23-05-2025
Opinion: We've lost out on so much more than just the shopping experience
May, the month when people in the Middle Ages had their annual bath.
June, the most popular month for weddings in the Middle Ages because the bride and groom were still fresh from that yearly bath.
They were, however, starting to get a bit whiffy, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to distract from the body odour.
The custom of carrying a bouquet lives on today.
Few brides getting wed this weekend will know that the reason they have ordered an expensive confection from the florist was to mask their personal pong.
Anyway, no need for flowers now when there's all-body deodorant to reach the parts run-of-the-mill underarm deodorants miss.
Adverts for this squirt-everywhere solution to embarrassing stink are everywhere.
You can't get through a TV advert break without a naked gang running along a beach with rolls of undulating fat to illustrate how those folds and crevices could be shower-fresh all day with sprays of all-body deodorant.
But the advert that really makes you look up from your knitting is the one when people are sniffing each other's bottoms, canine-greeting-like.
Yes, someone actually puts their nose to another's bottom, and another to a stranger's crotch in TV advertising to sell a product to banish every kind of body odour.
It's clear this new anti-smell weapon hasn't been invented because of any weird phenomena that's making us all smellier, but because we're bigger and the obese have more hiding places for bacteria to multiply and smelly stuff to grow.
I'm all for openness and attacking bashfulness about bodily functions but every other TV advert is about leaky bladders, piles, disguising sweat in places previously unspoken about and, the latest, celebration and pride about going for a number two at school or at work.
It might be something even royalty do, but do we really need it satellited into our sitting rooms every night?
The background, apparently, is that a large percentage of children refuse to go to the loo at school because they are embarrassed.
The same for grown-ups at work.
This campaign is attacking that taboo, so anyone anywhere is comfortable with public loo pooing.
A noble cause – constipation medication manufacturers are missing a trick not putting their own advertising after the Proud to Poo ads – but what's happened to cause this onslaught of in-your-face advertising about body topics once only whispered about?
Are we becoming more self-conscious than ever, or more comfortable to talk about what goes on under our clothes?
How far we've come since the trite advertising 20 years ago about how young women with periods could enjoy skiing, swimming and skating like anyone else.
Probably a step – and a poo – too far.
A woman posting on social media "set fire to [asylum] hotels for all I care" is guilty of inciting hate.
Lucy Connolly can shout she made a mistake as loud as she likes but deciding that this was an appropriate contribution to the aftermath of the Southport murders in the context of a rising swell of hatred against a section of society deserved punishment.
Yes, she may be being made an example of within that context but however hasty or knee-jerk to an inflamed situation doesn't lessen that statement.
Her husband said this week after she lost her appeal against her 31-month prison sentence: "My wife has paid a very high price for making a mistake and today the court has shown her no mercy."
Mercy is something she wasn't thinking about when she made that revolting post.
No mercy to the human beings – individuals – living in those hotels.
She argued she wasn't encouraging anyone to do it, merely saying she didn't care; didn't bother if what resulted was a pogrom?
Being "really angry, really upset" when she wrote the post is not an excuse, and she should not be excused or spared punishment.
My fear is though that she will become a martyr because there are hideous people who believe there was nothing wrong with her words and are filled with hatred towards people because of where they come from and want them gone, willing to employ their own vile solutions.
My thoughts last week about offering more than shopping in town and city centres to draw people in sparked much comment and debate.
After a coastal walk last weekend, I popped into Holt, admittedly a rarefied untypical town which sustains a busy shopping centre because its clientele is largely visiting or well-off well-heeled locals.
What pulls me into the town every time I'm 'up north' is the high street greengrocers.
The simple joy of wandering into a haven of freshness where fruit and vegetables smell and taste like they used to is heaven.
It makes you realise how easy to please we have become with our vacuum-packed taste-of-nothing supermarket produce.
Talk about taste the difference – there was no comparison.
That little detour for a shopping experience that brought such pleasure to the senses and satisfaction yet felt so sad that it is such a rare experience that so many miss out on unless places like Norwich Market are within their reach.
Again, we wanted the convenience of supermarkets, but we ended up losing out on so much more.
