About

Dr. Ally Louks' "Olfactory Ethics: The Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose" PhD Study refers to a viral tweet shared by Cambridge University doctorate Dr. Ally Louks about completing her Doctor of Philosophy thesis study called "Olfactory Ethics: The Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose," which concerned the role of smell in creating and subverting gender, class, sexual, racial and species power structures in English literature. The topic of her PhD was widely mocked for being perceived as too "woke" by many users on Twitter / X, particularly anti-intellectuals, who believed that the study was useless and a waste of time and resources. The negative reactions inspired backlash from other users who believed that people were being overtly misogynistic and sexist to Dr. Louks as a viral debate ensued in late November and early December 2024.

Origin

On November 27th, 2024, X^[1] user @DrAllyLouks tweeted, "Thrilled to say I passed my viva with no corrections and am officially PhDone," attaching a picture of herself holding her PhD diploma from Cambridge University, reading, "Olfactory Ethics: The Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose." The post received over 42 million views and 126,000 likes in five days (shown below).

In the following days, X^[2][3] users replied to the abovementioned tweet, mostly congratulating Dr. Ally Louks or making jokes about the idea of her studying smell in English literature. Dr. Louks shared a clarifying reply^[4] on November 29th, 2024, that showed the abstract for her PhD thesis, gaining over 32,000 likes in three days (shown below).

Her abstract entails "that smell very often invokes identity in a way that signifies an individual's worth and status in an inarguable manner that short-circuits conscious reflection." She argues that the description of smell in modern and contemporary English literature can both create power structures and dissolve power structures divided by gender, class, sexual, racial and species relations.

Spread

Starting on November 30th, 2024, multiple viral quote retweets of Dr. Louks' tweet surfaced online. For instance, the earliest viral post shared on the day was a QRT sent by X^[5] user @justin_hart who isolated a quote from Dr. Louks' abstract, inferring that her study was nonsensical and too woke, amassing over 4,700 likes in two days (shown below).

Later on November 30th, X^[6] user @IterIntellectus tweeted a zoomed-in screenshot of the PhD title, writing, "Burn it all to the ground," gaining over 21,000 likes in two days (shown below).

On December 1st, 2024, X^[7] user @scorpiovenus44 quote retweeted the abovementioned post, writing, "Anti-intellectualism is one of the main characteristics of fascism by the way," amassing over 118,000 likes in a day (shown below).

On December 1st, X^[8] user @Halalcoholism shared a screenshot of a reply (since-deleted) to Dr. Louks' tweet that was overtly misogynistic, captioning it, "Once again I am begging you people to just be normal for once." The tweet received over 98,000 likes in a day (shown below).

The reply screenshotted in the abovementioned post was originally shared by X^[9] user @AndB3Happy on December 1st, 2024 (since deleted). It read, "Crows feet and no children. You literally have lived in the most advantaged time in all of human history for women and after 40 years have literally nothing of any real value to show for it and your bloodline will end with you due to your need to 'stick it to the evil man' by getting an 'education'…" (shown below).

@AndB3Happy's reply was also screenshotted and posted in other tweets in early December 2024.^[10]

On December 1st, X^[11] user @no_earthquake tweeted, "The olfactory ethics English lit dissertation sounds cool and you’re all stupid," gaining over 50,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Some users discussed how the description of smell for racist ends was also present in memes. For instance, on December 1st, 2024, X^[12] user @ProgDirectorate brought up the anti-Indian meme I Know It Smells Crazy In There, gaining over 20,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References