The lawyers and the scientists will continue to duke it out if use of Johnson & Johnson's baby powder is correlated with increased risk of ovarian cancer. Bloomberg BusinessWeek provides an amazing analysis of the legal and medical issues.
The article features Jacqueline Fox. She decided to use baby powder to prevent odors from her genital area. She framed that as analogous to applying deodorant daily. She died from ovarian cancer.
Did Fox put herself at additional risk from chemicals because of what is now being called "body shame?" There is a movement afoot to get us back comfortable with what it means to be human. Part of that is becoming comfortable with bodily functions.
Yes, there are odors associated with the human body. Yes, females have monthly periods. We release waste in the form of poops. There is often gas expelled from the human body.
Being preoccupied with masking the existence of those bodily activities can not only drive us to consume chemicals. We can also wind up self-hating. My hunch is that the epidemics of anxiety and clinical depression are associated with a growing discomfort with the human body.
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