Rethinking an Oppressive Social Practice

A social convention that I think needs to be modernized is looking down on farting and blessing for sneezing. We now know that you can get people sick with your sneezes, and you can control your sneezes. But farting doesn't get people sick, and you can't control them, and when you do try to hold them in you cause yourself great discomfort. When they come out, your physical relief is replaced with psychological torture, hoping people don't realize its you who farted if its silent, or several moments of embarrassment if it makes a noise and is obviously from you. You don't really get relief from sneezing, the noise is disturbing, and you could potentially cause other people several days of bed riddenness. Why do we reward such a practice with a blessing? Why don't we instead rejoice at the relief of another person?

Modern society has come very far. Oppressive practices like slavery have ended, women can now receive an education, work, and make a difference in the world. But this convention oppresses everyone and probably has the greatest practical influence on our day to day lives.

This practice is especially oppressive for women, because of the sexist concept of it being "unlady-like" (I still have no idea what that means). Women are already subject to so much day to day physical discomfort, from having to submit to a higher expectation of not farting, to wearing heels, to trying to suck your stomach in and pretend you're thinner than you actually are, or worse, wearing a corset, which is basically a torture chamber for your internal organs. All of those things probably even increase the pressure for the fart to come out and make it harder to hold it in.

Everyone would benefit from such a social revolution. Maybe we would all just be happier people. Even if I never have to fart again, I would still be more at peace with the world, knowing that I would be accepted and not ostracized simply for being human.  If someone farts, instead of being disgusted with them, I could take it as a way of them announcing to me, "It's okay, I'm human too.  You can be yourself."  And I could smile at them and take it as a gesture of love rather than offense.  Do we not already see it as a sacred rite of passage in romantic relationships?  When you have accepted each other and are finally comfortable enough to fart in one another's presence?

Maybe farting technology would have progressed long ago if we were simply honest and open about this reality.  Maybe they would have invented pills or underwear that make your farts smell good, and so every time someone farts it is a pleasant surprise.  Or maybe we would have figured out a way to turn it into reusable energy.  But instead we brush it under the rug and suffer as a community, and as a globe.  Why must we see it as a problem when it can be a solution?


This was written while trying to hold in a fart (or a few) while in the quiet room at the library.