the awesome/terrifying freedom

got this from mike dawson. this story says pretty much the same thing as yesterday's except it also cites a study showing that gay men preferred the body odor of other gay men, and that none of the other groups in the study (gay women, straight men, and straight women) preferred the odor.

i saw a similar study featured on the discovery channel that was done with women and men (without sexual preference determined) showing that women preferred the body odors of men whose features were more symmetrical. it's really quite amazing. our BO essentially tells everything about us, whether we're attractive, healthy, gay...

beyond that, i think our choices as to how to mask or enhance our body odor via a variety of products also speak volumes. are asymmetrical people drawn to choose colognes, perfumes and deodorants that mask the molecules in their sweat that betray this flaw?

it's obviously more than just marketing that certain colognes are more attractive to gay men - probably it's because these scents enhance whatever it is in our sweat that telegraphs our gayness.

my first roommate in the city - the poor boy was drawn to use 'secret' deodorant. you know, 'strong enough for a man, but made for a woman'? i said 'gordon why the hell would you use that?' and he just shrugged 'i like it.' if that doesn't scream 'i'm from homosassa, florida,' i don't know what does.

thankfully i'm at the other end of the spectrum. i use 'axe,' which is pretty gay, but it's also pretty gay in a kinda straight way. which is maybe what i am: pretty gay in a kinda straight way.

which opens up a whole bunch of questions about preference. what is preference really? is it something we really choose? or are we just at the mercy of our brains telling us what it needs and then making us believe it's what we'd like?