Clothing Wear and Relationship Cleanliness Conflicts
Ellie and Eli discuss different attitudes about re-wearing clothes like jeans multiple times and the social pressure to change 'public' clothes after transit use.
Ellie overcame his partner's germophobic views about 'bus clothes' to find harmony.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Shoes On or Off Conflicts
Eli is a shoes-on person but adapts to cultural norms requiring shoes off inside homes, even at the cost of cold feet.
David became a shoes-off person to keep floors cleaner but feels anxious enforcing it on guests.
insights INSIGHT
Cleanliness and Evolutionary Roots
Ancient Romans and Greeks contributed to hygiene culture, adapting indigenous bathing practices as social and political expressions.
Animal grooming and tool use suggest hygiene precedes humans, linked to control and survival instincts.
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How often should you shower to remain ‘clean’? How many times can you re-wear your jeans before they are considered ‘dirty’? In episode 128 of Overthink, Ellie and David take a look at cleanliness. They get into how humans have turned cleanliness into an art, and maybe even an obsession. Why are we so bothered by dirt? What is dirt, anyways? How are notions of dirtiness and cleanliness even into our symbolic systems, including language and religion? And what is up with TikTok’s obsession with the Clean Girl Aesthetic? As they tackle these questions, your hosts also explore the historical weaponisation of the concept of cleanliness against marginalised groups, such as queer people and people of color. In the bonus, Ellie and David discuss cleanliness as a social construct, the link between it and isolation, and Michel Serres’s ‘excremental theory’ of private property.
Works Discussed: Bruce Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance Dana Berthold, “Tidy Whiteness: A Genealogy of Race, Purity, and Hygiene” L’Oreal Blackett, “In The “Hygiene Olympics” Black Folks Always Win — But Aren’t We Tired?” Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger Virginia Smith, Clean: A History of Personal Hygiene and Purity
