Body Odor and Biopolitics: Characterizing Smell in Neoliberal America

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 can result in spatial segregation and termination from employment yet goes unchallenged by social justice movements.Drawing on research in disability and biopolitics, this book examines how ableist rhetoric legitimizes treating strong-smelling people as defective individuals rather than a marginalized group, elevates mainstream society into arbiters of odor, and drives sales of hygiene products for making bodies acceptable.