Did people stink more back in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s?

The answer is yes in some European countries in the 80s, but not the US.

It was this assholes, Procter and Gamble who invented Ivory soap and started telling everybody that you should bathe/shower daily. It was a marketing ploy back then to sell more soap.

No. People smelled of Chanel No. 5, Youth Dew, Aramis, and smoke. It was intoxicating.

There was such a stink of cigarette smoke everywhere that you could go a year without a shower and nobody would notice.

I don't think they had the oppressive humidity and heat we do now.

[quote]With more companies invested in anti-sweat technology, the decades between 1940 and 1970 saw the development of new delivery systems, such as sticks, roll-ons (based on the ball-point pen), sprays and aerosols, as well as a bounty of newer, sometimes safer, formulations.

And more people smoked in those days, which didn’t help either.

I don’t think so. People stink More now than they did in the 2010s even. I take transit for work and I’ve definitely noticed this. And these are ordinary people not hobos or the mentally ill. Nobody ever seems to shame them either and if you say anything you’re the asshole

There's a different between deodorant and anti-perspirant. The latter didn't become common until the '70s. Deodorant just covers up the smell, but anti-perspirant helps to curtail the amount of sweating as well.

I think fragrance was more commonly used, and it was made powerful enough compete with the cigarette stench.

Of course not. There was Tussy

I remember when I was little in the late 60s and 70s, going into stores with my mother and all the women out shopping stunk of cigarette smoke and hairspray. Unlike today, that is when they would be 'dressed up' to look their best when they went to the grocery store, department store, or ran errands. Thankfully, my mom never used hairspray or smoked.

Back then, we had Jean Naté and a nice new blouse.

When they bathed once a week, wore suits and ties everyday and air conditioning was rarity?

I don’t buy the argument that soap companies “brainwashed” us into showering more in order to sell more product. I don’t need to be convinced that showering is relaxing and refreshing and that’s why I shower twice a day.

Born in the early 60s so my answer is...yes and no.

There were older folk, especially men, who refused to use deodorant because it was too "sissy". But, also more men used cologne back then.

And, it was a lot smokier back then since you could smoke pretty much everywhere.

But, it seems like more people used perfume/cologne. I remember many women smelling strongly of scent...it was just something ladies did, especially ones of a certain generation. If you got on a crowded elevator, there'd always be some lady who had bathed in some strong scent.

Now, there's a lot of younger people who are quite lazy about bathing, using deodorant and washing their clothes.

My grandmother said there used to be this hilarious radio ad for Lifebuoy deodorant soap that would come on and blast the expression, "B" .. "O" making the two letters sound like a fog horn. I think that was in the 30s.

[quote]When they bathed once a week, wore suits and ties everyday and air conditioning was rarity?

People may not have taken a bath or a shower every day, but that doesn't mean they didn't wash daily. Basin, water, soap, washcloth.

People bathed once a week a VERY long time ago. Once indoor plumbing became the norm early in the 20th century, most people would bathe several times a week if not daily.

The once a week bath was mostly because you had to lug all the water to your tub.

As a kid in the 1960s, I bathed everyday and used spray deodorant. I distinctly remember that.

Mother smelled of Bal à Versailles, while father smelled of Eau Sauvage.

I was told that in the '50s and '60s that my great-grandfather from Ireland (emigrated to the States in the early 20th century) would bathe once a week (Saturday).

Christian families would bathe Saturday nights so that they smelled fresh and clean for Sunday services the next morning.

R19 I must have melted a few glaciers with the aerosols. I started using Right Guard when Gillette introduced it. I think Eisenhower was President.

The old formula RG cured cold sores, too. Probably some people have cancer now as a result, but hey: you wanted ‘em gone.

[quote]There's a different between deodorant and anti-perspirant. The latter didn't become common until the '70s. Deodorant just covers up the smell, but anti-perspirant helps to curtail the amount of sweating as well.

I don't use anti-perspirant. I use a deodorant (Tom's) and I'm fine.

Growing up in the 1960s I especially remember Ban Roll-On deodorant. It was very popular. And we sure did take showers and baths.

I do not remember people smelling any worse than they do today.

Here's Ban. 1956:

R24 Exactly. There's morons on here who think it was like Little House on the Prairie.

In the days before air conditioning and casual wear, when men would wear suits everywhere, people probably sweated a lot more (even if they had good hygiene)

Air conditioning has existed for many decades.

If you worked in a white collar job in a major city in a newer building, you probably had a/c.

Many homes started have window a/c units starting in the early 70s though there was definitely a generational gap on their use. Younger people tended to actually USE their a/c (until dad got the electric bill then it would get turned down for a few days...) Older people tended to be frugal and used it less; my Mom would get annoyed when visiting HER mom in the summer and Grandma was stingy about turning on the a/c. My mom just turned it on.

I think fast food, processed food, and synthetic fibers add to modern day stinkiness.

R26 I lived most of my adult life in Italy. AC is just not popular there. It is seen as unhealthy. I've always lived without air-conditioning.

Back in the US, people can't believe that even with this heatwave, I don't use AC.

My body adapts to the heat and I think people in the US did back before the popularity of AC. Of course I sweat but I'm not the sweaty mess others seem to be in this heat.

And I'm convinced what R28 wrote is true too.

[quote]Of course not. There was Tussy

I only use Tussy on my mussy.

I remember reading some play that was written a few centuries back where there were people selling oranges and flowers for people to smell when their surroundings became especially stinky. Like in a crowded theater.

A nosegay.

“Many homes started have window a/c units starting in the early 70s.”

Utter nonsense^

Depends on where you lived. Phoenix, yes, if you didn’t have central air. . Bar Harbor? Probably not.

If anything we smelled far nicer. We were raised with standards back in those days. Standards, I'm sad to say, that have gone wanting in the modern world.

People would go to the movies when it was hot.

R33 I lived in a rinky dink small town in the Midwest. As a kid, I knew several people with a/c in the 1970s.

BTW...fuck off.

R37 I lived in a rinky dink small town on the east coast. As a kid, everyone I knew had a/c in the late 50s

FIFY

P.S. Go fuck yourself.

People had air conditioning and used deodorant. and bathed and showered. People smoked more so some did stink of cigarette smoke. Ditto for heavy perfume and hair spray for some women. Those particular smells I don’t miss at all.

I don't understand why the bidet isn't a thing in America. Especially because Americans are more obsessed with hygiene than anywhere else. They even have electric ones now.

[quote]Especially because Americans are more obsessed with hygiene than anywhere else.

That is so untrue.

Don't know about the stinking, but I'm pretty sure they did think more.

In 1965 I moved into a home with central A/C. Before that we had window A/Cs.

Europeans had a reputation for BO in the second half of the 20th century. I think there was some truth to it. I worked with a German woman who smelled very bad. Gross smelly body odor is more from the clothes than the body, isn’t it? Fresh sweat doesn’t smell terrible. So it can be mitigated even without A/C or antiperspirant. If you have the ability to wash your clothes and more than one shirt, it shouldn’t be too bad. Women used to wear dress shields to avoid pit stains, but also to protect clothes that were more difficult to launder. Plus, as already pointed out, smoking and heavier fragrances.

People are fatter now. With that comes smell.

Comedies in the 1920s would make fun of people who only bathed once a week, with untidy characters making remarks like, "Take a bath? Why, it isn't even Saturday!", so a certain acceptable level of hygiene had been established by then.

[quote]I don't understand why the bidet isn't a thing in America.

Ant new build residential bathroom in Italy must have bidet. It is the law.

We lived in suburban Cincinnati when I grew up. We used fans until the early-70s when my parents could finally afford an air conditioning system for the whole house. We were the first in our neighborhood to have A/C, so all the kids on the block came to our house on hot summer days.

I remember more men used cologne in those days. I was fond of Pierre Cardin, and later Joop. Both of those scents drove me wild. One of my roommates would shower and then coat his body with Joop. He even put it in his bush while I watched. He would never let me give him a blow job; but I was attracted to him like flies on rice. He enjoyed the attention, though.

The people who say that people didn't stink back then are old people who still stink.

Did people have electricity in the 1950s?

"attracted to him like flies on rice"

I believe you're mixing up "like white on rice" and "like flies on shit". Unless you eat shitty rice, of course.

Global warming, poverty, doom-scrolling-snacking in bed, drug use and vintage clothing make GenZ smell

Yes, I agree with 28. As well, many more people are on meds now and eat processed food.

They stunk to high heaven much like they still stink in France. It was the norm so people didn’t think about it as much. Men didn’t wear deodorant until the 70s. It was deemed women’s stuff.

They must have because Lifebuoy and Zest made a killing

We had central air in our first house, then moved to a house that had been built in 1919, so we got window units. No one smelled bad, but my mother was a chain smoker, and our house mostly smelled like that unless someone was cooking, which happened every night.

I never wore deodorant, but like someone upthread’s father, I did spray myself with Eau Sauvage every morning after my shower. I always wore clean clothing, and I never wore artificial fibers.

Anyone who commented on the way I smelled complimented me.

Not every season was an 'Irish Spring.'

I know for a fact oral hygiene was abysmal at best. No one brushed twice a day with Sonicare toothbrushes and flossing properly once a day was unheard of.

Everyone had partials or false teeth by the time they were 45.

I was born in the late '50s. The only window AC I remember seeing as a boy was in my doctor's office. We had no window ACs where I lived. We didn't even call it AC. We used the full term, air conditioner. I don't think it was as hot, back then. We slept on the screen porch if it was too hot. We had an above-ground pool. Went to the beach. Ran our wrists under a cold faucet.

If anyone had smelled, I'd have remembered. There was one kid who did, because his family owned greenhouses. He smelled like flowers.

Today, there are a lot of people who smell of pot. It doesn't smell like it did back in the 70s. It really stinks.

I took baths as a child maybe 3 times a week (didn't have a shower at that time, just a bathtub). We washed up well in front of the sink. It was called a "sponge bath."

"Everyone had partials or false teeth by the time they were 45."

Don't worry - they will again after Trump and RFK. remove fluoride from our drinking water.

Those deep basement rec-rooms were another remedy.

Our family, kids at least, spent the summer in the country by a lake, often sleeping in a screened porch. We spent the hottest days in the lake, hours at a time. We'd bring soap and shampoo when we went for a swim.

[quote]I know for a fact oral hygiene was abysmal at best.

I don't even want to THINK about anal hygiene!

Bloodsuckers.

The deoderant or antiperspirant was really heavy-duty in those days. Secret. Ban. Arrid. Right Guard. Sure. ("Raise your hand if you're sure.")

[quote] Did people stink more back in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s? I wasn’t born until 1990 so please enlighten me.

You're kind of insulting, btw.

That’s why people carried Sen-Sen around with them all the time.

R66 my father carried it so he could drink and drive.

I'm just old enough to remember when indoor smoking was still allowed in public places and good god it was awful, everywhere stank of smoke. It's crazy to think about that now, that smoking was allowed in public places for so many years. Unimaginable today.

I remember several of my teachers in elementary and middle school having horrendous coffee breath in the seventies.

Ride a crowded elevator and you'll find that still exists.

We have more Indians now and many of them stink like BO.

When Indian workers travel to the U.S., they're advised that the standards for cleanliness and body odor are higher in America than in India.

That was my experience in the late 90s and 2000s, r69. I think they were tired and truly didn't give a fuck what the kids thought of them.

All those uncut men, sweating profusely...

We haven’t smelled good since Stopette went out of business.

Everyone born before 1997 reeks of ointment and decay.

Arthur Miller wrote an essay in Esquire in the late 80s about life in NYC in the 40s - he said very plainly that it was brutally hot in summer and some of his office co-workers did indeed stink.

R15, that overscented lady was my mom! Hairspray, chain-smoking, and she finished it all off with lashes of Emeraude.

Some people have worse BO than others. If you're not heavy or you eat healthy, you usually have very little BO, if you wash and you wear clean clothes.

While I agree that some people smell worse than others, I'm not sure how much diet and weight have to do with it, r79. BO is just the smell of armpit bacteria. We've all encountered beautiful fit men at the gym who smell like shit.

R80 Right, but how clean are they? Staring an exercise program can cause more BO. So can being overweight. So can eating foods that tend to cause bad breath (they can also cause BO). But yes, some people have a lot of body smell and some have very little, without a particular cause. Some people sweat more than others, also.

r75=Arlene Francis

Only in France and Italy

Italians are very clean, it's the French who stink.

For r82

I don’t think the word stink is the operative term. There were more smells to be sure, from manufacturing, leaded fuel and inefficient carburetors, perfumes, colognes and the ever present cigarette smoke. And I also remember that some boys at school were directed to take showers if they were a tad ripe. And, oh yes, some kids smelled like wood smoke because that’s how their homes were heated.

[quote] While I agree that some people smell worse than others, I'm not sure how much diet and weight have to do with it,

Keep in mind that obese people can’t reach to clean sections of their body and can’t reach to wipe after defecating.

I loved the smell of leaded fuel. I think it made me a little high.

Back when I worked in a cubicle farm, I moved to a desk formerly held by a smoker. When cleaning up before taking over, I wiped down the partition and the paper towel was yellow from cigarette smoke. Shudder. Everything smelled like cigarette smoke.

R89, you're lucky it wasn't brown. It can be that bad.

R89 - "Hold my beer." - Grand Central Terminal

I can remember smoking on trains and planes. It was fucking awful.

r88 -- "the smell of gasoline was sweeter than myrr" -- Robert Penn Warren

My mother smelled of Femme, my dad of Cologne Imperiale, and, I am told, my maternal grandmother drenched herself in Nuit de Noelle. My dad's family bathed.

Who bathed once a week? We had indoor plumbing in the states ffs.

This thread is rather amusing in its ignorance. My parents had a house built in 1961. It had central air and plenty of bathrooms fully equipped with showers and tubs, oh my. What the hell is wrong with you people?

[quote]Only in France and Italy

You've never been to Italy where personal hygiene is an obsession.

BTW: they use the bidet after taking a shit. . Now tell us about you.

I grew up in CT in the 80s and early 90s and most people didn't have a/c, the few who had it were mostly older people.

Jesus Christ r91

The house I grew up in was built in the early 1900s. It originally had a coal furnace that at some point was replaced with gas. There was no central a/c. We had only window and door screens and window fans. Life was hard.

When my grandmother got window units for two bedrooms at her summer place at the beach south of Boston in the early 70’s she said the neighbors talked about how extravagant she was. She was in her 80’s and didn’t care. The grandkids still slept with fans on if it was hot at night.

Doubt it

People stank LESS in the 1950s!

For r87

AS I've noted before on other threads, many houses had awnings (our house did). If you look at some photos of cities in the early part of the century, you'll notice awnings on some windows of office buildings. My dad put up the awnings every spring. They did shade the sun and cool the house.

Ahhh it stinks nice and good.

Americans stank more because they don't use bidets.

No because they weren't all 400 lbs.

I'm old and I don't remember people stinking at all. Of course, smoking was widespread, but I don't remember cigarettes absolutely REEKING then the way that they do now, either. Maybe I was just used to it.

I was born in the 60s. Yes, there was the "smoke" smell that is nonexistent now. I was old enough to go to clubs in the 80s and can remember having to immediately wash everything. Smoke permeated anything you had with you. I would put my winter coat in the dryer with fabric softener sheets to try to neutralize (or cover up) the smell. In the US, daily showers and the use of deodorant was the rule. When I traveled outside of the US, the BO was noticeable because it was different. These days I don't really notice a difference between the US and Europe. Either they've bought into to the US hygiene thing or my sense of smell has diminished.

So, none of you smoked? You all just hated when people and rooms REEKED of it?

I remember cigarette and coffee breath from the adults.

Speaking of countries where people don't bathe every day, I went to Turkey one Winter. I'll leave it at that, not to offend anyone.

[quote]I think fast food, processed food, and synthetic fibers add to modern day stinkiness.

Thanks for weighing in, RFK Jr. Your expertise is such a blessing for this country.

Some of my oddest memories involve the homes of pipe smokers. I had a great aunt who took up smoking her dead husband’s pipe because she missed the scent.

[quote]My grandmother said there used to be this hilarious radio ad for Lifebuoy deodorant soap that would come on and blast the expression, "B" .. "O" making the two letters sound like a fog horn. I think that was in the 30s.

I remember those B.O. ads being parodied in old cartoons I saw on TV as a kid in the '60s.

I feel like there was a particular smell of crotch rotted dirty pantyhose that no longer exists...but I could be wrong. But that's the scent I think of when I think of my elementary school principal...

I was a hippie and I didn't smell, I bathed and kept my clothes clean.

I'm a boomer and had a lot of crowded classrooms and so forth. I don't remember people smelling. If anything our moms were mostly doing housework in the daytime and had plenty of time to clean our clothes, and our beds, and our houses, and to make sure we kept clean. And all the parents smelled fine. I don't know why it would be assumed people smelled bad then. I only remember people smelling good, actually.

R110 I've smoked perhaps the equivalent of one pack of cigarettes total in my life. I would get dizzy and throw up. Maybe I tried to smoke too fast. The very last time I smoked anything was when I was 20 or 21 (in college). Couldn't stand smoking pot either. I got used to being around others that did back when it was common. Now I can't stand it.

OP, you're crazy.

the 1920s stank so bad I can still smell them.

Well, we DID have some difficult cases.

As a teen in the '80s, I spent a few summers in France and PEE-EWWWW! They stank! And it was one thing when I'd encounter, say, a disheveled 80 year old who stank... that was not particularly surprising. But the stench was just as common among chic young women, debonair men in expensive suits: the sort of attractive, soignes individuals who spend a great deal of time and money to look elegant and appealing. They might spray on some very costly cologne/ perfume, but the pungent aroma was still there underneath, loud and clear.

I realised that they simply didn't notice. It was all they knew and, if anything, they scoffed at our focus on eradicating all natural human odours - a sort of ridiculous OCD sterility. These days, it seems that the French smell much less offensive. I'm not sure what finally convinced them to change their malodorous ways.

My parents didn't have AC until sometime in the 1990s, well after I'd moved out.

Before that we had a huge fan that was in the ceiling, and it would either circulate air through rooms or suck it up into the attic to vent out.

My father was the cheapest man who ever lived and never wanted to run the AC when they did get it. (He also wanted the heat kept to 66.)

[quote] Did people stink more back in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s?

Ask Erna.

The last time I smelled BO on a person was in the mid '80s in St. Petersburg Russia.

It was the young Russian lady, our tour guide.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the smell of woolen clothes in the winter. I don't know anyone who had their worsted suits dry-cleaned after each use, so people would often acquire a bit of funk. Of course, we had Aramis and Eau Sauvage. And if you wore furs, they'd have a scent, too.

The 80s were infamous because of guys wearing Riteguard to cover their B.O.

Both scents were offensive and you could definitely smell both.

Whether in its "B.O." radio spots or in print ads, Lifebuoy soap deserves much of the credit for raising B.O. awareness in this country. Even ladies of privilege had to be reminded of the dire consequences of not smelling sufficiently "dainty."

One smell that I really can't stand is when women are using pads. Obviously, I can't always tell as some may not have that distinctive smell. When it's bad, it's bad. Tampons are a girl's best friend.

Big Daddy used to smell like whiskey, tobacco and horse tack.

People who smoked smelled especially anyone who smoked Camels. Also women used very heavy perfumes and men doused themselves with cologne. In moderation it was ok, but some people overdid it. Thank God people no longer do that as it causes breathing problems for many people. I see perfume and cologne ads today but very rarely actually smell it on someone. Every decade seemed to have a signature scent with Calvin Klein dominating the 80s.

I can think of something that stinks!

I recall that African-Americans had a distinctive, acrid smell when they were sweating at a time when none of us bathed every day. It was different than the smell from other people.

R133 There are distinctive odors associated with different ethnic groups that has a lot to do with their diets. In most cases, that's more culturally driven than genetic. There is one major exception that is genetic that involves primaraly people of East Asian descent. The typical underarm and pubic area stench that most every other ethnic group has (white, Black, South Asian, etc) is lacking in this population. A single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs17822931, located in the ABCC11 gene, is responsible for determining earwax type as well as this type of body odor. There is something called "Asian earwax" that refers to a very dry earwax that is more typical in East Asian populations. It's nearly universal in Japan and Korea with a diminishing presence in Southeast Asia. The mutation is also found in some Native Americans. This doesn't mean that Asians won't eventually stink if they don't bathe, but people with that mutation can usually get away without using underarm deodorant.

[quote] There are distinctive odors associated with different ethnic groups that has a lot to do with their diets.

I'm probably crazy for saying this but I've been with a few Italian men where their dicks or their bodies had a taste or scent that was not entirely unlike salami. Maybe it's diet related, I don't know.

[quote] Mother smelled of Bal à Versailles,

That was Michael Jackson's favorite, believe it or not.

[quote] People who smoked smelled especially anyone who smoked Camels. Also women used very heavy perfumes and men doused themselves with cologne.

There were (and continue to be) women's perfumes that were formulated to cover up and/or sweeten the smell of smokers: Habanita, Tabac, Tabac Blanc, etc.

[quote] The last time I smelled BO on a person was in the mid '80s in St. Petersburg Russia.

Ah, would that i could say that.

I teach students at a small liberal arts college.

I knew a number of Russian immigrants in the 1970s-80s when some of the Jews where being let out of USSR. They definitely had a distinctive and unpleasant smell. It was a combination of diet, hygiene and horrible perfumes. I doubt it had anything at all to do with genetics. I'm sure that their children and grandchildren today smell like any other American.

R136, Yes, and Prince wore Molinard de Molinard.

[quote]So, none of you smoked? You all just hated when people and rooms REEKED of it?

R110 I didnt, tried it once and thought "well thats a colossal fucking waste of money and time" Born in the 60's so I remember the latter half of the time period OP is talking about

And yes, everything fucking STANK of smoke. Most people washed every day, I know I did, and there were deodorants/ anti-perspirants

[quote]I feel like there was a particular smell of crotch rotted dirty pantyhose that no longer exists

At least not since Bonnie Franklin's passing.

Perfumery was invented because people stank so much before the days of regular bathing and deodorants.

Imagine a thread with a lot of eldergays and none of them smoked.

r122 A lot of it is not wearing deodorant. I can tell when people smell due to not washing versus the smell of just being not wearing deodorant. I was at the famous French department store back in the mid 2000s, and one cashier smelled of strong BO/no deodorant.

[quote]Imagine a thread with a lot of eldergays and none of them smoked.

How do you think we got to be eldergays R144?

Millennial OP thinks deodorant and antiperspant were not invented until the 1980s

Just because people only took a bath once a week, it doesn't mean they didn't 'wash up' even on a daily basis with a washcloth and water basin - as several above have commented.

Now washing your hair? Yeah, that wasn't very often. "I can't - I'm washing my hair" just seems ridiculous to us now, but we've all heard that line in old shows and movies. But you really don't need to wash it so often as we now know.

R147 I know it existed but was it mainstream or did oldtimers think it was only something homosexuals and city boys used?

r147 Baby boomer/gen xer who still thinks millenials are in their 20s.

I know from personal experience that a number of French deodorant brands don't work.

I was in France for 3-1/2 weeks and ran out of my American deodorant, so I went to stores three times and bought what I hoped would be effective deodorant. Only the third one worked.

Why sell that shit if it doesn't stop body odor, hunh Frenchies?

[quote]Stupid stupid baby boomer/gen x who thinks *milenials* are still in their 20s

Oh dear.

If you wash everyday, wear clean clothes everyday and perspire only moderately you don’t need to use deodorant. It takes a while for body odor to develop.

Stink more now. Clothes are partly polyester ( to make them skinny and stretchy) which just doesn't absorb water/sweat.

Odor comes mostly from unwashed pits and stale clothes. Clean your armpits each morning if you don't bathe, and wear fresh clothes, especially in the warmer months.

I disagree R153. I shower daily with Irish Spring and always wear clean clothes - but on the odd morning I forget to put on deodorant (usually old spice original) I notice it by late afternoon.

I've been using natural mineral based deodorant these last few years instead of all the chemicals based ones I grew up on.

I suspect that some of the posts in this thread are from people who honestly think they don't stink, but who are quite wrong about that.

R154 - ummm....do you know how much polyester was in 60s and 70s clothes? A lot was 100% polyester - it was a sign of modernity.

If I don’t use deodorant, I’m stinking by the afternoon even if I shower and wear clean clothes.

People stink more now than at any other time in history. Or was the question not meant to be metaphorical?

Old timers didn't bathe daily but they did "wash up" daily.

Footmen, Ladies Maids, etc. were in close proximity to their employers and couldn't be stinking up the place. Same goes for shop girls waiting on customers or those working offices, they all had to be washing their pits, private parts and maybe feet on a daily basis.

Mrs Oleson of Walnut Grove would have been washing up daily as she was waiting on customers at her Mercantile. Charles Ingalls on the other hand smelled like a horse as per Nellie Oleson.

Many, many guys in any given workplace have tbat 'butt' smell you get if you don't bathe or don't wipe your ass after you shit. It's really bad if you're in a meeting and they start up to present something or pass out materials. And I'm not talking about outdoor workers, but executives who are otherwise well groomed. It's disgusting. 30 and 40-year olds, mostly. Can't/won't wipe their own assholes!!!!!

^ Wipe until it's white!