Why are women obsessed with "masculinity"?

"I miss your beauty, I miss your smile, I miss the faint smell of tobacco on you", singer Winnie Hsin once conquered hundreds of millions of listeners with the song "Taste". "Taste" expresses the psychological feelings of a young woman who misses the smell of her lover's body. This shows that just like women, there is also a masculinity that highlights men's characteristics. Medical experts use a special term to describe it, called body odor. Do you know where the smell of a man comes from? Where does the smell of a man come from?

The role of male body odor

Never underestimate a man's body odor, it has a huge physiological effect! Scientists have discovered that the subtle, sometimes light, sometimes heavy scent on a man has a significant impact on a woman's spirit, emotions and sexual desire. For example, researchers collected odor from men's armpits, mixed it with alcohol, and applied it to the lips of a group of unmarried women with irregular menstruation. After a period of time, their menstruation unexpectedly returned to normal. This is also the secret behind some scientists' idea of ​​making male scent into vanishing cream or perfume as a female health care product.

What’s even more amazing is that a man’s body odor can influence a woman’s view on choosing a mate to some extent. Psychological research shows that what women value most is not the look in a man's eyes, but the smell of a man. Men whose body odor is similar but not the same as their father's are most likely to be attracted to them. The reason is: body odor can reflect the strength of a person's immune system. Women have the natural ability to identify the antibodies of different men based on different body odors, thereby maximizing the chance of giving birth to healthy children.

From this we can see that there is a scientific reason why women are attracted to men's body odor. A survey data confirms this: 71% of men and women believe that body odor is an important "sexual stimulant"; more than 50% of women think that musky body odor is the sexiest, and about 25% of women prefer spicy body odor.

The Origins and Development of Manliness

A man's body odor consists of two parts: sweat and sexual odor. The smell of sweat comes from the secretions of the sweat glands on the body surface. The secretions of the sweat glands have no smell themselves, but after coming into contact with the skin and being "brewed" by bacteria, the smell comes out, which is called sweat smell. The main odorous substance contained in sweat is butyrate. Once the skin hygiene is poor, bacteria will feed on the oil secreted by the skin. As the oil decomposes, the smell will become unpleasant and the sweat fragrance will turn into sweat odor. In summer, mosquitoes chase people and police dogs use their sense of smell to track down fugitives, all because of the scent of sweat.

Sexual fragrance is different. The substance that produces this smell is due to the pheromones secreted by the human body. These pheromones are "brewed" by exocrine glands in the armpits, head, face, chest and genitals, and are also called pheromones. American scientists have isolated 11 pheromones from human skin cells. These mysterious substances invisibly affect people's basic behaviors, such as the mutual attraction between the two sexes. At the same time, everyone has their own unique pheromones, just like everyone has their own unique fingerprints.

In addition, substances released by the human body during metabolism can also produce a certain odor. According to experts, there are more than 900 kinds of odors, of which 149 are emitted through respiratory gases, 196 are emitted through feces, 151 are emitted through sweat, and as many as 271 are emitted through the skin. It is these odor substances that mix to form the masculine or feminine smell.

Swiss researchers found that men's sweat smells like cheese, while women's sweat smells like onions

At a Swiss company that studies taste and smell for the food and fragrance industries, researchers took armpit sweat samples from 24 men and 25 women after they had ridden an exercise bike for 15 minutes or spent time in a sauna.

After analyzing the samples, the researchers found that the women's sweat contained large amounts of an odorless sulfur-containing compound. When this compound mixes with bacteria commonly found under the arms, it transforms into chemicals called thiols, which are famous for their onion-like smell.

Men's sweat is different. Researchers have found that their sweat contains a large amount of an odorless fatty acid. If this fatty acid comes into contact with enzymes produced by underarm bacteria, it releases a cheese-like smell.

Dr. Starkenmann, who led the study, said: "Men smell like cheese, while women smell like grapefruit or onions."

It is believed that this research could be used to develop deodorants for men or women.

But not all researchers believe the experiment is universally applicable. Because the eating habits and genes of people in other parts of the world may not be the same as those in Switzerland. Professor Jacob, who studies the science of smell at Cardiff University in the UK, said: "Other factors include what you eat, what you bathe with, what you wear, and the genes you inherit."

Among all the bad body odors, the most problematic one is the smell from the armpits. The reason why the sweat under your armpits smells bad has a lot to do with what you eat on a daily basis.

If the alkalinity in the blood is not enough to neutralize the harmful acidic substances produced, these acidic substances will be secreted by the sweat glands in the armpits. These secretions include fat, cholesterol, and other acidic substances that have not been completely neutralized. They gather in the armpits and emit a strong and unpleasant odor. It can be seen that trying to keep the blood at an ideal alkalinity is the only way to fundamentally prevent body odor.

If you change to a vegetarian diet, add more green vegetables, iron- and magnesium-rich foods to your daily diet, your blood will gradually become alkaline and neutralize the original acidic blood. In this way, after the blood quality gradually changes, the sweat excreted will no longer have an unpleasant odor.

In addition, seafood, onions, garlic, pepper, fennel and curry, etc., these foods will produce protein and fat decomposition products, which will seep out of the body through the pores. The volatile odor of these foods can even be secreted by the sweat glands to the feet. Therefore, if you want to have a fresh smell, stay away from these foods.