The last time I flew in a plane, I went
sardine-class. After that experience, I thought first or ‘business’-class had
to be much better. Until recently that is, when I read one Aspie’s complaint on
Facebook of how first-class passengers so often seem to drench themselves with
perfume. My immediate thought was – argh! No first-class for me then! I have
always had real problems with strong perfumes. Once, many years ago when I was
extremely ill with the CFS, I was visited at home by a woman from the agency supplying
household help to me. It was one of my ‘bad’ days, and I was in bed. She stood
in the doorway of my bedroom to talk to me, about ten or twelve feet away, yet
even from that distance I was overwhelmed by her perfume. It was as if she’d
bathed in it. By the time she left (only about 5 or 10 minutes later) I was half-fainting,
even though I was already lying down! It was so bad that after she’d gone, my
partner ran around opening every door and window, even though it was a chilly
day, just to get the smell out.
Perhaps it’s just me, or my generation, but I
was taught by my female relatives when young that perfume was to be sparingly
applied, at wrists and behind ears, etc, as an alluring hint – not a portable stink-cloud
that assaults the noses of anyone within twenty feet of you. (I was also taught
to only wear one of each category of jewellery. My grandmother’s generation
would not have understood bling!) This thing of smothering yourself in scent
seems to be very much a recent phenomenon.
And then there’s the fragrances in things like
soap, shower gel, shampoo, etc – why is it necessary for them to be so strongly
perfumed? I have real trouble finding toiletries with perfumes/perfume levels I
can tolerate, which are also relatively cheap, readily available, and without
ingredients I react to. (Not to mention every time I do, they seem to change
the brand or formula, but that’s another whole set of complaints.) Some have
even been known to make me want to vomit, or give me headaches, and I avoid the
really cheap-and-nasty shampoos, etc, for this reason.
There’s also the reek of cleaning products and
disinfectants – another aspie also commented on those on Facebook recently, as
she’d realised a particular disinfectant was causing her meltdowns at work.
Again, why is it necessary to have them stink so strongly? Surely they could
formulate products without these horrible stinks that assault the nostrils and
sting the back of the throat. It seems to me that these, along with toiletries
and fragrances, have all got stronger and smellier too, over the last forty
years or so.
So why? What is the reason for the overwhelming
amount of perfume, cologne, etc, some people use? I really don’t understand why
they insist on liberally slathering themselves with them. Is it some kind of
status thingy again? (I never noticed such strong odours in sardine-class.)
Perhaps if people are able to afford such expensive scents, they want everyone
within twenty feet to know it? (I’d be inclined to say “yeah, yeah, we get the
message, you’re loaded, now can you please go and wash off at least half that
stink?”)
And why is it so hard to find toiletries etc,
without strong scents? Is it just my imagination, that these have been ‘amped
up’ in recent decades? I don’t think this is an issue only for aspies either – with
that over-perfumed woman above, my partner didn’t have to be asked to open
those windows and doors, she found it overwhelming too. And surely there must
be others who feel the same.
Once again, I’m left not only reeling from the
sensory assaults, but from not understanding something that perhaps ‘everyone
else’, or at least every NT, knows without saying.
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