As a literary scholar, I typically have a lot to say about main characters. It’s ironic, then, that when I became the main character of X for a week, I was left somewhat at a loss for words. The post that nearly 120 million people have seen is entirely innocuous: in it, I hold a hardbound copy of my PhD thesis on “Olfactory Ethics: The Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose”. The photo was taken just before I submitted the copy to Cambridge University Library, the final requirement for my PhD to be approved, and the post is captioned “Thrilled to say I passed my viva with no corrections and am officially PhDone”.
My thesis explores how the literature of the past century records and critically engages with the importance of smell in society. I examine why certain writers use smell to characterise harmful attitudes towards objects of disgust or desire. Over the course of the thesis, I discuss how smell can create gender, class, sexual, racial, and even species power dynamics, although many of these identity categories prove to be interrelated in literature. We tend to think about discrimination and prejudice as primarily visual phenomena, but all of the senses are heavily influenced by culture, and the strong emotional reactions produced by smell make it particularly politically charged.
Initially, the post gained traction among kind strangers celebrating my achievement. Soon, however, it reached a much more hostile audience. I was swarmed with comments about the presumed content of my thesis, the political thrust behind it, and my “life choices” more generally. One of the top comments stated, “You would have spent your years better by getting married and having children”, while another referred to me as “The face of tyranny”. Posting the abstract of my PhD, to contextualise its title, turbocharged matters. Terms like “intersectionality” and “DEI” (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) were wielded as though they were slurs, while real slurs were used more frequently than punctuation marks.
I was unperturbed by the bad faith criticisms – that studying for my PhD was a waste of time and money; that my chosen topic was too niche, or too “woke”. After all, we are not used to thinking about smell critically, and the role of the thesis is to provide evidence that this is necessary. I was, however, concerned to see the depth and scale of vitriol, which drew into sharp focus how many people (notably, American men) have extreme views about academia and the contributions of women. “This woman is why everything is falling apart”, one commenter wrote. “She got a PhD for this, and from the looks of her, she probably believes that this entitles her to an extremely high-status lifestyle”. Perhaps this should not surprise me: the President-elect of the United States has pledged to abolish the US Department of Education, reflecting exactly how valued academia is among his supporters.
My obligation to defend the value and quality of my thesis ended when I passed my viva, but I wanted to provide enough information for anyone viewing the post to make an informed judgement about both my thesis and the responses to it. This approach proved effective. As I’m writing, over 10,000 people across X, Bluesky, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and email have expressed that they would like to read my work and over 1,000 people have requested to read my thesis on the university’s repository, despite its embargo. I have seen many posts that are beginning to leverage the notion of “olfactory ethics” to better understand real-world scenarios, such as the viral “Imagine the smell” and “I know it smell crazy in there” memes that jest at the expense of South Asian communities. All of this is a testament to the intellectual curiosity and open-mindedness of so many people on X, no matter the forceful anti-intellectualism of my detractors.
Not every academic aims to reach a public audience with their work, which certainly does not invalidate their contributions. I do have that aim, however. This experience has been a welcome reminder that academic terminology can be alienating to those unfamiliar with it. It has better equipped me to share my ideas with wider audiences and will serve me well as I turn the thesis into a trade book. It was an uncomfortable week in the spotlight for a bookish introvert, but it has been enormously gratifying to see so many people engage with my work and I have greatly appreciated the good humour of so many commenters. As someone who usually tries to avoid social media, it still seems improbable to the point of absurdity that my post gained so much attention, but the support I have received from all over the world speaks to the profound kindness that continues to unite us, even while some are too quick to judge.
[See also: Gregg Wallace and the revenge of the middle-class, middle-aged women]
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