U of Houston sends email to students that draws attention to Indian "body odor"

Damn the lack of an edit function ... initial post should read "U of Houston PROFESSOR sends email"

Good.

The "Problem" caused by body odor is about 98% the product of Madison Avenue marketing efforts to push a variety of soaps and heretofore non-existent products like deodorant and antiperspirant. The same marketing techniques that Donald Trump uses to convince the masses he does not stink are the techniques Madison Avenue uses to convince you that you do stink. In both cases, the message being pushed is a lie.

Shower daily. Change your clothing daily. That solves the "problem" for almost everyone. Any motivated student who wants to excel and succeed will tune into this quickly. Those who don't do it on their own are never going to do it.

Totally racist, especially the bit about "most Americans" showering twice a day. Who showers twice a day anyway?

Really? Because I have studied and worked with many Indians, and I have never, ever perceived any unusual smells. Curry ca be a bit overwhelming depending on the proportions with which it is prepared, but I have never known of anyone whose house was impregnated with the scent of it, or who exuded it themselves.

Are we sure that this is a legitimate issue and not just an absurd prejudice?

You have clearly not worked with many Indians as you claim r5. Indians commonly use toiletries that are spice and herb based meaning the pungent odor is there after showering. Indian homes have a very distinct odor too, the accumulation of strong cooking smells permeates everything. Are you talking about first or second generation Indians? I have worked with literally over a hundred Indians born and raised in India and every one has that odor. It doesn’t mean they’re dirty, it’s just different products and food create different smells.

I’ve also known a landlord friend who had to strip everything out of an apartment including wallpaper and carpets because of the lingering odors before he could rent it out again.

They stink to high heaven. I was on the a crowded subway the other day. I got sandwiched in between the door and an particularly ripe Indian dude. I thought I was going to throw up.

There's often just that one person in a modern dance or yoga class who has gone totally over the edge with a vegan organic macrobiotic ketogenic diet and who eats raw garlic every day because it's healthy and uses no deodorant because it isn't. And, yes, when they sweat, it's raw garlic all over again. But nothing you can do reaches those people. Tie-dye repels all common sense.

I have had the great pleasure of enjoying sex with several Indian men. When you bury your face in the dark, warm, hairy parts, there can be a slight aroma that reflects the Indian diet. But, in my experience, very slight. And fuck, but those men are sensual. Extremely sensual. The benefit of that far outstrips all other concerns.

The problem is not that Indian men smell of Indian cuisine, it's that you're not getting it on with enough Indian men.

I love how R8 spun this topic into "you people need to fuck more." That's a DL legend in the making.

Bravo!

We once contracted with a couple of Indian IT guys for three year hitches. We brought them over, set them up in apartments and put them to work. The IT department door was right next to the accounting department door at the end of a hallway. I started noticing every time I'd go down the hall I would get a strong odor of Lysol once I got near those doors. I asked the accounting manager why the area smelled so strongly of Lysol and she told me it was because of the strong odors the 2 Indian guys were bringing in every day. She had no idea what the odor was so I went over to the IT department and went inside the computer deck where the two guys worked and the smell of curry was noxious. I guess it was on their breath, on their clothes, seeping from their pores, but it permeated the room. I spoke with the director of information services about it and he said he didn't know what to do as he was afraid to offend them. So I talked to the head of HR who eventually called them in and explained to them that the food odor was not something most people were used to in the US. Funny enough one of them told her he knew when the accounting people started spraying Lysol every day at the office doors it was probably because of the curry as one of their coworkers in IT had mentioned the odor. But as time went on they started eating more and more American foods and I guess they got away from eating so much curry and the smell went away.

I remember a blog with comments. The blog was glorifying "sex work" for college girls in the UK. One young woman while mentioning the total freedom to reject clients mentioned "body odor from certain diets" as one of the many little things she can reject a client over.

Well, the progressive types let her know there is no amount of curry-funk that would allow her to take a pass. So funny hearing feminists tell a prostituted woman to clothespin her nose and open her legs.

r11 = Third Wave in a nutshell

I second the notion that R5 is full of sh#t! Having lived in Jersey City for over 10 years, I can assure you that there is an odor. Not unlike italians that eat a lot of garlic, the indian diet results in a stank coming out of their pores... if it's something you are not used to, it can be nauseating.

Indians regularly use asafoetida (hing) and fenugreek (methi) in cooking, both are very pungent spices to Western noses.

The problem was referencing any specific group, place of origin, or culture.

He should have just suggested that people engage in good personal hygiene habits both for health reasons and to be considerate of others - there is a direct correlation between dental health and heart disease that has been seen in several studies.

His error, and it was racist, was to single out any particular group. Frankly, every group has their own particular odors. It's just that someone is used to one group or another's smell. I've heard it said by Asians that white folks, especially Americans, have a funk from eating so much diary, and Old Man smell is so legendary that comedians make jokes about it.

Frankly, I wish gym management would post signs suggesting folks wash their gym clothes more frequently and not leave them to stew in their lockers - that smell makes me want to barf.

This was a problem in graduate school because unmarried Indian guys are not used to doing their laundry. They have servants/women at home to do it for them. It was not an issue of not showering. They just never washed their clothes.

I had an Indian roommate in grad school (just for the summer) r16. He refused to clean up after himself and was fond of saying he had servants in India who did all that for him. He said in India, he never wore a pair of jeans twice in a row without them having been laundered.

Yes, he was insufferable.

My experience with Indians (not Indian-Americans) is that it’s either BO or too much cologne.

R17 As long as I’m dealing in stereotypes, have you ever noticed that Indian boys run wild and the parents treat him like a little prince? Maybe explains your experience.

Ultimately it’s culture. I find Indians and Chinese more pushy than Europeans or North Americans, but when I think it through it makes sense. When you have hordes of people everywhere you have to be pushy to get things done. Still, watching people push ahead or cut in lines is annoying.

r18 a friend of mine who's familiar with India told me it was probably a Brahman thing.

By comparison, uber wealthy Brazilians living abroad never seem to have this problem. They have multiple maids back home, but figure out how to launder (or have their clothes laundered.) BTW, how hard is it to find a drop-off laundrymat and withdraw a few dollars from your multimillion dollar account to cover the expenses?

Indians' sense of smell appears to be burned out by growing up surrounded by gag-worthy funk. They are so desensitized that they literally sit at a bar hitting on western girls while smelling like hot garbage.

The stench is real. It’s diet but I worked with an Indian guy who told me soap was for girls and he just washed with water. Not sure how common that belief is but my lord he has the most pungent smell. I always had a window open and I had a car air freshener on my desk. It was only a short term contract and I wa never as glad to be out of there. I stayed in a motel in SF a few years ago, I think it was called the Greenwich. It was run by an Indian family and the lobby stunk of curry. The rooms also had the lingering smell and it was off everything. I’ve read on the Airbnb Reddit that some owners have had to do a deep clean after Indian guests cooked in the home. The smell is very stubborn so I wonder if showering would even solve the issue. If clothing is stored in a home with cooking smells then the clothes will carry the smell too.

I had a female visiting student before, her smell was a mix of b.o., curry, sweat and bad breath. I dont think she showered and she didnt seem to brush her teeth. Everybody was too polite to say anything but she was really nauseating.

Good point about Brazil, as many people have maids- and I have never noticed an odor. It's diet for Inidans- the guy I used to sit next to at work would get more pungent as the day wore on-- by 7:00 pm I could barely breath, and I am not racist, nor am I kidding!

I guess I am disgusting, but anything curry smells like heaven to me. I'll sit next to the stinky guy!

Yes you're disgusting. Curry is fine as a spice in foods, but not as a body perfume.

It's never just curry.

It's a blend of armpit, asshole, unwashed feet, and unbrushed teeth.

For women, add pussy odor into the mix.

Pussy odor is the WORST. As someone who's worked in a marketing company with over half women employees, the fable about women's restrooms being cleaner is a misnomer. They SEEM cleaner from visual inspection, but there is a lingering odor that is nausea inducing. And the wastepaper basket is always full of disturbing, nasty refuse, not good clean refuse as might be in a man's restroom. The clean-seemingness causes one to let one's guard down, and not close their nostrils upon entry, as is standard in the men's toilet, but you will be swiftly revolted upon first whiff.

I slept with a couple Indian dudes before. They didn't have the odor as discussed on the surface but they did smell "down there." After the deed I remember washing my hands over and over again and the smell would not go away. It was not a pleasant man scent that, with the right guy, you'd enjoy having on your hand and above your lip as a sensual souvenir so to speak.

R27 Women are usually well aware that their bathrooms are filthy. At least I’ve never had a woman claim otherwise. When I was a kid my mother made me come into the ladies room with her until I was 10!! The things I smelled and saw would be enough to turn any man gay. I will never understand men who try to look into the ladies room. Maybe they were dragged in like me and developed a fetish.

I don't remember being dragged into any women's restrooms, but perhaps I've blocked out that horror.

R26 nails it.

I can handle the curry odor, in fact I kinda like it.

It's the stench of uncleanliness that doesn't pair well with the spices.

R24, it does not smell like curry AT ALL! I literally cannot breath it in...

The hyperventilating woman quoted in the article really seems to be stretching to make this all about racism.

The professor is an idiot. Doesn't matter who stinks or which foods might be contributing to the stench, if b.o, in the classroom in such a problem that you feel you must address it, just send a general announcement asking everyone to shower and change clothes daily. Don't single out students from specific countries or cultures. (And, no, most Americans don't shower twice a day.)

It's stupid to ignore the cultural differences from different countries. I agree a mass email can single them out for it. It should be part of that person's introductory information - here's information on how American culture is different. For example, taking a shower daily and changing your clothes, not cooking with heavy spices like curry and garlic as a favor for those nearby.

College students are oblivious to things like this and I presume the professor had a high amount of Indian students in his classes so he was noticing the odor. It's stupid not to acknowledge that it is a cultural issue, though. Culture != race.

I can see two showers a day if you work out each day, but no, I don't agree "most" Americans do. It dries out your skin and is bad for the environment,.

[quote] It should be part of that person's introductory information - here's information on how American culture is different. For example, taking a shower daily and changing your clothes...

I recently volunteered at a training center that specialized in recent non-white immigrants to Canada. There were posters in every classroom and in the bathrooms to teach them about acceptable hygiene: bathe/shower at least every other day, clean clothes daily, brush your teeth, wash your hands with soap, etc. And the big one: sit on the toilet seat, don't stand on it and squat!

Ironically, squatting is better for pooping because of the position of your body...

R37 Those signs are all over the toilets in the national parks in California. I went to Yosemite and Sequoia last summer and it was my first time seeing the signs. In Sequoia there was a big Indian family cooking rice and curry outside the cabins in a rice cooker hooked up to some sort of portable power source. The rangers came and were telling them they couldn’t cook in the cabin area. I was with my sister and she said the smell in the ladies bathroom was so bad she had to run back out. We drove over to the visitor centre to has their toilets. I’d imagine if you’re used to that food and environment you just don’t smell it anymore so I’m not sure you can blame them so to speak. They’re probably not even aware of how it seems to others.

I used to work as a trainer part time when I was in college.

There was an Indian woman, a recent arrival to the US, in one of the spin classes whose body odor was so bad that the other spinners would skip the class rather than take a bike next to hers.

Management found an America-born Indian member who agreed to talk to her (not sure how either conversation went down was as this was all third-hand) and it seemed to solve the problem.

I've also heard of the apartment thing--friends of mine rented an apartment that had been completely redone--new carpets, new cabinets, new appliances, fresh paint job. The landlord told them that the previous tenants were Indians and she tried everything but could not get the curry scent out and she even had to replace the cabinets as it seemed to be trapped inside the wood.

It's not unusual in Ireland for homeowners to refuse leases to Indians because of the curry odor, and usually the apartment leases prohibit cooking with "strong spices like curry".

My stepmom was one of only two women in her chemistry courses in the late 60s. The other was a student from India. The professor asked my stepmom to speak with her about hygiene because the other student's lab experiment results kept missing. The prof was convinced it was contamination (bo? food?) as the foreign students tests and all were superb.

She said it was a horribly awkward conversation, but it had to be done as the situation would have resulted in the foreign student unnecessarily failing the lab component of their course. And, tbh, it was easily corrected, and she started getting the correct lab results for her experiments.

OP's professor's email may be about more than anybody's personal olfactory convenience, depending upon what labs happen in the engineering program.

The apartment thing is also true of tenants from China. Maybe not the odor; but Chinese cooking involves a lot of oil, and it ends up coating every surface in the kitchen.

This is hilarious.

When it's white guys, Dataloungers always go on and on about how they love their natural manmusk and beg them not to use deodorant. But when it comes to men from Asia, the same posters are repelled by their body smells.

The President of U of Houston was born in India. Her husband, who is also from India, is the associate dean in the college of engineering.

Things are going to be a bit awkward for this professor.

R44 do those men also reek of garlic and asafoetida? No. It’s not the same.

R44 Those bears who think “man funk” is hot are weird and they smell terrible like the Indians. They are also usually unattractive.

White man musk smells hot and sexy. Nothing like sniffing a white, ripe put after a workout.

This isn’t that though. This a permanent stench that is not affected by exercise.

My gynecologist once told me that the Middle Eastern women in burkas were the worst. Apparently they don't bathe frequently and the smell trapped under all the heavy fabric was so bad she had to leave the room. I once went to a convenience store in Florida, owned by either Indians or Middle Easterners, and the curry-mixed with something rancid odor was too strong to bear even for a minute or two. They also did not have the A/C on so it was sweltering. Nope. Nope. Nope! Had to get the fuck out of there immediately and find another store. It literally made me gag and breathe through my mouth until I could make it back out the door.

I dated an Indian man. God the sex was amazing. Hot, sweaty sex. His “curry” oder was insignificant. He washed twice a day and wore clean clothes each day. I would know, we would shower together.

In the mornings he would fuck me and in the evenings, I would fuck him. Generally, the problem with body odor is not maintaining cleanliness. It’s not really about the spices; it’s hygiene. And hygiene can be cultural.

I don't believe that at all, r49. Middle Eastern Muslims are obsessive about hygiene.

r51 isn't that the area where they wipe their asses with their left hands instead of toilet paper?

Well smell you R44 !!

I also called out the "white" italians, if that makes you feel better! Mary!

I like the smell of curry, on its own, in food. I make a curried fruit dish that is to die for. But once it's ingested into a body, goes all the way through the digestive system, seeps out of the pores mixed in with sweat and whatever other internal body liquids it mixes with, it takes on the smell you'll find in a rotting corpse. That putrid/sweet smell that immediately makes one want to purge.

No r48, it doesn’t. White man musk is sour and deadly. Nothing pleasant about it at all.

Nothing smells worse than Russians or other Eastern European people. It’s this asshole smell that they attempt to cover with cologne and perfume. Had to stand behind some Russians at the fruit and vegetable truck that comes through my neighborhood in the spring and summer. Funky, nasty, stinking white Eurotrash with attitudes to match.

Second place is Filipino odor. Horrible breath from the nasty foods that they eat. And never, ever use the bathroom after a Filipino has used it. They leave a foul, sulfuric stench that lasts for several minutes. It’s the diet, heavy in spices like garlic and pork and egg heavy. Gross.

Actually I thought Indians were pretty good with hygiene compared to white people. I went to India this december and I saw even poor people making an effort to look clean and be clean. Like slum people using a hose to get their daily shower, a girl with just one set of clothes washing it and drying it every night so she could wear it clean the next day... Also europeans are considered gross because they don't wash each time they go to the bathroom. On the other side, public bathrooms can be absolutely horrifying. Apparently indian people are super proud and being dirty or having body odor is the peak of humiliation.

Um... bidets are the norm all over continental Europe. And if you have functioning nostrils don’t ever go to a public bathroom in India. It’s so hard to get the smell of their cooking out of a home that even if they shower their clothing will smell from being stored in the house.

R58, agree and can only equate it to mothballs in the U.S.- nothing gets that smell out!!

[quote]It's a blend of armpit, asshole

That's cumin, r26.

As the other posters already correctly identified... it's curry. Anyone who has lived next to/near Indians who curry knows what this is immediately. It's certainly not body odor, what body smells like curry?

The type of food you eat over a lifetime permeates your tissues eventually and no matter how much you wash you're still going to have that particular funk. The spicier the food the stronger the funk. That's why most Americans don't have much funk when they're freshly washed. We're not big on heavy spices over long periods of time.

Ironically, people who live in warm and humid climates tend to eat spicy foods to encourage sweating because perspiration cools the body down. People from South Asia, Africa and Latin America tend to eat spices to excess.

It is curry R61, but the way large doses of curry smells like after being processed by the body is enough to knock you over.

I agree with R57 about Indians going to great lengths to stay clean. I've not personally known any who don't shower every day.

I have lived in India, but I didn't live in the southern part. I now live in a part of the US that has a lot of South Indians. These particular south Indians are brought over for low-paying jobs, such as Infosys, etc. They are not cream of the crop people and they are making shit wages. They do not represent all Indians in this country. This particular type of Indian does not mix or mingle with Americans. They only eat south Indian food and they live in apartment complexes where everyone else is from the same part of India and eats the same food and goes to the same kind of temple. They are living in their own bubble.

Not all Indians are like that.

^If you live in an area that has companies that hire a lot of people from this part of India, you might think that they're all like this.

There are many different regions and ethnic groups in India. They all eat differently and they all assimilate or not differently. Most Indians don't like to be around stinky people, either.

[quote]It's stupid to ignore the cultural differences from different countries.

In a one on one conversation with a friend/peer/classmate, maybe. A mass email to your students should not single out a specific group. Surely, there's some stinky white American male nerd who could benefit from the hygiene tips, anyway.

R18 you're right, indian boys are a NIGHTMARE. Indian parents raise their boys as little princes and never correct them even when they really, really should. They end up spoiled rotten and very punchable.

I had a famous Indian CS prof at MIT - young dude, wealthy very attractive, white wife! , One of the "elites" from W Bengal and iit dehli -- who also stank. I could Smell him from the back of the classroom. So it's not just the Infosys types, although I'm sure it is a regional and class-conscious dependent thinh. Also he was a fucking douhche

My husband is Bengali. He's fastidious about hygiene but misses the cooking of his homeland.

I wish he would fry his red onions in the instant pot outside on the patio, but I think he's embarrassed of what the neighbors would think, as if they can't smell it anyway. To wake up in the middle of the night after he has spent a rare day cooking is to wake up in a fever dream. The smell lasts about there days, with windows open and expensive plasma air cleaners. Cleaning the back splash and under the hood of the stovetop helps some but you just can't get that onion oil film off everything. Sucks.

Homes in India are much better ventilated for that sort of cooking than in the US.

When your entire country smells like burning curry shit, it's hard to notice when you do too.

I'm telling you it's because the men don't wash their clothes when they come live in the US unless they have a wife to do it for them.

I've heard of Japanese thinking Americans stink because of all the dairy we eat.

Even more reason to feel sorry for Indian prostitutes.

Can you imagine working in one of those whorehouses?

From the India Times:

[quote]'Stink Bombs' Imported From Israel Are Not Stinky Enough To Disperse Kashmiri Stone Pelters

[quote]Indians seem to have attained immunity against foul smell, thanks to the colourful stenches emanating from overflowing landfills, public toilets, garbage heaps and what not. Many of us ridicule ourselves by accepting the reality we are grown up with and now are habitual of. But lately, the conjectures which are obviously true got a validation when made in Israel ‘stink bomb’, a non-lethal weapons Israel use on Palestinian protesters failed to make any impact on Indians.

[quote]The sewage smelling liquid nicknamed “Skunk” that can be mixed with water and sprayed on protesters. The smell takes days to fade despite repeated showers. But we are Indians after all and we are ingrained for these things.

[quote]In order to replace lethal weapons like pellet guns, Indian government wanted to introduce the stink bomb which is non-lethal yet equally effective. And the Central Reserve Police Force then decided to give the Israeli "stink bomb" a try.

[quote]In a test run, the bomb liquid was sprayed on a "captive crowd" in India but to no avail. In a story done by Haaretz which it credited to HT, the foul smelling weapon that worked on Palestinians was ineffective on Indians.

My ex boyfriend did a lot of volunteer work with UNICEF in India but he was working with the poorest of the poor. Those people don’t emigrate. He has seen it all and he said it’s hell on Earth. Most Indians in Europe, Australia and the US are from well to do to filthy rich families. The smell has nothing to do with being low class.

I don’t have a problem with this email, because it’s actually true.

Have any of you here been in a situation where you are required to work closely with someone who has BO? It sucks!

He should have NOT mentioned specific cultures or countries.

R73 Japanese straight men often chatter amid themselves about this very issue.

Many of them say they wouldn’t fuck a white woman no matter how gorgeous and young (they like them young...sometimes creepily so) because of the allegedly-sour reek of musk from Western Caucasian skin; plus the altered expectations of gender (a white woman won’t put up with Obasan like she’s a Queen); and the often large size-differential (IRL big tits terrify them, go fig). They also think it audacious that white girls sometimes eschew makeup or shaving. Sound familiar?

It's known Japanese are pretty racist though.

East Asians have a unique smell too. It’s slightly fishy to me but my boyfriend thinks it’s more like soy sauce. We lived in Koreatown for a while and we both smelled it but our brains processed it differently.

Fish sauce

It’s the Asians that have garlic seeping from their pores.

Nothing smells worse then the breath of a Chinese man. Vomit inducing.

R72 is actually right.

I had a roommate from India, and he would allow his laundry to accumulate for weeks. He often went out and bought new clothes, rather than do his laundry. So one day, I knocked on his bedroom door, to ask him a question. He opened it, and the smell that emanated was as not pleasant. Behind him, I saw unwashed clothing strewn about. Lots of it. I asked him why he didn’t use the washer & dryer in the house, & he answered that he didn’t know how to do laundry! I was like, why didn’t you ask me, or google it? He answered that it was always done by the household help, back home! I had a housekeeper come in once every 2 weeks, but she was not ever required to do his laundry, and I always helped her when she did mine.

So I showed him how to do laundry properly. Sorting out by colors, materials, etc.

It blew my mind that such an intelligent guy, didn’t know how to do laundry.

He never stank, however. He showered regularly and used deodorant.

I won't lie ... the headline at r75 made me laugh

[quote] I've heard of Japanese thinking Americans stink because of all the dairy we eat.

They usually blame it on meat.

I think it's the type of oil they put on their bodies? Seriously, they smell really bad. It's very distinct.

So stupid, it is the middle of winter...is their really that much sweating going on? Racist should be shot and killed, wherever they are found.

Lol “microaggressions”. What a bunch of stinky crybabies. Simplify.

“All students will take a shower and change all their clothing before attending class *each and every day*. Any complaints will result in the student’s removal for the day. No credit for missed exams”

Sucks to be you, stinky.

A hungover, unwashed white college boy wearing dirty clothes smells like the inside of an old sneaker. The professor should have made this strictly about hygiene.

He could have mentioned some foods can emanate from your pores. I recently had heavily curried cauliflower which was delicious but a few hours later found myself in a small conference room for a meeting. I noticeably started to stink up the room, it was just coming from my skin. I acknowledged it and the people I was meeting with laughed and agreed that I stunk and that it was the cauliflower I'd eaten earlier. When I eat something with a lot of garlic, I can smell it in the shower the next day. The hot water opens up my pores and the smell of garlic is evident.