At work we have a very nice bathroom that is used almost exclusively by the library staff. There is another bathroom in the main part of the library for students. Because we have our own bathroom, we are able to keep things in there, so there are some small plastic storage drawers for us to use for personal items.
On top of the drawers is a can of air freshener. Believe it or not, it took me a little while to figure out that the air freshener is meant to "clear the air" after one takes a poo.
When I first realized this, it was a relief, on some level, because sometimes I feel self conscious about pooping at work and if there is air freshener in the bathroom for covering up poop smells then I must not be the only one who does it.
But after I got past that slightly liberated feeling, I realized that I really don't like the air freshener. It claims to "neutralize" smells, but it has a very strong scent which I, personally, find to be unpleasant. If a large amount of it has been sprayed I almost don't want to breathe while I'm in the bathroom. I think I would honestly rather smell the scent of other people's poop than breathe in, what I'm sure are, toxic fumes.
And it certainly isn't subtle. You are not hiding from anyone the fact that you pooped. Maybe other people aren't as worried about pooping subtlety as I am, but I feel like the air freshener smell screams to the world, "After I was in the bathroom, the air needed freshening!"
It gets worse, though. Now that I know what the air freshener is for, I worry that others might think I am being discourteous if I leave my own poop smell rather than covering it up with the scent of fake flowers. So even though I don't like it, I use the air freshener, too. I try to spray just the littlest bit right near the toilet so it's not up in the air people breathe. I figure at least I'm on my out of the bathroom so I don't have to smell it. But if other people really want to, I won't stop them.
In The Life of Mammals, David Attenborough says that animals that live in communities develop larger brains to help them think through social issues. This is why people are so smart compared to other animals: Because we live and work together and have to think about things like whether to cover up the smell of our poop.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Poop vs Air Freshener
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