At least Eastern Europeans are assumed to have some intelligence and free agency- even if they are accused of being predatory about how they exercise it. East Asian women still have to deal with the whole we’re being “taken advantage of” trope.
We’re just too confused, ignorant and starving to fend off the advances of those evil foreign men LOL.
I revisited this thread because I wanted to see where it would lead. It went… interesting.
I also came back because of this: [quote=“CLamb, post:18, topic:97961, full:true”]
Although there are some diseases which give people a scent the scent of recently washed folks is mostly due to what they have been eating.
[/quote]
This reminded me of several things.
First, yes, there are a lot of syndromes where scent could even be used as a diagnostic feature. As far as I remember, there is a team at the university of Marburg working on a device detecting specific volatile signatures for illnesses. The pitch is, also AFAIR, to test is you can smell some forms of cancer.
Second, hell yes, your diet influences your smell, directly and indirectly. Amino acids are particularly interesting in this context, I assume. I had a friend working in methionin synthesis for a while, produced as an additive for poultry fodder, and wow, did he smell. Just by inhalation, he obtained quite a distinctive odour. However, not everyone noticed: seems like some people couldn’t detect this particular smell. Also, as avid asparagus aficionados will know, not everyone develops the typical smell in their urine after indulging in the kingly vegetable. Which leads me to the third, and most interesting point.
Genetics.
Tailored medication is just one aspect where we can see that we are in truly challenging territory here. There are already approaches screening groups of patients genetically to their future benefit. Biological sex and ethnicity do play a role in how medication is metabolised, or how it affects your body and mind. Ethically and socially, the challenges implicated are growing, of course. And companies are very aware of both challenges and opportunities. I remember an article about deodorants from a couple of years ago, published in the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit. They cited a developer at a large German manufacturer who said that China was a bit of a problem for them due to the fact that most people there wouldn’t need deodorant due to the fact that - and I quote from memory here - they had “white earwax, and if you don’t have yellow earwax, you don’t sweat smelly”. They went on to say that Brazil, having a (at the time) rising economy and a large population with yellow earwax THE emerging market for the company. As additional plus was stated that a nearly hairless body would be a strong beauty thing in Brazil so people would buy shaving products and skin care en gros.
Strange world we live in.
Not only in regard to gender and ethnical stereotypes. Also, in matters of deodorants.
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