Jonathan Van Ness is riding the high of being a best-selling author with his autobiography, Over the Top. As Jonathan likes to say, he’s lived a lot of life. Jonathan is very good about reminding people that a lot of life means both good and bad experiences. Because of that, Jonathan is all about destigmatizing things most humans have to deal with. Like his work on living HIV+, he’s trying to eliminate any shaming he can. His latest shame-removal campaign is: feces. Not feces per se, but defecating. So committed is Jonathan, that he just became the face of Poo-Pourri toilet spray. The pitch is that one shot of Poo-Pourri before you use the restroom will eliminate any embarrassing odor after. To start the ball rolling on anti-poo-shaming, Jonathan told his own embarrassing story. Sorry if this adds to the stigma but I feel I need to let you up front that this is a detailed story about diarrhea. He told his story in this behind-the-scenes (which is a really unfortunate pun) video. People graciously excerpted it for us:
It’s something that everyone does but it’s something that’s very stigmatized and people just feel kind of gross about it. I’ve dealt with poo shame, and anywhere we can remove stigma and shame, I want to be here for it.
It was Sepulveda and Pico, and I was in a Kia Rio, at a red light, with nowhere to run. And it wasn’t a ‘shart’ or a ‘chancer,’ as my step-dad would have said. (A chancer is when you have to fart and so you take a chance but you’re not sure.) This wasn’t a chancer — this was a 27-year-old having a full diarrhea that was brought on by a hot, seafood spinach salad with a kombucha and frozen yogurt.
[From People]
Two other pieces of information missing from the transcription are that he did not have a chance to spray Poo-Pourri prior to his Pico Poo (Sepulveda Secretion?) and that his expulsion was in the “gallons.” You can tell just by my language how comfortable I am with discussing this. I’m a mom, I have elderly parents/relatives – I have no problem with the facts or dealing with what I have to. But I hate – loathe, if you will – any scatological discussion, and that includes humor. The only exception to this is for medical reasons. I know I’m not as evolved as I should be on this and I’m sorry I can’t be that person.
However, I do support destigmatizing things that naturally affect us. And apparently, sh-tting oneself is much more common than I realized. I remember on I Love You, America with Sarah Silverman, she got an entire fire department to share their stories as an icebreaker – and almost everyone had one. And if this spray works, bully, because I get so annoyed at people who make a huge deal about poop or fart smells. Like Jonathan said, they happen all the time. If it’s too powerful, we can excuse ourselves but waving arms, dramatically holding noses or exaggerated admonishments are not necessary (unless that was what the offender wanted, we all find different things funny). I’ve seen Jonathan’s commercials and they are cute and playful, so right on brand with his message. I have not used the spay so I have no idea if it heavily perfumes the air or not, I know people with perfume sensitivities can’t be around certain air fresheners. I did see that they just came out with a Pumpkin Chai scent and gawd help me but that excites me. I love Halloween and if it was called Boo-Pourri I’d have no problem talking about it.
Photo credit: People and WENN Photos
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