Should Wearing Deodorant Be Part Of The Social Contract?

As the temperatures climb, we wear less. We show up in public in near-nakedness, at the beach, the park, and at parties. It’s also common to update our fragrance wardrobes, swapping the heavy, dark aromatics of winter in favor of lighter, airier floral and ocean-inspired notes.

But it’s also that time of year where if you get into a crowded subway, attend a raucous concert or an intimate gathering at an art gallery, you’re more likely to smell and be smelled by others — strangers and friends alike. So, we couldn’t help but wonder: Is wearing deodorant part of a social contract?

When we wear less clothing, should we be more diligent about wearing deodorant?

There are hundreds of deodorants on the market in 2025, ranging from aerosols, roll-ons, whole-body creams, wipes and powders to natural and aluminum-free options. There’s deodorant for men, women, teens and non-binary formulas. Deodorant is a $27 billion per year industry, and it’s a market that has seen growth over the years, with the emergence of new niches, product innovations, and bespoke formulas. In short, no one wants to smell foul.

But it’s not that simple.

“In modern times, smelling ‘fresh’ has been equated with an elevated lifestyle that affords you perfume and allows you the privilege of cleanliness and change of clothes,” explained Dr. Alicia Zalka, a board-certified dermatologist, associate clinical professor of dermatology, at Yale University and founder of Surface Deep, a skin health and odor prevention brand.

“Before modern plumbing made a daily shower or bath a routine event, perfumes and powders were used to disguise body odor as cleansing with clean warm water was not a ready option,” she explained. “It was royalty and the wealthiest of individuals who could afford the niceties of smelling good, so lack of body odor became aligned with a notion of privilege and status.”

Yes and no. Of course, we all have different preferences when it comes to scent, and cultural differences surrounding body odor should also be taken into consideration. But musk is an interesting example of how we can twist our perception.

Body odor is frequently described as musky, which, from an olfactory point of view, is our primal animal scent — something that might gross most of us out, in any other format. But musk is a common and beloved ingredient in luxury perfumes like Maison Margiela Replica Lazy Sunday Morning, Le Labo’s Another 13 and Tom Ford White Suede Eau de Parfum. For ethical reasons, the white musk used in today’s formulas is synthetic, but perfumers of yesteryear used musk derived from animals, in particular, the glandular secretions of male musk deer. Its scent is described as sensual, warm, earthy and woody, and it’s classified as a pheromone cologne, a fragrance that claims to contain synthetic or naturally derived pheromones, or what Zalka called “compounds that act like hormones to trigger a physiological response.” These are fragrances people wear to enhance their attractiveness to others and lure them in.

That’s sure a long way from what most of us just think of as body odor.

To get to the bottom of this, we need to consider that scent is a social signifier that speaks to our public presentation, which removes some subjectivity.

“Adhering to basic hygiene practices like showering, wearing clean clothes and some form of body odor prevention is part of our social norms in the U.S,” Julia Childs, a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) based in Los Angeles, told HuffPost. “These are ways we signal to the rest of the world that we are functioning at a baseline level.”

There is also scientific evidence that links individuals with higher self-esteem to a better natural scent than those with lower self-esteem. In this 2021 study published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Ilja Croijmans, a Dutch psychologist and one of the study’s authors, talks about body odor as a “social communication signal” and refers to it as an important non-verbal social cue on how we present ourselves in public.

“The odors formed and released on human skin are impacted by bacteria that interact with our sweat,” Dr. Kristina Collins, a Harvard-trained double board-certified dermatologist, told HuffPost. “This forms the classic, obvious body odor that others can consciously smell. There are other odors influenced by our diets and emotional states [that] are also released through sweat. Others may be able to smell these as well.” A study, also published by the NIH in 2013, concedes this point, noting the difference in odors between anxious sweat and sweat from people in a regular state.

The TL;DR on these studies is something we all learn as soon as we hit puberty: having stinky body odor can make you feel embarrassed and even ashamed in some social situations.

As Zalka noted, “one’s ‘bouquet’ of body odor is as unique as their sense of smell and olfactory perception,” which means body odor exists in a social gray area. While she says she’s never experienced someone getting physically ill from smelling someone else’s pungent body odor, the very complexity of the olfactory system suggests that some people may have extra sensitivities around it. That’s where consent and context become the determining factor.

“Not taking into consideration how your personal scent may impact someone else is something I would consider a boundary-crossing,” Childs said. “I like to think of the idea of an intimate scent bubble, an imaginary small orb that surrounds your body and can only be smelled if someone is extremely close to you. It is OK to have some preferences on how you smell, whether that is au natural or with a dose of perfume. But just as you wouldn’t want someone to impose what scent you choose to have, imposing your scent on others is a boundary violation.”