This interesting article by Katherine Ashenberg, a summary version of the same author's book Clean: An Unsanitised History of Washing, argues that our current idealization of absolute odorlessness and cleanliness is largely culturally constructed. While writing the book, which examines evolving standards and rituals of cleanliness from all over the world, she says she was repeatedly asked the same two questions: "But didn't they smell?” and "How could they bear to have sex with each other?"
OMG exactly! It's always the first thing I wonder when I imagine our caveman or Pilgrim or Bushman ancestors doing the deed. It must've reeked! Especially their mouthes, vadges, peepees, and anuses. (The article doesn't go into this area with too much depth, choosing instead to argue that people of those times and places weren't conditioned to mind the stank; that, indeed, they probably LIKED it.)
I always picture those pilgrims or cavemen (and pilgrimesses and caveladies) going about it with their faces turned from each other and their noses clamped shut. And do you think fellatio even existed until people learned how to wash their uglies? And I just CAN'T imagine feys like us ever having a good time in the Middle Ages. Without soap and water, ass is just...ASS.
But, as the comments section in the article attests, there are even contemporary, Western outliers to this dick-and-ball-stank aversion. For example, Katherine from Central VA, who writes:
"The power of pheromones and scent (aromas) have already been proven to govern the sex drive in humans. Ah, turn off the central heat and air conditioning, open the windows, and breathe deeply. I miss men who have an aroma that can stir me."Stir you to what, Katherine? Stir you to VOM? The only thing I like with an "AROMA" is my coffee.
I disagree soooooooo much here. But there is a specific timeframe, a window of skinky that works better than any porn on the planet. 12-24 hours, no deoderant = perfect. 24-48 = pushing it. Thereafter = homeless.
Here's MY timeframe:
0-15 minutes post bath and/or shower = perfect.
15 mins.-2 hours = I'll do it, but I'll tell everyone they stank afterward.
2 hours or more = I VOM.
Percy, you are a filthy, stank-ass loving perv.
I think the smell of (clean but sweaty) armpits is very arousing.