My mom loathes bananas, so even the faintest whiff of a banana constitutes smelly in her book. When I lived at home, she would occasionally tolerate them in the pantry, but insisted that the peels go down the garbage disposal.
Bananas are indeed smelly. (If you don’t like bananas.) Far smellier, however, are banana-flavored items. Uuuurgh. I can’t deal with people eating those banana-flavored Runts candies when I have a hangover. At all. And I do not have a sensitive stomach.
When I was taking night classes a few years back I had to go directly from work to class. I had exactly enough time to pick up a sandwich from Subway; no time to eat it there and be on time. So I sat in the back of class eating as quietly as possible so as to avoid passing out from hunger. If that makes me rude, then I’m rude.
And I somehow was able to take good enough notes to get straight As.
It just seems rude to me to go somewhere for the express purpose of close social interaction (visiting friends or relatives, a condo board meeting, or going to school) and then bring food into that social interaction.
Imagine 20 people attending a Stephen Hawking lecture, or going to see your favorite author at a book signing. Right in the middle of his discussing the train of thought behind character development, somebody in the group rips into a little bag of chips. Yes I could probably tune it out, but I’d be mortified for the eater and if I was the speaker I would be thinking “did you come here to eat or to hear me speak?”
I would make exceptions only for small and very unobtrusive (quiet and non-smelly) snacky food like a power bar or a drink. And as I said in the other thread, I would not begrudge a bit of low-key munching for students who I know had very little time to get from their jobs to nightschool.
I think it’s rude for people to eat when they’re in close quarters with others who aren’t eating. It’s distracting for everyone else around. Also, have you ever tried to give to talk to or teach someone who’s trying not to get food all over themselves? Not only is it very frustrating, it conveys a complete lack of attention and respect and makes the eater appear very uncouth and sloppy.
In a perfect world, no one would care what anyone else thinks, but in reality, if I’m in a boardroom giving a group presentation and the meeting isn’t catered, you can be sure I’ll think that someone who brings in a sandwich and starts slopping and munching is a jerk. And if I’m listening to the presentation and the guy next to me is wolfing down some food, it’s just as annoying. Not only do I hate mouth noises, the smell usually bothers me, it’s harder to pay attention to the presentation and I can’t ask someone to switch seats without making a big deal of it - I’m stuck.
And for what it’s worth, I don’t care if someone eats on an Amtrack next to me (unless I’m about to be sick - I have a problem with motion sickness), and I don’t care if someone plops down on a park bench and whips out whatever lunch they have. It in situations where people are in a small group and supposed to be paying attention to someone else (quietly) that it bothers me.
But what qualifies as non-smelly? I never would have dreamed anyone thought normally ripe bananas had a smell, let alone an offensive one. (Bananas with a black peel and flies all over, sure a litle smelly.) I would have eaten a banana without a second thought in class, had I ever been up early enough to actually hit breakfast and grab a banana.
Someone eating at a typical meeting at work? I wouldn’t give it a second thought. Sure, I’d take the opportunity to make a joke about “Did you bring enough treats for the whole class?” but I’d realize that people need to eat to stay alive and productive, and for some reason this person had no better opportunity to eat than during this meeting. (Assuming we are talking about a snack or a sandwich, not a steak dinner.)