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BasicB's avatar

Re: Dr. Smell:

Why do people write English Literature PhD theses on topics that most non-academics would consider obscure and useless? To demonstrate to their PhD committees that they possess sufficient analysis, synthesis, and contextualization skills to obtain a doctorate. Most literature PhD's then go on to get jobs teaching Freshman Seminar.

Why do kids in college take Freshman Seminar and other literature courses? For that matter, why do kids who never go to college study literature in high school? Is it so that they can go out and lecture others about the Christian symbolism of food imagery in Ulysses? Mostly, no. A handful of those kids will go on to get weird PhDs so that they can teach Freshman Seminar themselves, but most of them will go on to get regular jobs. Why might some kid who is destined to work at a bank benefit from spending a few semesters in college trying to bang out ten pages about the portrayal of Patriarchy in the Brontes and Jane Austen? That is because it is generally good for adults in a literate society to possess reading comprehension and writing skills.

Reading comprehension is the ability to look at a work of literature, journalism, or other writing and to understand not only what literally happens in the story, but also extract broader themes, put the writing in its proper social context, and put forth a well reasoned argument about it. These skills are useful in many vocations, but also help the broader population avoid such pitfalls as freaking out about an incendiary headline that obscures the content of the article beneath it, or declaring that a book is "racist" based on reports that, at various points in a narrative about main character overcoming prejudice in an unjust society, some racist antagonists do and say some racist things.

In short, teaching literature to students is designed to help the general population be more astute consumers of the written word. So when a bunch of randos online read the title of this woman's thesis, and, with no other context, declare her life's work to be useless and irrelevant, and certainly nothing they could benefit from learning, well, Alanis Morrisette could write her PhD dissertation about that.

Edit to add: What she is doing in her thesis is similar to a session musician making a demo of himself playing "Mary had a Little Lamb" in 20 different musical styles. The original content doesn't matter. It could be anything. It's about demonstrating that she has the skills needed to obtain this degree.

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Toiler On the Sea's avatar

Dr. Ally rode her hate all the way to the bank . . .too perfect😆

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KH's avatar

I appreciate the way Dr. Smell has "it" - she just seems to behave her authentic self.

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Tom Hitchner's avatar

Wait so now it’s my turn to not know whether the “Vagina Museum” tweet is parody or not??

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KH's avatar

The more I see MST, the more convinced I am that modern far right politics is all about the feedback loop between ppl who have "it" in one field and fantasize and demand ppl acknowledge to have "it" and ppl who have nothing and think that's the conspiracy of whatever minority they hate (be it women, non white, Jews, trans and gays etc)...

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The Zoomer Basket Case's avatar

In 2026: The Politics of Smell, a Netflix series

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Pam B's avatar

We have seen Trump more with Little X than with his own grandchildren. The stubbornness of Trump's base not to think it's weird that Elon's son, and only this one, is constantly in the White House is bizarre. And Elon was nowhere in sight this time, which is even weirder.

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Graham's avatar

TBF trump's grandchildren are ugly and X is adorable.

One of DJTjr's kids looks like me when I was 13. and my ass was UGGGLLYYYY

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Alex S's avatar

It was a photo op, Elon appeared afterward.

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Mewdy Bloo's avatar

Barron is seething.

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Augustin's avatar

Who?

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Fool’s Errand's avatar

Curvy Girls Can’t Read Fanservice Clearly Aimed At Their Fantasies Without Some Internet Guy Making A Deal Out Of It was probably rejected due to lack of room on the spine

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Fool’s Errand's avatar

Like I get people are bitter about modern culture making villains of male sexuality but yeah obviously overweight women still want romance books and validating fantasies. This isn’t complex nor relevant to the obesity crisis. Pretty misogynistic to think a fat woman is going to suddenly believe overweight is healthy just cause she reads one book about a girl dating a rich chubby chaser

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Graham's avatar

How dare they

Chubby Chasers are not RICH. They become POOR buying SUSHI for all the beatufiul women they romance. SAD

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Fool’s Errand's avatar

That moment when your ‘beautiful at any size’ is ripping through sushi, rice flying behind her like sawdust from a wood chipper, and you realize:

You don’t even have the money to settle down

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Graham's avatar

This is why you do the Umiya AYCE sushi special, like a poor

It’s VERY good.

Are you doing well? You be going cuckoo in these comments sometimes I worry about u babe 🥺

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Fool’s Errand's avatar

I’m the same as always. I’m just erratic bc instead of a real human being I’m just 3 emotions in a trench coat

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Haley Lane's avatar

Bessie is definitely up there with Jumbo and Boxcar (nicknames you should not call a woman according to Homer Simpson)

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Duckie Louise's avatar

Dunno if I could survive no-twitter-lent without this weekly summary, CHH. Thank you 😂🙏🏻

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Mary's avatar

I feel like people who think Trump is uniquely funny just need more Geminis in their lives.

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Alex S's avatar

I was thinking NYC Jewish grandfathers or theater kids.

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Haley Lane's avatar

That’s true.

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Timothy Quake's avatar

"Curvy Girls Can't Date Bad Boys" is just Jonny Sac's relationship with Ginny.

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Colin Rosenthal's avatar

It's the elephant in the vagina.

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Space Egg's avatar

Could somebody with a Twitter account please @ Dr. Smell and get her to join Substack? I think she’d like it here

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Harvey's avatar

It does seem notable that Dr. Smell has toned down her choice in titles a bit. End of an era.

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Nechaken's avatar

"THE FLAT ONE" ? How did I ever miss this?!

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Lincoln Sayger's avatar

I greatly respect that you say, "If you see yourself featured here and you don’t like it, simply send me a Substack message and I will happily remove, no matter who you are or what you said. "

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