Thursday, October 27, 2011

Baby Powder Demographics: Who, Exactly, Has Got the Johnson Baby Powder and the Polo Cologne?


for those who might not know/recall, the headline is quoted from Slick Rick's famed la di da di, later reinterpolated by Snoop. Snoop changed the brand of cologne to Cool Water, but kept the Johnson's baby powder. This is telling! And this Baby Powder Code of Omertá is what I'd like to inquire about...

I'm curious about the demographics of baby powder usage outside of babies. and basketball games. I think the usage implied by the lyrics -- both Snoop and Rick have these items in tow "for all the girls they might take home" -- is the same usage I have: which is to liberally powder my balls before doing most anything as a sweaty-musk inhibitor. on really hot sticky days I also have an eye on cutting down any potential thigh friction.

now at this point i put so much baby powder on my balls they're like my version of white privilege. my boys won't even raise up off the lawn without the smell of talcum with aloe and vitamin e in their immediate airspace. and if it don't smell right they just scrunch up their faces and chill. but i've received enough "your balls always smell like baby powder" comments over the years *cough* that i wonder now if baby powder usage can be used to profile people:

Race/Ethnocultural & Baby Powder: do black people favor heavy usage over other ethnic groups? do some cultures never use it? do some people only use it in a specific way? is the hip hop lyric an indication of a hip hop/black people trend? Would Radiohead or Dirty Projectors or Katy Perry or Gaga have lyrics about baby powder for pitching men/women on sexual activities, or anything really?


Hipsters & Baby Powder: (not about identifying 'hipsters', per se) but is baby powder cool, not cool, or whatever? I could see maybe a lil bit of baby powder signals twee. I could see a Michael Cera riff using a wee bit and then a black friend like me comes by and he's being taken aback by the metric tons of cornstarch I pour on the Young & The Restless (tm). In this way maybe baby powder usage can signal a hipster that would wear a baggy pair of bootcut jeans and pumas, but never a puffy coat and timz. Also per the thigh friction angle, skinny hipster thighs wouldn't be eligible. so maybe lifestyle-diet plays a role? Eating Popeyes carries an invisible Baby Powder tax that you probably don't account for.

Women & Baby Powder: i guess this is the main group I'm curious about (as per usual), because this is where all my feedback has come from. does a lot of baby powder indicate a dude is still a baby? immature. not man enough for cologne. or does it signify anything hipster or ethnoculture related above? Maybe genuine cool-scenester types don't use baby powder? they keep it raw and gully. and if you're a punk girl, you want a guy who keeps his pubic area punk? and if you like men with cardigans, or other yuppie signifiers, then you like baby powder also?   in nyc is there more Baby Powder usage on the UES, and UWS than SOHO and Tribeca?

all insights, novellas and related tangents on Baby Powder demographics are appreciated!

thanks...

14 comments:

  1. I have a brother-in-law who is a firm believer in sprinkling Shower to Shower powder ("A sprinkle a day helps keep odor away") on his nether parts, and he's mighty white. Half Italian, in his early 50s.

    There's also a sister-in-law, age 40, Asian-American, who is/was a big proponent of baby powder down below.

    I think the general concept is silly, personally.

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  2. Sneaker Funk8/01/2010

    I've seen baby powder in sneakers and shoes. But never in people's underwear.

    ReplyDelete
  3. knatalie knows8/01/2010

    i've seen a great cross-section of boys' berries and upon consideration, haven't noticed an ethnic breakdown of powder vs. natural. sweaty guys powder, non-sweaty guys don't for the most part. but everyone should powder. men, if you don't, you'll smell like the everglades.

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  4. I don't think I've ever done a dude who powdered his balls. It's a new concept to me. But I do tend to go for those punk rock types, so maybe powder's just not punk. Plus the skinny factor.

    Do they make unscented baby powder? I associate the smell of baby powder with babies and teenage girls.

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  5. Anonymous8/25/2010

    The accent mark on Omerta goes the other way. Otherwise, may I say you are a genius and miss reading you on Gawker.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gold Bond is the correct answer.

    demographix: white, straight (but not narrow), southern (but not hateful), recording engineer with a strong affinity for '60s R&B (and wherever else all those '90s samples came from.)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous10/12/2010

    this is really funny.

    ReplyDelete
  8. i thought it was johnson's baby powder and cool water cologne... or was that just the snoop dogg version?

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  9. First, let me say that i was going to go to bed two hours ago and then i came across your blog and got hooked like a chickenhead is hooked on meth. Im a 25 yr old white female. I have lived in tampabay florida for most of my life. Florida is one of the most racially diverse states. I have been intimate with a mixture of races of different social status and trends. I can tell you that the act of powdering genitals is typically an urban practice. Ive seen that mainly black people do it but also other races living around or engaged in the black communities. I personally dont care for the smell of baby powder but i wouldnt go as far as to judge a man for using it. Besides, its not strong enough to overpower the sweet smell of male pheromones ;) and for those of you readers unaware of this, women are instinctively attracted to sweaty males. Sweaty males that are physically attractive to said female that is.

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous3/02/2011

    As a Florida resident, ball-powdering is a necessary thing if you wanna get by. I'm a Gold Bond guy, but I can understand baby powder. Maybe that's where the racial divide is: Gold Bond v. Baby Powder.

    Even with that, however, I feel like you'd get further investigating the dynamics of why white people don't use a washcloth in the shower.

    (I'm white, btw. I just remember back in the day having black friends stay over and them expressing shock and dismay that I didn't have a shower washcloth at the ready.)

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  12. Millie3/19/2011

    there was some investigating into washcloths too.
    here and here

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  13. Wow, Negro. You just talked a lot about some dusty balls. I'm not sure if I wanna weigh in on this one, but damn it all to hell- no dusty balls in my closet, but I had a roommate once who was always dusting her puss

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  14. I hear you folks I use this stuff called Cowboy Code Powder on deez nuts. It's cool like a bag of Gold Bond, and now it doesn't get all over my bathroom. Stay fresh all...

    ReplyDelete

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