What Is Up With All These Celebs Not Bathing?
Celebrities gotta stop talking about their bathing habits in interviews
Someone check on the celebrities, because I do not know if they are alright. Unclear why this is happening, but famous people keep talking about their own, and their children’s, bathing rituals in interviews lately, and uh, it’s odd. From Mila and Ashton to Jake Gyllenhaal, we gotta stop asking famous people about their bathing habits.
Mila Kunis and husband Ashton Kutcher were patient zero for bathing journalism when they told Dax Sheppard on an episode of his podcast Armchair Expert that they don’t bathe their kids every day.
Mila told the podcast host, “I didn’t have hot water growing up as a child, so I didn’t shower much anyway. But when I had children, I also didn’t wash them every day. I wasn’t that parent that bathed my newborns — ever.”
“Now, here’s the thing: If you can see the dirt on them, clean them. Otherwise, there’s no point,'” Kutcher added.
I have so many questions, but we must move on.
Seemingly defending the Kunis-Kutcher fam, Dax and wife Kristen Bell went on The View and said much of the same.
“We bathed our children every single night prior to bed as their routine, then somehow, they just started going to sleep on their own without their routine and we had to start saying [to each other] like, ‘Hey, when was the last time you bathed them?'”
Okay, that’s fair, but then Bell added, “I’m a big fan of waiting for the stink. Once you catch a whiff, that’s biology’s way of letting you know you need to clean it up.”
Lol at the phrase, “waiting for the stink.”
“There’s a red flag. Honestly, it’s just bacteria; once you get bacteria you gotta be like, ‘Get in the tub or the shower.’ So, I don’t hate what [Mila and Ashton] are doing. I wait for the stink,” Bell added.
Okay, fair enough when it comes to kids, but then Jake Gyllenhaal — who does not have kids — joined the chorus of bathing-optional celebs and recently told Vanity Fair that “I find bathing to be less necessary,” adding, “I do think there’s a whole world of not bathing that is really helpful for skin maintenance & we naturally clean ourselves”
Interestingly, NYC-based dermatologist Joshua Zeichner, MD, told Popsugar that “under normal circumstances, showering every day is not necessary.” That said, “you should wash areas like your face, groin, and underarms daily.”
Regardless if it’s healthy or not, many on Twitter pointed out that it takes a lot of privilege to boast about not showering.
“Celebrity white folks bragging about not showering have the privilege of not worrying about stereotypes they’re inherently ‘dirty,’ said journalist Jemele Hill. “Black folks don’t have that luxury. *Most* of us were raised to be obsessively clean because we always have to ‘present well’ for white folks.”
Privileged at worst, weird at best — maybe let’s stop asking celebs what they do in the shower.
