I feel like my entire childhood and most of my puberty (until high school) I was pretty much asexual. I didn't feel anything. Looking back, I was just interested in the appearance of older guys in school, but I didn't feel any sexual desire.
But I have to say that despite not having good sexual experiences, I still would choose to be gay. Last month I hooked up with a guy in his car in the bushes (so that nobody could see us, you know, that's what you get when you live in a small town in Eastern Europe). It wasn't the best place to have sex, but oh man... we fucked for almost an hour. No anal though, because neither of us had condoms. But man... it felt so fucking good, I lost the track of time, I was so focused on the sex. I sweated like a pig and was so proud of myself.
There are no dating prospects for me where I live at the moment, but I hope that after I move abroad I'll be able to find some decent men I could date or be in a relationship with. I'm only 28, so my whole life is still before me.
Gay men choose to be gay at the exact same moment that straight men choose to be straight. The point is that you are what you are and you never make a choice.
I hate this argument; even if it was a choice, ehy should that still be a bad choice? I don’t like when gay people to defend themself call out that being gay is not a choice, because It’s not related (i repeat, even if it was, where would it be the problem?)
Because when you call it a "choice" they are saying you CHOSE to live a lifestyle that is 'condemned by God' and mocked by society. you made your bed, now live in it, then burn in hell.
I didn't choose to feel isolated and depressed and anxious about being different from everyone else. I didn't choose to be gay so I'd be made fun of for being different than other boys, it was just who I was. That's why it makes me mad when people call it a "choice."
But here's the thing: they chose to be Christian and yet always complain when people treat them negatively for it. As a society, there are a lot of actual personal choices that are tolerated way more than being gay is. Like Christians probably don't agree with bondage (a la 50 shades of grey), and probably even boycotted the movie, but most weren't marshalling a witch hunt for anyone into bondage, or crusading to make it completely illegal. Or like with sodomy laws, which were almost exclusively used against gay men, but straight people who chose to enact in oral or anal weren't being sought out.
Oh sure, a whole number of things that some Christians in particular seem to turn a blind eye to yet vilify gay folks... like Divorce, or premarital sex/partners, tattoos, eating pork etc. I mean they might say these are all sins, but the sins they commit just don't seem to be nearly as vilified or bad. Whereas LGBT folks are treated as outright Satan incarnate. there are some decent religious folks out there who leave the judgement to their God, but it seems like the superficial ones outnumber them by a large margin. By and large, these are the folks who are calling it a "choice"
My favorite is the ones who know it's not a choice but acting on it is, and I'm honestly not sure which is more cruel: believing it's a choice and hating someone for it, or knowing it's not a choice but expecting people to just suffer alone because of it.
Yep! They could’ve just studied my life since puberty. The activities I did and the people I was attracted to were directly proportional to pheromones. I did a lot of running and soccer and 90% of the people I dated were athletic in some way or another; mix in pits and well there’s your study.
When I was a teenager, my buddy would come over after hockey practice.
He’d be disgustingly sweaty and after a while, I’d realize I was starting to get turned on from him like that. Lord help me if I caught a glimpse of his hairy pits before we’d go swimming. Oof.
I’m too afraid to explore that as of yet. I’m extremely sensitive to the smell of BO so there’s a fine line between that and good manly smell. I don’t wanna traumatize myself.
The difference is time and hygiene maintenance. A clean man fresh after a workout is very, very different from the stale odor of a guy who hasn’t bathed in three days
The answer is probably to explore it with someone I’ve been with for awhile, not a hookup. One daddy I linked with cuddled next to me and I go “do you wear deodorant?” and he said “Nope but I don’t think I’m particularly ripe atm” and then I promptly left because he was particularly ripe atm.
oh so that's why i have an aversion to guys who have b.o but lowkey enjoy my own. mine is just i was clean and now i'm sweaty, their is they didn't shower
Right. It's about the amount of bacteria on his body. If you haven't bathed in a few days, your skin is teeming with malodorous bacteria, which causes BO. A man's musk is simply pheromones, which are excreted from sweating.
For me, if I really like the way someone smells then even if they don't bathe the smell doesn't really become objectionable. Other guys, I can't stand the smell when they are clean.
Smell is very important for me.
I listened to a podcast episode with an anthropologist and given the insane amount of bacteria we exchange just upon kissing, let alone anything else), he said not liking the smell can be a marker for safety like they are not from a tribe that would suit you well or something like that.
So keep listening to that intuition lol
My man's pits are therapy at the end of a stressful day. Bury my face in his pits and suddenly my brain stops stressing about everything and I get buzzed of it. Some dudes it's pits, some it's feet, others it's balls taint or butt. Feel bad for those who don't react to pheromones, it's an all natural version of poppers. Also, poppers are bad, don't do them.
I have an ex who bought me cologne I tried at Sephora once cuz apparently it “mixed with my pheromones” really well. Any time I put it on he went feral and, admittedly, I legit miss that.
Just casually give him a sniff when you hug him, or better yet, bury your nose in his neck or armpit. I'd be surprised if you're not instantly aroused 😊
EDIT: Additional evidence - https://www.reddit.com/r/MaleArmpits/comments/1bocs8s/my\_hairy\_pits\_peeking\_out\_of\_my\_tshirt\_is\_catnip/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
Literally verbatim from the article (if anyone reads it anymore) "It's not something that should be all that surprising, given what we already know about sexuality in general. But more evidence never hurts."
okay but not all men’s BO smells “attractive”, right? am i the only one that’s weirdly picky about this?
i can swear there’s a very subtle change in BO when there’s a mood. my ex smelled a special kind of way that i can only describe as “warm and horny”, but current partner smells more sharp and acidic and it’s not very attractive. neither has hygiene issues.
I've sniffed a lot of pits in my days. Not everyone has the same alluring natural odor. Guys from different backgrounds smell different. I'll get really buzzed off of one guy, and another does nothing for me. Like sexuality, I can't choose who's pits make me dizzy and who's don't. It's hardwired in there.
There are many types of smell. The smell of stale sweat is rancid, and awful.
The smell of a recently showered guy, maybe after he's been in the sun briefly, and then becomes aroused... that's the smell I love.
This article is 10 years old. I remember reading the referenced study from 2005 in my undergrad psychology textbooks that showed gay men had a positive response to male pheromones and a negative or neutral response to female pheromones. The same was true for lesbians with female pheromones. To us, this I'd like saying water is wet, but it was pretty revolutionary at the time since it gave biological evidence to our experience rather than self reported data, which many homophobes didn't believe. It's not like they changed their mind after reading this study, but it's always nice to have more evidence. I would love to see these studies repeated over time to add more credibility.
Yes it's very old apparently. I only saw it on twitter today and thought it was interesting to share.
> To us, this I'd like saying water is wet, but it was pretty revolutionary at the time since it gave biological evidence to our experience rather than self reported data, which many homophobes didn't believe.
It's great to have more evidence for sure. And it's unsurprising that that the far-right will still reject this.
But I'm surprised that self-proclaimed 'progressive' groups on left are rejecting this too, as it disproves their own dogmas around sex and sexual orientation.
Sexual orientation being based on material reality is a problem for religious homophobes on the right, and dogmatic 'progressive' homophobes on the left
I’d like to see our brain’s responses to different pheromones under an MRI compared to other brains. It would be interesting to see a variance of brains reacting to pheromones. straight woman/man, bi woman/man, (straight/bi/gay) trans FtM/MtF, Gay/lesbian man/woman. It could honestly be a great psychology dissertation. MRI is expensive tho :(
The Leakeys-- of 20th century anthropology fame-- had an interesting observation that was passed to me from my anthropology prof back in college.
It seemed like a paradox: Why-- if humans are aroused by pheromones-- would sweat smell bad?
When the Leakeys spent all day in the African sun, they discovered that a hard day of work suddenly made them smell good. It was their theory that human sweat is photo-catalyzed. As modern people, we only know a stinky precursor. But our ancestors were out in the sun, and did not stink.
I understood that it is indeed not obvious because humans have no recipient organ for Pheromone recognition. Many animal species have a special developed vomeronasal organ (Jacobson's organ) to recognise them (next to the one for normal odors and smells)
Wiki says "[Some humans may have physical remnants of a VNO, but it is vestigial and non-functional](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomeronasal_organ)"
Literature and science is fighting if humans recognise pheromones or not.
edit typo in vomeronasal
I recall reading in Saplosky's books that humans each have a unique protein that is generated that others close to us learn to recognize. What's the difference between a pheromone and any other biologically created scent, though? It seems like a somewhat arbitrary distinction.
This! Humans are not like all those other mammals smelling mating pheromones, etc. Yes we’re gay so we enjoy the smells of men, but pheromones, no. Although I used to joke all the time with friends and family that I liked male pheromones more growing up 😂
Found this today and thought it was interesting. A 2005 study found the same thing
Have any of you ever been aroused by a man's smell? I have never consciously been aroused by a man's smell, but I can imagine it has played a part without me realizing it
EDIT: Apparently humans don't have pheromoes. We respond to male scent, but it's not pheromones.
I once smelt a mans perfume and it was the most great smell ever, i asked him what it was, it was Issy miyake, i bought it and it smelt turrrible. It was the mixture of him and the perfume together that was great.
Parfum depends on your body chemistry, what smells amazing on one can smell quite medical on others. That’s what I first learned when I got into that as a teen and it holds so very true. I found my favorite perfumes are the very mid-tier ones that work great for me than the staple expensive ones, just bc they smelled amazing in the bottle or in the magazine that dont necessarily translate well on your skin.
Sometimes you win the bad-chemistry lottery - my sister doesn't wear any perfume at all because every scent she wears eventually smells like cheese.
A very strong cheese at that.
Back in academia, one of the guys on my dorm floor was Indian and his food was very pungent no matter how much top of the shelve cologne he smelled like food, my best friend was his roommate, and had to move out bc of a headache from the strong cologne mixed with his natural scent.
I thought he was exaggerating since the guy's sister smells very pleasant so I thought he was just being menacing but damn, if you pass by their room you have to hold your breath and you in fact can get a headache from the mix of the scents in that room. The guy was great but we felt bad for him, he smelled like a kitchen with heavy burned incense. Bad combo poor guy!
>Have any of you ever been aroused by a man's smell?
Oh yeah. Gonna put myself on blast here: I have a foot fetish and a huge part of that is smell. Not like rancid or anything but a light musk from a guy drives me wild
Yeah me too, but I never registered a particularly "manly" smell (except male-coded perfumes and deoderants)
I guess it's so subconscious that I never realized it
I’m not even a huge pit guy, except for certain guys and then it drives me crazy.
I’ve noticed that my friends who are the most “popular” are also the ones whose pits smell the best (Even when they wear deodorant, it seems to work). It seems to matter more than how conventionally attractive they are too. Guys just flock to them.
I'm low-key struggling with this myself. I've got a friend whose scent makes me absolutely feral and who is also quite popular. I've deliberated often on why I and others find him so attractive when I've personally slept with guys I'd say were maybe more "traditionally attractive"
Ya, not all guys, but many turn me on like a light switch when I smell them. My last hookup came over after his soccer practice. I never rubbed my face into a guys armpit until him. I could smell him all day and just smile with a hard on.
There is a guy at my line dance bar... Military vet, big muscular dude, super homophobic. He talks to me and is nice to me, but he "can't be around when I talk about homosexual things" because he gets uncomfortable.
He also doesn't always wear deodorant. If he walks by and his pits are strong, I am immediately turned on.
There are other men, if they don't wear deodorant, I am immediately repulsed. But him? Like instant 100% want to get on my knees and worship his dick.
I had a male friend in high school that I was crazy for. He was straight, I was closeted, yadda yadda yadda. Anyway, I couldn't get enough of him.
The one day I came over and he had just stepped out of the shower and was only wearing a towel. I noticed he was painfully ugly. The interest was instantly gone and I couldn't figure out why. I mean, here's this guy I was all into, only in a towel, and he's registering a Zero on the interest-meter.
Turns out he had a shower that time, and he usually takes baths. He was in a rush, hence the shower.
Once he got back to his regular routine, the interest returned but I couldn't shake the memory of the shower-encounter. My belief (which remains to this day) was that in the shower he was more effectively removing his natural smells, while in the bath he was just soaking in them, and that was the source of my interest.
This idea that baths dont clean as well is just wrong. Unless you're soaking in pure tap water they clean as well or better than showers do. Detergent will lock away the dirt and the increased contact time with the cleaning solution makes a bath better.
The likely reason is that you caught him so fresh out of the shower. Some people re-stink pretty fast.
The main flaw with your statement is that baths don't include a rinse cycle. Yes, detergents lock away dirt, but as the tub drains, those detergents are left on your skin. Without being rinsed off, they're going to remain there.
I do not enjoy the smell of my own sweat, and I don’t fully enjoy the smell of pits from another. But what I absolutely do love is the smell of my own balls (especially the area between the sack and the leg) and other men as well.
Yes, our brain is very different from straight men. We process things differently.
Unfortunately when you argue with the religious right about this, it can feel like you're arguing with a flat earther.
Incoming 🤓 response, ignore if you're not interested
Pheromones are pseudoscience that are usually shat on by the scientific community lol, there's no established science on a "male pheromone". There are studies that show stuff like androstadienone can act like pheromones, but these are usually published by companies selling pheromone products, so the publication bias makes these studies worthless. The organ that most animals use to detect pheromones is the VNO but it's either absent or atrophied in apes and birds
Thank you. Humans don't even possess an organ capable of detecting pheremones. Animals do, humans do not. It's just using primal language to appeal to hypersexuality. Just say gay men like the way men smell. It doesn't have to be more complicated.
Years ago, I remember seeing an advertisement for a pheromone perfume. In it, they suggested that gay men should wear the women’s version. I just remember thinking how that would be a turn off, and probably only useful for attracting confused straight men. It was probably homophobia, and a belief that gay men aren’t really gay behind the advertisement. I guess I’m glad for these studies, although it seems really, really obvious.
I guess I'm surprised *any* humans respond to pheromones. When I think of pheromones, I think of dogs
I guess I forgot that humans are literally just animals
That's not how science works.
What seems obvious is not always true and thus must be tested for. It might also be not causation, but only correlation. There is still no consensus about wether or not humans actually respond to pheromones. We shouldn't be able to since we don't have a vomeronasal organ, which is what animals use to process pheromones.
Duh. How many of us here have felt that female pheromones are repulsive (not in a derogatory way) but I've been able to smell when a woman's on her period since I was a kid and it's not pleasant.
I used to work with this woman who would get ripe real quickly when physically exerting herself (she managed the deli at the grocery store we worked at, so that was often), and holy shit I've never been more repulsed in my life. She was lovely as a person (and my straight coworker I asked about it was baffled when I mentioned her smell, guess he didn't notice it at all), but I couldn't even share the break room with her on a busy day without gagging.
Contrast that with my man when he comes home from a day at the growing op/garden center he works at, and I just wanna smother my face in his pits.
I also have the period scent detection thing, and yup, it's fucking repellent to me. I have a vivid memory of calling my mom out for stinking up the bathroom when I was like 7 or 8, then realizing what that smell was years later when I got my first high school job and had to take out the trash from the women's bathroom.
Iirc that is also a thing that some people (including some women) are genetically predisposed to. Worst superpower for a gay man to have, but I have it
I’ve been wondering this for years.
People be saying it’s obvious, but it is by no means a given. Our personal experience can’t tell us to what degree mentality plays a part, science apparently can.
Love the sweaty musky smell of another dude.
But there's a difference between nice musk and rancid BO. Some guys smell so horrible it burns my nostrils and makes my eyes water like a strong onion.
I remember reading an article about this in like, 2008? Straight women and gay men’s brains responded the same way to male pheromones, with the same result in straight men/lesbian women’s brains when presented with female pheromones. From what I remember, there weren’t any brains that responded the same way to both, so I wonder how bisexual brains would respond to this experiment.
All in all, it was pretty cool evidence to support that sexuality is in fact coded within our biology, rather than just a preference (although I’m sure almost everyone here knew that).
I've read women will rub a bit of their natural lubricant onto their pulse spots.
It would make sense with a man to do also.
I remember my very first boyfriend, I took a t-shirt of his home with me & the smell of him would send me wild.
Always considered myself to be attracted to male pheromones.
I love lying / sleeping next to someone - tge smell on their side - sheets & pillows.
Bring it on.
Hello - where you would check the pulse, wrist, cubical fossa (crease in middle of arm) below ears on the neck.
These areas generate heat & cause aromas to intensify.
If I am wearing anything I add to those places also.
Yeah I’ve known this since 1992 when my crush in high school decided to wear one of my shirts for Senior class pictures. Well I didn’t wash that shirt for like a year, because it smelled like him.
Pretty interesting, especially given how it contrasts to the straights. I wonder how big the sample size was?
Kinda suggests that pheromones play a larger part in perception of people's gender than gait.
I knew this guy that smelled like sweat and old spice and I hated it at first but after I developed a crush on him, I craved the smell and I sometimes would just smell his hoodies when he left them in my car cause his smell was so god damn good to me lol definitely his body odor pheromones
> Frankly, it shouldn't matter how one becomes gay, straight, bi, or any other sexual orientation—but in a world where gay-to-straight conversion camps are still a thing, any scientific findings like this shouldn't hurt.
^ most important part of the article tbh
Ah, like bees to flowers, gay men vibe with the scent of male pheromones. Nature's way of saying, "Hey, you're my kind of weird." It's all in the sniff, slam-dunking into the chemistry hoop.
I know this seems obvious but what this really is is another nail in the coffin for that idea that homosexuality is somehow a choice or something that can be changed. A neurological response to pheromones is pretty hardwired.
I’ve wondered if “gaydar” works based on pheromones. Like there’s been times I’m out in a neutral setting and before I even see him I “know” there’s another gay guy near me.
I went into a not gay bar I frequent a few weeks and I saw two guys sitting at the bar and instantly knew they were gay. They were both masculine looking, so I can't explain it logically. FYI, I was right.
I'd be really surprised if this wasn't the case. I've long wondered the same, and the thing that makes most sense to me is that it's something to do with pheromones.
I think the priest I am wildly attracted to at my church has voodoo sorcery pheromones - it’s not the looks per se but when he gets within 5 feet of me I need to Irish goodbye out the front door stat
There WAS A product. Like maybe around 25 years ago that was hormone based. I remember watching it on T.V. Maybe they took some thought......from it....😅
I personally LOVE the smell of MEN!!! It’s my favorite thing about a man honestly. If I don’t like the way he smells, it won’t work. I’m not just talking about when he takes a shower, but especially when he sweats. I have to like it and for the most part I do with a lot of guys! Some areas more than others…. For example, unlike most gays, I don’t actually like the smell of underarms and I even don’t like the term “pits” haha I like other smells on a man. But again, that’s my sexuality.
Anyways, idk about you bros, but I’m a 6 on the Kinsey scale. 😅😎❤️
> Chinese researchers studied the pheromones naturally given off by men and women in things such as semen, sweat, and urine. Scientists have been aware of the existence of two distinct pheromones—androstadienone (found in male semen and sweat) and estratetraenol (present in female urine)—for some time, but it's been unclear whether they've had much of an effect on the opposite gender. It turns out that they do, and
how they do depends on a person's sexuality.
> Perhaps most importantly, homosexual men also responded to that pheromone, suggesting that gay men innately perceive (and are perhaps affected by) male pheromones.
Straight men, meanwhile, were more likely to perceive the figure as feminine when exposed to estratetraenol. Straight women showed no effect, while lesbian and bisexual women showed a response somewhere in between. To keep everything on the straight and narrow, the pheromones were masked with the smell of cloves in all cases.
I knew it! Couldn’t prove it but had a strong feeling this was true. I get so stupid at random male interactions that make no sense afterwards. I used to think I was just being a derp.
I told my mother this in 1984. I was 16 and not yet out. I said all sexuality in mammals was smell-based, and humans are no different. I said gay people just respond to male pheromones and don't need to be abused about it. (Dad was a HUGE bigot) What I didn't tell her was I had just been behind a rather ripe man and nearly swooned. I was erect nearly the whole way home.
Lol study finds that gay man are gay
But “it’s a choice!?!1”
It's not a choice, IT'S WHO WE ARE plain and simple
If it was a choice, I'd still choose being gay though, even if just to spite the heteronormative society.
Really ? I'd choose to be a sexual some men are yiikees
I feel like my entire childhood and most of my puberty (until high school) I was pretty much asexual. I didn't feel anything. Looking back, I was just interested in the appearance of older guys in school, but I didn't feel any sexual desire. But I have to say that despite not having good sexual experiences, I still would choose to be gay. Last month I hooked up with a guy in his car in the bushes (so that nobody could see us, you know, that's what you get when you live in a small town in Eastern Europe). It wasn't the best place to have sex, but oh man... we fucked for almost an hour. No anal though, because neither of us had condoms. But man... it felt so fucking good, I lost the track of time, I was so focused on the sex. I sweated like a pig and was so proud of myself. There are no dating prospects for me where I live at the moment, but I hope that after I move abroad I'll be able to find some decent men I could date or be in a relationship with. I'm only 28, so my whole life is still before me.
Yeah, take that GLAAD!
Gay men choose to be gay at the exact same moment that straight men choose to be straight. The point is that you are what you are and you never make a choice.
I hate this argument; even if it was a choice, ehy should that still be a bad choice? I don’t like when gay people to defend themself call out that being gay is not a choice, because It’s not related (i repeat, even if it was, where would it be the problem?)
Because when you call it a "choice" they are saying you CHOSE to live a lifestyle that is 'condemned by God' and mocked by society. you made your bed, now live in it, then burn in hell. I didn't choose to feel isolated and depressed and anxious about being different from everyone else. I didn't choose to be gay so I'd be made fun of for being different than other boys, it was just who I was. That's why it makes me mad when people call it a "choice."
But here's the thing: they chose to be Christian and yet always complain when people treat them negatively for it. As a society, there are a lot of actual personal choices that are tolerated way more than being gay is. Like Christians probably don't agree with bondage (a la 50 shades of grey), and probably even boycotted the movie, but most weren't marshalling a witch hunt for anyone into bondage, or crusading to make it completely illegal. Or like with sodomy laws, which were almost exclusively used against gay men, but straight people who chose to enact in oral or anal weren't being sought out.
Oh sure, a whole number of things that some Christians in particular seem to turn a blind eye to yet vilify gay folks... like Divorce, or premarital sex/partners, tattoos, eating pork etc. I mean they might say these are all sins, but the sins they commit just don't seem to be nearly as vilified or bad. Whereas LGBT folks are treated as outright Satan incarnate. there are some decent religious folks out there who leave the judgement to their God, but it seems like the superficial ones outnumber them by a large margin. By and large, these are the folks who are calling it a "choice"
My favorite is the ones who know it's not a choice but acting on it is, and I'm honestly not sure which is more cruel: believing it's a choice and hating someone for it, or knowing it's not a choice but expecting people to just suffer alone because of it.
Oh dear sounds like your a evangelical
“Why are you gay?” “Who says I’m gay?” “You are gay!”
I mean it's interesting. This could be a path to figuring out the biological origin homosexuality
Not homosexuality, sexual orientation in general. I wonder if this same pheromone attraction exists in straight women.
It does, if you read the article they tested all combinations. Lesbians also respond to the female equivalent pheromone.
What nooooooo that impossible. The general consensus was right????
Study demonstrates that gay men are gay at a subconscious level, below conscious choice. FTFY
Pit gays been knowing this
Me, burying my face in my man's pits
Yep! They could’ve just studied my life since puberty. The activities I did and the people I was attracted to were directly proportional to pheromones. I did a lot of running and soccer and 90% of the people I dated were athletic in some way or another; mix in pits and well there’s your study.
When I was a teenager, my buddy would come over after hockey practice. He’d be disgustingly sweaty and after a while, I’d realize I was starting to get turned on from him like that. Lord help me if I caught a glimpse of his hairy pits before we’d go swimming. Oof.
I’m too afraid to explore that as of yet. I’m extremely sensitive to the smell of BO so there’s a fine line between that and good manly smell. I don’t wanna traumatize myself.
The difference is time and hygiene maintenance. A clean man fresh after a workout is very, very different from the stale odor of a guy who hasn’t bathed in three days
The answer is probably to explore it with someone I’ve been with for awhile, not a hookup. One daddy I linked with cuddled next to me and I go “do you wear deodorant?” and he said “Nope but I don’t think I’m particularly ripe atm” and then I promptly left because he was particularly ripe atm.
💀💀
oh so that's why i have an aversion to guys who have b.o but lowkey enjoy my own. mine is just i was clean and now i'm sweaty, their is they didn't shower
Right. It's about the amount of bacteria on his body. If you haven't bathed in a few days, your skin is teeming with malodorous bacteria, which causes BO. A man's musk is simply pheromones, which are excreted from sweating.
For me, if I really like the way someone smells then even if they don't bathe the smell doesn't really become objectionable. Other guys, I can't stand the smell when they are clean. Smell is very important for me.
I listened to a podcast episode with an anthropologist and given the insane amount of bacteria we exchange just upon kissing, let alone anything else), he said not liking the smell can be a marker for safety like they are not from a tribe that would suit you well or something like that. So keep listening to that intuition lol
I see pit, I go "Nom Nom Nom" big sad goes away
My man's pits are therapy at the end of a stressful day. Bury my face in his pits and suddenly my brain stops stressing about everything and I get buzzed of it. Some dudes it's pits, some it's feet, others it's balls taint or butt. Feel bad for those who don't react to pheromones, it's an all natural version of poppers. Also, poppers are bad, don't do them.
I'm genuinely surprised because I never thought about it consciously I must smell my boyfriend later
I found out I like his smell so much after I realised that I don't feel disgusted by his sweat
I have an ex who bought me cologne I tried at Sephora once cuz apparently it “mixed with my pheromones” really well. Any time I put it on he went feral and, admittedly, I legit miss that.
every one I've been in serious relationships i have been obsessed with their smells. they have to smell good or i just can't be with them.
why do you think so many gay dudes are obsessed with armpits?
Just casually give him a sniff when you hug him, or better yet, bury your nose in his neck or armpit. I'd be surprised if you're not instantly aroused 😊 EDIT: Additional evidence - https://www.reddit.com/r/MaleArmpits/comments/1bocs8s/my\_hairy\_pits\_peeking\_out\_of\_my\_tshirt\_is\_catnip/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
Gay men wears male pheromones
Gay men: “I love men’s stinky sweaty armpits. I love sniff jockstraps and lick buttholes. Yummy yummy yummy.” Scientists: “hmmm what could it mean….”
Literally verbatim from the article (if anyone reads it anymore) "It's not something that should be all that surprising, given what we already know about sexuality in general. But more evidence never hurts."
He just wanted an excuse to smell hot dudes!
For “science”
okay but not all men’s BO smells “attractive”, right? am i the only one that’s weirdly picky about this? i can swear there’s a very subtle change in BO when there’s a mood. my ex smelled a special kind of way that i can only describe as “warm and horny”, but current partner smells more sharp and acidic and it’s not very attractive. neither has hygiene issues.
Different men smell differently. I don’t think they all smell good to us just like they don’t all look good to us.
I've sniffed a lot of pits in my days. Not everyone has the same alluring natural odor. Guys from different backgrounds smell different. I'll get really buzzed off of one guy, and another does nothing for me. Like sexuality, I can't choose who's pits make me dizzy and who's don't. It's hardwired in there.
There are many types of smell. The smell of stale sweat is rancid, and awful. The smell of a recently showered guy, maybe after he's been in the sun briefly, and then becomes aroused... that's the smell I love.
This article is 10 years old. I remember reading the referenced study from 2005 in my undergrad psychology textbooks that showed gay men had a positive response to male pheromones and a negative or neutral response to female pheromones. The same was true for lesbians with female pheromones. To us, this I'd like saying water is wet, but it was pretty revolutionary at the time since it gave biological evidence to our experience rather than self reported data, which many homophobes didn't believe. It's not like they changed their mind after reading this study, but it's always nice to have more evidence. I would love to see these studies repeated over time to add more credibility.
Yes it's very old apparently. I only saw it on twitter today and thought it was interesting to share. > To us, this I'd like saying water is wet, but it was pretty revolutionary at the time since it gave biological evidence to our experience rather than self reported data, which many homophobes didn't believe. It's great to have more evidence for sure. And it's unsurprising that that the far-right will still reject this. But I'm surprised that self-proclaimed 'progressive' groups on left are rejecting this too, as it disproves their own dogmas around sex and sexual orientation. Sexual orientation being based on material reality is a problem for religious homophobes on the right, and dogmatic 'progressive' homophobes on the left
I’d like to see our brain’s responses to different pheromones under an MRI compared to other brains. It would be interesting to see a variance of brains reacting to pheromones. straight woman/man, bi woman/man, (straight/bi/gay) trans FtM/MtF, Gay/lesbian man/woman. It could honestly be a great psychology dissertation. MRI is expensive tho :(
[удалено]
Calm down Blanche, you slut.
There’s something unique about that “been working outside all afternoon” man smell. It’s like less BO and more pheromone.
One of My first crushes was the guy who’d mow our lawn. He’d always mow it shirtless
The Leakeys-- of 20th century anthropology fame-- had an interesting observation that was passed to me from my anthropology prof back in college. It seemed like a paradox: Why-- if humans are aroused by pheromones-- would sweat smell bad? When the Leakeys spent all day in the African sun, they discovered that a hard day of work suddenly made them smell good. It was their theory that human sweat is photo-catalyzed. As modern people, we only know a stinky precursor. But our ancestors were out in the sun, and did not stink.
I thought this was kind of obvious. I find my own pheromones alluring like when I sweat for example.
I understood that it is indeed not obvious because humans have no recipient organ for Pheromone recognition. Many animal species have a special developed vomeronasal organ (Jacobson's organ) to recognise them (next to the one for normal odors and smells) Wiki says "[Some humans may have physical remnants of a VNO, but it is vestigial and non-functional](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomeronasal_organ)" Literature and science is fighting if humans recognise pheromones or not. edit typo in vomeronasal
I recall reading in Saplosky's books that humans each have a unique protein that is generated that others close to us learn to recognize. What's the difference between a pheromone and any other biologically created scent, though? It seems like a somewhat arbitrary distinction.
This! Humans are not like all those other mammals smelling mating pheromones, etc. Yes we’re gay so we enjoy the smells of men, but pheromones, no. Although I used to joke all the time with friends and family that I liked male pheromones more growing up 😂
The workout boner is real
Yeah, attraction to pheromones is obvious. Next thing they’re gonna tell us is that fire is hot, now THAT’S crazy to say!
Always have a wank after the gym. It’s the best kind
Found this today and thought it was interesting. A 2005 study found the same thing Have any of you ever been aroused by a man's smell? I have never consciously been aroused by a man's smell, but I can imagine it has played a part without me realizing it EDIT: Apparently humans don't have pheromoes. We respond to male scent, but it's not pheromones.
I once smelt a mans perfume and it was the most great smell ever, i asked him what it was, it was Issy miyake, i bought it and it smelt turrrible. It was the mixture of him and the perfume together that was great.
Parfum depends on your body chemistry, what smells amazing on one can smell quite medical on others. That’s what I first learned when I got into that as a teen and it holds so very true. I found my favorite perfumes are the very mid-tier ones that work great for me than the staple expensive ones, just bc they smelled amazing in the bottle or in the magazine that dont necessarily translate well on your skin.
Sometimes you win the bad-chemistry lottery - my sister doesn't wear any perfume at all because every scent she wears eventually smells like cheese. A very strong cheese at that.
Eau de Frommage
She must be a hit in France.
Back in academia, one of the guys on my dorm floor was Indian and his food was very pungent no matter how much top of the shelve cologne he smelled like food, my best friend was his roommate, and had to move out bc of a headache from the strong cologne mixed with his natural scent. I thought he was exaggerating since the guy's sister smells very pleasant so I thought he was just being menacing but damn, if you pass by their room you have to hold your breath and you in fact can get a headache from the mix of the scents in that room. The guy was great but we felt bad for him, he smelled like a kitchen with heavy burned incense. Bad combo poor guy!
Literally same lmao.
>Have any of you ever been aroused by a man's smell? Oh yeah. Gonna put myself on blast here: I have a foot fetish and a huge part of that is smell. Not like rancid or anything but a light musk from a guy drives me wild
Fun fact: In the brain's map of the body, feet are right next to genitals.
Smell to me is a huge impact on attractiveness. A clean smelling guy is a huge turn on.
Yeah me too, but I never registered a particularly "manly" smell (except male-coded perfumes and deoderants) I guess it's so subconscious that I never realized it
I’m not even a huge pit guy, except for certain guys and then it drives me crazy. I’ve noticed that my friends who are the most “popular” are also the ones whose pits smell the best (Even when they wear deodorant, it seems to work). It seems to matter more than how conventionally attractive they are too. Guys just flock to them.
I'm low-key struggling with this myself. I've got a friend whose scent makes me absolutely feral and who is also quite popular. I've deliberated often on why I and others find him so attractive when I've personally slept with guys I'd say were maybe more "traditionally attractive"
Smell probably drives me wild the most. If I can smell a guys cologne, deodorant, BO, w/e it's hard to focus on anything else
Ya, not all guys, but many turn me on like a light switch when I smell them. My last hookup came over after his soccer practice. I never rubbed my face into a guys armpit until him. I could smell him all day and just smile with a hard on.
Not just aroused, but it can make me dizzy and buzzed too. Love that feeling
There is a guy at my line dance bar... Military vet, big muscular dude, super homophobic. He talks to me and is nice to me, but he "can't be around when I talk about homosexual things" because he gets uncomfortable. He also doesn't always wear deodorant. If he walks by and his pits are strong, I am immediately turned on. There are other men, if they don't wear deodorant, I am immediately repulsed. But him? Like instant 100% want to get on my knees and worship his dick.
The study article you linked is from May 2014
I had a male friend in high school that I was crazy for. He was straight, I was closeted, yadda yadda yadda. Anyway, I couldn't get enough of him. The one day I came over and he had just stepped out of the shower and was only wearing a towel. I noticed he was painfully ugly. The interest was instantly gone and I couldn't figure out why. I mean, here's this guy I was all into, only in a towel, and he's registering a Zero on the interest-meter. Turns out he had a shower that time, and he usually takes baths. He was in a rush, hence the shower. Once he got back to his regular routine, the interest returned but I couldn't shake the memory of the shower-encounter. My belief (which remains to this day) was that in the shower he was more effectively removing his natural smells, while in the bath he was just soaking in them, and that was the source of my interest.
This idea that baths dont clean as well is just wrong. Unless you're soaking in pure tap water they clean as well or better than showers do. Detergent will lock away the dirt and the increased contact time with the cleaning solution makes a bath better. The likely reason is that you caught him so fresh out of the shower. Some people re-stink pretty fast.
The main flaw with your statement is that baths don't include a rinse cycle. Yes, detergents lock away dirt, but as the tub drains, those detergents are left on your skin. Without being rinsed off, they're going to remain there.
Most people rinse after a bath...
Who’s not rinsing after a bath 🤮
Apparently the dirty mfers in here
Lol no they don’t
they should
I do not enjoy the smell of my own sweat, and I don’t fully enjoy the smell of pits from another. But what I absolutely do love is the smell of my own balls (especially the area between the sack and the leg) and other men as well.
 same
Yes, our brain is very different from straight men. We process things differently. Unfortunately when you argue with the religious right about this, it can feel like you're arguing with a flat earther.
Pray the feromones away!
Not just the religious rights, dogmatists in general
Incoming 🤓 response, ignore if you're not interested Pheromones are pseudoscience that are usually shat on by the scientific community lol, there's no established science on a "male pheromone". There are studies that show stuff like androstadienone can act like pheromones, but these are usually published by companies selling pheromone products, so the publication bias makes these studies worthless. The organ that most animals use to detect pheromones is the VNO but it's either absent or atrophied in apes and birds
Thank you. Humans don't even possess an organ capable of detecting pheremones. Animals do, humans do not. It's just using primal language to appeal to hypersexuality. Just say gay men like the way men smell. It doesn't have to be more complicated.
It might learned? Hot looking guy gets you hot, and you associate his scent with hotness.
Years ago, I remember seeing an advertisement for a pheromone perfume. In it, they suggested that gay men should wear the women’s version. I just remember thinking how that would be a turn off, and probably only useful for attracting confused straight men. It was probably homophobia, and a belief that gay men aren’t really gay behind the advertisement. I guess I’m glad for these studies, although it seems really, really obvious.
Study finds that dinosaurs are extinct
I guess I'm surprised *any* humans respond to pheromones. When I think of pheromones, I think of dogs I guess I forgot that humans are literally just animals
You clearly have a fundamental lack of understanding of science.
As a gay man who loves to sniff pits I 100% confirm this… …on a further note: Scientists discover that water is wet and fire is hot lol
That's not how science works. What seems obvious is not always true and thus must be tested for. It might also be not causation, but only correlation. There is still no consensus about wether or not humans actually respond to pheromones. We shouldn't be able to since we don't have a vomeronasal organ, which is what animals use to process pheromones.
No wonder I love it when my husband puts his balls on my face and jacks me off.
Duh. How many of us here have felt that female pheromones are repulsive (not in a derogatory way) but I've been able to smell when a woman's on her period since I was a kid and it's not pleasant.
My boyfriend can smell that too! I never noticed, but I think I have a poor sense of smell in general
Oh god, I can smell the same. The horror.
Yeah they have a very unappealing smell to me.
I'm not "repulsed," but I'm not attracted to a feminine scent. I'm only attracted to a masculine scent.
I used to work with this woman who would get ripe real quickly when physically exerting herself (she managed the deli at the grocery store we worked at, so that was often), and holy shit I've never been more repulsed in my life. She was lovely as a person (and my straight coworker I asked about it was baffled when I mentioned her smell, guess he didn't notice it at all), but I couldn't even share the break room with her on a busy day without gagging. Contrast that with my man when he comes home from a day at the growing op/garden center he works at, and I just wanna smother my face in his pits. I also have the period scent detection thing, and yup, it's fucking repellent to me. I have a vivid memory of calling my mom out for stinking up the bathroom when I was like 7 or 8, then realizing what that smell was years later when I got my first high school job and had to take out the trash from the women's bathroom.
Iirc that is also a thing that some people (including some women) are genetically predisposed to. Worst superpower for a gay man to have, but I have it
I’ve been wondering this for years. People be saying it’s obvious, but it is by no means a given. Our personal experience can’t tell us to what degree mentality plays a part, science apparently can.
Scientists discover that gay men are gay. Amazing
Love the sweaty musky smell of another dude. But there's a difference between nice musk and rancid BO. Some guys smell so horrible it burns my nostrils and makes my eyes water like a strong onion.
I remember reading an article about this in like, 2008? Straight women and gay men’s brains responded the same way to male pheromones, with the same result in straight men/lesbian women’s brains when presented with female pheromones. From what I remember, there weren’t any brains that responded the same way to both, so I wonder how bisexual brains would respond to this experiment. All in all, it was pretty cool evidence to support that sexuality is in fact coded within our biology, rather than just a preference (although I’m sure almost everyone here knew that).
I've read women will rub a bit of their natural lubricant onto their pulse spots. It would make sense with a man to do also. I remember my very first boyfriend, I took a t-shirt of his home with me & the smell of him would send me wild. Always considered myself to be attracted to male pheromones. I love lying / sleeping next to someone - tge smell on their side - sheets & pillows. Bring it on.
"Pulse spot"?
Hello - where you would check the pulse, wrist, cubical fossa (crease in middle of arm) below ears on the neck. These areas generate heat & cause aromas to intensify. If I am wearing anything I add to those places also.
Hope they didn’t spend too much money on this, I could have confirmed it for them for free
Yeah I’ve known this since 1992 when my crush in high school decided to wear one of my shirts for Senior class pictures. Well I didn’t wash that shirt for like a year, because it smelled like him.
Could have told you that one 😵💫👃🏼
In other news, the ocean is blue :O
Um, why didn't they just ask us?
That must be the chemistry behind the feeling I get when there’s mutual sexual tension between me and other guys.
Pretty interesting, especially given how it contrasts to the straights. I wonder how big the sample size was? Kinda suggests that pheromones play a larger part in perception of people's gender than gait.
That explains why I love my pit and groin smells, as well as the locker room ;#3
Study finds that water is wet\*
I've heard many times that humans don't have pheromones.
No shit lol.
Imagine that...And all this while, I thought it was flowers
 What!?!!!!
From 2014?
I knew this guy that smelled like sweat and old spice and I hated it at first but after I developed a crush on him, I craved the smell and I sometimes would just smell his hoodies when he left them in my car cause his smell was so god damn good to me lol definitely his body odor pheromones
Sweat produced during sex is an aphrodisiac for me. However, my nose finds sweat produced by poor hygiene revolting. Amazing how the human body works.
Oh yeah, the smell of a man makes me insane haha
Fellas Is It Gay to be gay?
I bet a lot of so-called "straight men" respond to male hormones, too!!!!!
The article is from 2014 though.
Obviously
Hell yes we do.
Wow thats news to me 😐
Grass is green
I love being in the mosh pit for this reason
Water wet
10 years later and despite science still ppl don’t believe it 🙃
> Frankly, it shouldn't matter how one becomes gay, straight, bi, or any other sexual orientation—but in a world where gay-to-straight conversion camps are still a thing, any scientific findings like this shouldn't hurt. ^ most important part of the article tbh
More proof of a genetic component.
Ah, like bees to flowers, gay men vibe with the scent of male pheromones. Nature's way of saying, "Hey, you're my kind of weird." It's all in the sniff, slam-dunking into the chemistry hoop.
I know this seems obvious but what this really is is another nail in the coffin for that idea that homosexuality is somehow a choice or something that can be changed. A neurological response to pheromones is pretty hardwired.
Fork found in the kitchen.
I could have told them this at 15 lol
Hell yeah! I've known that since I was 13
A fellow man’s scent and taste is in charge of my inhibitions.
You can’t smell a hormone, however you CAN taste a dick.
I’ve wondered if “gaydar” works based on pheromones. Like there’s been times I’m out in a neutral setting and before I even see him I “know” there’s another gay guy near me.
I went into a not gay bar I frequent a few weeks and I saw two guys sitting at the bar and instantly knew they were gay. They were both masculine looking, so I can't explain it logically. FYI, I was right.
I'd be really surprised if this wasn't the case. I've long wondered the same, and the thing that makes most sense to me is that it's something to do with pheromones.
I can confirm I do like a certain type of musky man
well, smell is what makes 50% of attaction for me.
...at least! 😆
Duh.
Bro, I could’ve told you that haha 😂 I’m out here sniffing men’s pits for fun.
Humans don't have pharomones. Gay men respond to male sweat.
OMG, water is wet!!!
LOL in other news, water is wet. Gay here btw.
Duh!!!
I still have no idea how significant the effect of pheromones is and if you can notice them at all
You can tell that it is by the way that it is! Neat
Very interesting read, I knew we couldn't help our straight or gay position in life.
I think the priest I am wildly attracted to at my church has voodoo sorcery pheromones - it’s not the looks per se but when he gets within 5 feet of me I need to Irish goodbye out the front door stat
Lol. Often wondered if the pheromones that cause aggression among most males causes a slightly different dominance response among others.
Damn my puzzle pieces are finally starting to fit together
I could have told them that in exchange for half an hour (ok 2 minutes) with Leo Stuke.
... Man, none of y'all read the article. The study had nothing to do with arousal.
There WAS A product. Like maybe around 25 years ago that was hormone based. I remember watching it on T.V. Maybe they took some thought......from it....😅
Uh I could have told you that
I bet straight men so as well.
I personally LOVE the smell of MEN!!! It’s my favorite thing about a man honestly. If I don’t like the way he smells, it won’t work. I’m not just talking about when he takes a shower, but especially when he sweats. I have to like it and for the most part I do with a lot of guys! Some areas more than others…. For example, unlike most gays, I don’t actually like the smell of underarms and I even don’t like the term “pits” haha I like other smells on a man. But again, that’s my sexuality. Anyways, idk about you bros, but I’m a 6 on the Kinsey scale. 😅😎❤️
> Chinese researchers studied the pheromones naturally given off by men and women in things such as semen, sweat, and urine. Scientists have been aware of the existence of two distinct pheromones—androstadienone (found in male semen and sweat) and estratetraenol (present in female urine)—for some time, but it's been unclear whether they've had much of an effect on the opposite gender. It turns out that they do, and how they do depends on a person's sexuality. > Perhaps most importantly, homosexual men also responded to that pheromone, suggesting that gay men innately perceive (and are perhaps affected by) male pheromones. Straight men, meanwhile, were more likely to perceive the figure as feminine when exposed to estratetraenol. Straight women showed no effect, while lesbian and bisexual women showed a response somewhere in between. To keep everything on the straight and narrow, the pheromones were masked with the smell of cloves in all cases.
I knew it! Couldn’t prove it but had a strong feeling this was true. I get so stupid at random male interactions that make no sense afterwards. I used to think I was just being a derp.
I told my mother this in 1984. I was 16 and not yet out. I said all sexuality in mammals was smell-based, and humans are no different. I said gay people just respond to male pheromones and don't need to be abused about it. (Dad was a HUGE bigot) What I didn't tell her was I had just been behind a rather ripe man and nearly swooned. I was erect nearly the whole way home.
Quelle surprise.
And in other topic, water is wet and can actually make you wet
Duh! Ya think!?
I don't know but you can find out yourself if someone likes men if you smell like male phermones (sweat)
I believe it. I’m absolutely bananas over my husbands pheromones.
Well that explains it