with differences in body hair presence throughout cultures. However, our reception of body hair is separate from this concept, can even be closely tied to capitalism- the desire to sell us products to change the way we smell is benefited greatly by the internalization of society that our natural odor is, well, gross. As capitalism works to benefit off our judgement of smell, so does sexism. The smell of a woman's vagina, an odor that is greatly politicized and criticized, displays the rooted misogyny and misinformation of where the smell genuinely originates from.  

Smells are essential to our understanding of the world around us, and before recent times I never thought about the absence of smell. I had read somewhere that if you hold your nose, you can't taste food as much- but I only viewed this fact as a way to eat brussel sprouts without absolute disgust. However, with Covid's emergence and the newly popularized idea of anosmia, I grew awareness of just how essential smell is through reading people's experiences. It was described as torturous- the effects weren't temporary they were permanent and dreadful. It forces us to ask ourselves what we really lose when we lose our smell- what mental effects occur, what consequences could result from it, just how much of our daily lives will be completely altered?