Pollution, Purity, and Pong: The Connection Between Smell, Vaginal Health, and Sexual Impurity

Introduction "[The womb] will in a manner descend or arise vnto any sweete smell and from any thing that is noisome", (Crooke, Mikrokosmographia, 1615). Here Crooke discusses connections between the female body and smell, arguing that its increased sensitivity causes a woman's womb to wander throughout her body. Three hundred

years later, adverts stated that, without douching, wives could "lose the precious air of romance" (Lysol douche ad, 1948). Now Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop promotes vaginal steaming and the trend of 'wellness' grifting is causing harm to women and their bodies for the purpose of freshness and purity. Connections between smell,

vaginal health, and sexual impurity persisted across centuries of social and medical thought. I will analyse the historical use of smell in the olfactory othering of women to challenge vernacular misinformation. Previous historiography underestimated the role of sensory history in the construction of contemporary female experience.

Rather than assuming a culturally specific relationship, I shall demonstrate the long-standing influence of ideas connecting smell, shame, and female impurity. Misconceptions that natural vaginal aromas are linked to poor hygiene and sexual impurity are so ingrained that women are ashamed to seek medical help, avoid

smear tests, and use dangerous chemicals for feminine hygiene. By studying the olfactory othering of women, medical practitioners and women can better understand the female body, phasing out misinformation impacting women today. Research context, questions, and significance The study of smell in concert with health and disease is becoming increasingly

common in history. The Foul and the Fragrant by Alain Corbin explores social connections between a person's health and the smells surrounding them in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France. However, vaginal health is a topic into which academics are just starting to delve. With only brief mentions within a wider

analysis of sensory history, the impact of social constructions of vaginal smell on women is underestimated. Corbin's work, though extensive, often fails to recognise the modern-day implications that mediaeval and early modern perceptions of smell and vaginal health have. Rather than being a culturally / temporally specific

phenomenon, the connection between smell, vaginal health, and sexual impurity is present throughout history. There is currently only one example of a comparative approach - "From Gorgons to Goop" by Margaret Day Elsner - in which Elsner compares only two examples of the connection between smell and vaginal health:

ancient medicine and myths, and contemporary 'women-centred' holistic groups. Both case studies demonstrate the use of misogynistic misinformation for the olfactory othering of women. Expanding on this, I will investigate mediaeval, early modern, modern, and contemporary examples, using a comparative method of

analysis. By doing so, I will show that the misogynistic misconceptions surrounding vaginal health that are deeply ingrained into modern day constructs of gender and race are not culturally specific but are, in fact, part of a much wider story.