John McWhorter, associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University comments on the growing sophistication (or devolution) of English language among Americans in the article of the New York Times (April 5, 2014) under the title of “Like, Degrading the language? No way.”
He picks up prolific uses of the words, “like,” “totally,” “because X” in daily discourse and “lol” in texting as the noteworthy trends of the shift of language. He says:
“Linguistically, underneath the distraction of incivility, America is
taking a page from Dale Carnegie’s classic “How to win friends and
influence people.” There’s, overall, an awareness of the states of
minds of others in much of what is typically regarded as
Clearasil-scented grammatical sloth.”
As I understand Clearasil is a pimple treatment medicine primarily directed to high-teen users, does “Clearasil-scented grammatical sloth” mean immature usage of language? What does it mean?
We say “It smells like Mentholatum” in Japanese in referring to the person / thing emitting an alien (not necessarily unpleasant) smell.
Is “Clearasil-scented” a popular phrase, or the author’s particular trope? Can we apply “Clearasil-scented” to other words, like “look, fashion, view, remarks, and infatuation”?
Best Answer
Yes, you have it. 'Clearasil-scented' is intended to mean teenagers, and their 'grammatical sloth' their laziness in holding to standards.
To address your particular questions, no, it is not about an alien, medication-like smell. It is a figure of speech, metonymy, clearasil being used by teenagers mostly.
It is not a set-phrase at all. If anyone else used it, it would probably be considered esthetic plagiarism. Meaning it wouldn't really be plagiarism, but if used without quotes, totally uncool ('esthetic plagiarism' is the first time that phrase has been used, but you can use it if you like, just give me credit the first time).