After morphing into Dear Abby last weekend with the relationship advice, I am back to my normal self, and we received this question:
Hey guys, love the blog. I am a 1L, and on Monday/Wednesday, we are done with class at noon, then have a long break, and have to come back for legal writing at 4. My section of legal writing is held in a small room, which is always 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the school (this will come in to play later). During that long break, different people do different thing. Some people stay and study, some go home and nap, and then there is this guy, I'll call him "Dan". Dan likes to go work out during this long break. I have no problem with this, except for one: Dan doesn't shower after his workout. Dan doesn't change out of his workout clothes. Dan stinks. He has horrible, horrible BO when he comes to class. This is made all the worse by the small, hot room we meet in. By the end of class, the room smells like a locker room and the rest of us are ready to throw up. Something needs to be done...Any suggestions?
You are correct, something needs to be done. And not just for your immediate benefit, but for the future benefit of anyone who may be in your position. Dan is what is known as a Stinky Guy; he has no awareness of his own funk and thus subjects poor innocent people such as yourself to his body odor problems.
There are several different approaches to telling Dan he stinks. First, you could employ the subtle hint method. The next time you are in class, and he is stinking up the joint, say aloud, to on one in particular, "What stinks?" When this happens, everyone in the room takes silent inventory of their own odors, trying to figure out if they are indeed the cause of the odor. However, since it appears that Dan is oblivious to the situation, he might not take the subtle hint. Thus, you might want to try a not so subtle hint.
In doing this, you should bring in some air freshener. When Dan start funkifying the room, say
"Oh jeez, something stinks", take out the can of air freshener, and start spraying it around the room. When you get to Dan, say "Smells like it's coming from over here", and send extra air freshener in his direction. Hopefully Dan will take the hint, although I somehow doubt it, as he seems oblivious.
The next option is to go the anonymous route. This could be done by putting some deodorant with a note that says "USE THIS" in his chair before he arrives at class, but I suggest the anonymous email. In fact, if you want, I'll send you an invitation to gmail, and you can create an address like DanYouStink or something, and send him an anonymous message detailing how he stinks, how it effects everyone in the class, and suggestions for stopping the stink. The only downside is that he may come to class with accusing eyes, or he will thinks it's a joke. And since he seems so oblivious, I think he may not think the email is serious.
So, I suggest you do this: Pull Dan aside, out of earshot of everyone, and repeat these words: "Dan, you stink." Be blunt and brutally honest. If he protests, tell him exactly how he stinks, and what everyone thinks of him. Tell him it is one thing to be the stinky kid in elementary school; a little bit worse in junior high; pretty bad in high school; ridiculous in college; and completely and utterly out of hand in law school. If, at this point, he doesn't do anything about it, I would suggest having the whole class go to the professor and ask him/her to address the situation. Keep us posted.
