Olfactory masculinity.
Brett & Kate McKay bring us a list of 15 smells that are associated with Manliness. I don't know about the bowling alley, and I never knew my grandfathers, but the rest is spot-on.
I think I might consider adding the smell of a working automotive garage, with axle grease, solvent, and fresh tires. Oh, and an old-style tire store. I think also that I associate the mixed smells of gasoline and broken earth, perhaps with perspiration, as a manly smell.
Now, I know that some will protest that there's nothing inherently masculine about sawdust or shooting, or gasoline and broken earth or the like. That's certainly true. My wife the sculptor uses our table saw as much or more than me, and can weld (another manly smell?), while I can't. She mows our lawn as well, and I shoot with too many women to count.
But I associate some of these smells with men of my youth, and I can't ever release that. As long as I don't treat women inappropriately because of my associations, I believe that I can accept that about myself.
Labels: community, reminiscing, things you find on the InterWeb
posted by Matt G @ 8:44 AM
4 Comments:
I remember three distinct smells from my childhood on the farm.
1. The smell of a freshly plowed field.
2. The smell of the hog lot on a hot summer's day.
3. The smell of an approaching thunderstorm.
I also remember the sound of the approach of rain from a distance. It would give us a few minutes warning before it arrived.
Burnt steel used to remind me of a welding shop- MANLY. Until Desert Storm..... now it just conjures mental images of crispy critters in burned-out tanks.
I will agree with you wholeheartedly on the automotive garage thing, as my father was a mechanic.
I have personally always associated the smell of diesel exhaust with manliness, having spent some time at truck stops as a child.
He's right: Old Spice smells manly, CK One is unisex scent, and smells it. Hell, I use CK One.
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