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My Boyfriend Smells So Good to Me I’m Worried I Might Actually Eat Him

How scent and attraction go hand-in-hand

By DenisaPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Photo by Mark Decile on Unsplash

Sometimes, I worry I might eat my boyfriend because he smells so good. Not kidding. Well, maybe a little.

After being long-distance for 6 months, I finally get to be with my boyfriend for a few weeks now – and the longer I’m with him, the better he smells to me.

It’s like I literally want to bury myself in his skin and live there until the day I die. Suffocating on his scent would actually be the perfect way to go.

But why does his scent make me go so crazy? Why do I feel like an aggressive animal sometimes, wishing I could devour him if only it didn’t hurt anyone in the process?

Well, turns out, scent has a huge part to play when it comes to attraction.

Scent helps you figure out who you’re compatible with

Humans are very visual creatures, that one’s pretty obvious, but our sense of smell has much more to do with who we’re attracted to than meets the eye. Pun intended.

According to Psychology Today:

“Smell may be the most important, albeit the most subtle, factor in physical attraction, because the nose can suss out complex mechanisms like sexual compatibility, although the conscious mind is unaware of it. The human body has more than 100 immune system genes known as the MHC, or major histocompatibility complex; these genes help our immune system to identify unwanted pathogens.”

The way people smell to you doesn’t have to be objective. Sometimes, a person whose scent is very unpleasant to you can be extremely attractive to someone else. That’s because our bodies are looking for compatible partners.

Yes, that’s right. Your nose might know what’s up better than you do.

Some scientists have tried to figure out this weird enigma for us. A biologist Lewis Thomas apparently experimented on mice in 1974 and found out that the mice’s sexual behaviour was guided by MHC genes, which give off a specific smell. Those who mated with mice of different MHC genes ended up having offspring with stronger immune systems than the ones who had a more similar scent, therefore more similar MHC genes.

But that’s mice! They’re much simpler than humans, driven by instinct! What about us, I hear you ask?

Well, another scientist, Claus Wedekind, might have just about proven how closer we are to animals than we’d like to admit. Anyone remember the Sweaty T-Shirt study from 1996?

Wedekind gathered a group of men and women with various types of MHC genes and recorded which of the women were taking the contraceptive pill (because being on the pill affects your hormones, which can in turn confuse you when it comes to choosing a sexual partner… a little scary, I know).

The men slept in fresh t-shirts for two consecutive nights, without being able to smoke, share the bed with somebody else or use a perfumed deodorant. When the women sniffed the men’s t-shirts afterwards, the results were similar to the mice experiment.

The women who weren’t on the pill preferred men whose MHC genes were different from their own, all in terms of sexiness, pleasantness, and intensity. This could lead to offspring with a high potential for strong immunity.

What’s more, the women actually said that the attractive scents reminded them of their ex-partners or partners, while the t-shirts that were worn by men with similar MHC genes to theirs reminded them of their relatives.

You could say the way people smell to you is actually for your own protection. Or your potential children’s, anyway. If you hate the way someone smells, it’s a sign you might not be very compatible.

I guess I’m extremely compatible with my boyfriend since I want to eat his face at all hours.

How being in love triggers aggression

This all makes sense so far, but why do I feel like I kind of want to rip my boyfriend into shreds because I love him so much?

Cute aggression enters the scene. The audience widens eyes in realisation.

Oh, that’s why!

“Cute aggression” is an actual term. It has its own Wikipedia page. Don’t believe me? You can look it up. The page describes cute aggression thus:

“Cute aggression, or playful aggression, is superficially aggressive behaviour caused by seeing something cute, such as a human baby or young animal. People experiencing cute aggression may grit their teeth, clench their fists, or feel the urge to bite, pinch and squeeze something they consider cute, while not actually causing or intending to cause any harm.”

According to Oriana Aragón, who led the first research on cute aggression, around 50–60% of people experience cute (or playful) aggression.

I think I might be in the top 1% because I get it all the damn time. Especially when I see my boyfriend on daily basis. He’s not a kitty, I know, I know, but being in love with him triggers some cuteness overload button.

One of the reasons why cute aggression happens is because it can help you balance an overwhelming emotion, for example when you cry with happiness or grit your teeth because you’re so in love.

To sum it all up

Problem solved.

Scent triggers falling in love and sexual chemistry. Being suddenly surrounded by my boyfriend 24/7 after a long period of separation only highlights how strongly the smell hit me.

Being in love means you think your partner is the cutest human on planet Earth, obviously, and… his being cute makes me want to eat him because I suffer from a strong case of cute aggression.

What a ride.

There’s one thing to remember, though — even if your partner smells like the most amazing human in the entire universe, they have to treat you right to deserve you.

You might be compatible biologically, but that doesn’t mean anything if you’re suffering in your relationship. Repeat after me: Brain always takes precedence over scent.

Now excuse me, I have to go sniff my boyfriend.

love
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About the Creator

Denisa

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