Keep your clean sweat to yourself and go take a shower.
Dear writers,
what is this pleasing scent of clean sweat that I've been stumbling across in so many sex scenes? Perhaps I am simply not enough of a connoisseur of perspiration, but I can honestly say that I have never smelled anything that I would consider both a clean scent and a sweat scent. So far, every time I personally have smelled sweat, it has been because it was laced with the pungent waste products of bacteria. In fact, I believe that perspiration itself has no scent, and it is only ever when it is not clean that it smells like anything at all.
Perhaps some women find the odor of sweat sexy, in moderation? Or certain strains of sweat-scents...? Or perhaps the "clean sweat" trope is merely intended to show that the character in question is athletic and/or physically active, and is not intended to allude to any actual scent at all?
Whatever the reason for the sudden infestation of clean sweat in my reading material, I am not a fan. I have a very sensitive nose and a very active imagination, so when I read something like, say, "Chad's athletic physique was redolent of soap, clean sweat and cologne, and Dirk sucked down deep draughts of air laden with the overpowering odor"...
Ugh. Instant mood killer. Go take a shower, Chad, you sweaty brat! Then we'll talk.
what is this pleasing scent of clean sweat that I've been stumbling across in so many sex scenes? Perhaps I am simply not enough of a connoisseur of perspiration, but I can honestly say that I have never smelled anything that I would consider both a clean scent and a sweat scent. So far, every time I personally have smelled sweat, it has been because it was laced with the pungent waste products of bacteria. In fact, I believe that perspiration itself has no scent, and it is only ever when it is not clean that it smells like anything at all.
Perhaps some women find the odor of sweat sexy, in moderation? Or certain strains of sweat-scents...? Or perhaps the "clean sweat" trope is merely intended to show that the character in question is athletic and/or physically active, and is not intended to allude to any actual scent at all?
Whatever the reason for the sudden infestation of clean sweat in my reading material, I am not a fan. I have a very sensitive nose and a very active imagination, so when I read something like, say, "Chad's athletic physique was redolent of soap, clean sweat and cologne, and Dirk sucked down deep draughts of air laden with the overpowering odor"...
Ugh. Instant mood killer. Go take a shower, Chad, you sweaty brat! Then we'll talk.