Love Stinks

I was chatting with a friend and she brought up the subject of biology and attraction. How you can think that a man or woman is beautiful, but you just can’t get past their smell. I’m not talking body odor, I’m talking their basic smell.

The “smell” theory deals with immune systems, with the idea that you are most attracted to someone whose system is very different from your own. This has to do with producing healthy children. Here’s something explaining it from Dr. Helen Fisher……

It’s about romantic compatibility, in this case “MHC” compatibility.  MHC means Major Histocompatibility Complex and it refers to a particular set of genes you inherit in your immune system, your body’s chemical defense system against intruding aliens, aliens in the form of bacteria, viruses and other no-good-niks.  Each of us inherits our own version of this complex set of genes. 

I will admit to running into the smell thing once. Quite a lot of years back, I dated the brother of a friend and I liked his personality very much, but his skin gave off this scent that I did not like. It was not sweat, it was the smell that came off his face, his arms, his body. I tried to talk myself past it, but I could not. It has only happened that once though and that boy, his family all came from one country, his ancestors, they all came from the same place.

My theory is this – we are becoming a world of “mutts” in that our “people” come from so many different places. My background is a mix of ancestors from all over the world. Won’t this issue with the smell and the immune systems work itself out in the end? Won’t we mix and mingle to a point where we either all like the smell of each other or all hate the smell of each other? 

What do you think?  Have you ever experienced anything like this, an inability to move forward with someone because you could not get past the way their skin smelled? 

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