The 'how much should you shower' discourse is back, and it's more annoying than ever

• America Ferrera confessed her "guilty pleasure" is going a few days without showering.
• Meanwhile, Al Roker argued against dermatologists saying people only need to bathe 2-3 times a week.

It's July 2023, and the celebrities are talking about how much they shower again.

Amid the never-ending "Barbie" press tour, America Ferrera, who stars in the movie, participated in a Vanity Fair video interview published on Wednesday alongside "Barbie" director Greta Gerwig and costars Margot Robbie, Kate McKinnon, and Issa Rae. The group took part in a game where they had to answer questions to see how well they knew one another. One of Ferrera's questions was about her secret guilty pleasure. As it turns out, that's "not showering for a few days."

I highly recommend you watch the entire segment in the video above, because it's kind of remarkable how you can pinpoint the moment Issa Rae is thinking, "Oh, god, not this again."

Ferrera's admission, which she even said she knew she'd regret, quickly gained traction on Twitter when the writer Meecham Whitson Meriweather, who goes by @MediumSizeMeech on the platform, tweeted out a clip. "Girl WHAT??? As a Latina??? America really DOES have a problem," Meriweather wrote.

Coincidentally, in an entirely separate situation, Al Roker had gotten into a bit of a huff on the "Today" show over the same topic on Tuesday morning, Decider reported. In a segment called "How Often Should You?," SHOP Today's editorial director Adrianna Brach quizzed Roker and his cohosts Dylan Dreyer and Sheinelle Jones about how often they think dermatologists recommend people shower. Brach revealed that experts say it should just be two or three times per week.

Roker was, to put it mildly, aghast, and offered up that he showers twice daily. Twitter also had feelings about it.

If this all sounds familiar, it's because the same discourse happened two years ago, when Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis said on Dax Shepard's "Armchair Expert" podcast that they only bathe their kids when you can "see the dirt on them."

Fans weighed in, and so did celebrities from Jake Gyllenhaal and Dwayne Johnson to Cardi B. The brouhaha eventually spiraled into a debate vortex that also pulled in dermatologists, pediatricians, and at least one cultural studies professor, who told Insider that historically there's been a racial component over who has the freedom to bathe less (and brag about it).

That discourse back in 2021 eventually just kind of petered out, probably because there's not one straightforward "right" answer to the question. But the fact that it's back, and people are still being very annoying about it, is making me think we're all just doomed to repeat the same arguments cyclically. And also that it's probably time to delete Twitter from my phone.