Tanja Diamond bills herself as “the world’s only sexual transformation expert”. (I’m not sure why, because each time she introduced herself she would have to follow it up by explaining that she didn’t transform men into women, she transforms their sexual abilities. Just so we’re clear.) She was one of a panel of five speakers, including myself, who spoke at an event on Sunday, and she brought up some troubling recent research.
I was already familiar with the first study. Women were given T-shirts from a number of different men and instructed to smell the shirts and rate which they thought smelled the best. It turned out that universally, women preferred the odors of men whose immune systems most differed from their own.
It was found, by Wedekind and his team, that how women rate a man’s body odor pleasantness and sexiness depends upon how much of their MHC profile is shared. Overall, women prefer those scents exuded by men whose MHC profiles varied the most from their own. Hence, any given man’s odor could be pleasingly alluring to one woman, yet an offensive turnoff to another.
-Psychology Today
It makes sense that nature would engineer us to be attracted to people with a different genetic profile. Encouraging cross-breeding leads to healthier offspring. The catch is that once a woman gets pregnant, her preferences change and she is more attracted to her own tribe. And birth control pills work by manipulating hormone levels to simulate pregnancy. So the men a woman is naturally attracted to change when she goes on the pill.
The Swiss researchers found that women taking oral contraceptives (which block conception by tricking the body into thinking it’s pregnant) reported reversed preferences, liking more the smells that reminded them of home and kin. Since the Pill reverses natural preferences, a woman may feel attracted to men she wouldn’t normally notice if she were not on birth control – men who have similar MHC profiles.
-Psychology Today
The obvious question: well, what happens if my wife and I fell in love while she’s on the pill and wired to be attracted to her own family? Scientists have something to say about that, too. Back to Psychology Today:
The effects of such evolutionary novel mate choices can go well beyond the bewilderment of a wife who stops taking her contraceptive pills and notices her husband’s “newly” foul body odor. Couples experiencing difficulty conceiving a child – even after several attempts at tubal embryo transfer – share significantly more of their MHC than do couples who conceive more easily. These couples’ grief is not caused by either partner’s infertility, but to an unfortunate combination of otherwise viable genes.
Conclusion? Before you enter into any serious long-term commitments, have your partner go off the pill for a while. If the chemistry evaporates with the hormones, better to find out sooner rather than later.
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Could be an interesting new take on the Elektra Complex. Guess it’s back to condoms for birth control, then. :D
I participated in the repeated t-shirt study a few years back. It’s probably different from the orignal study. All the participants were suppose to rate the samples of t-shirt as attractive knowing one would be their sibling.I just thought that was gross and made me rate things lower in average. I remember other participants also felt disgusted particpating.
Hmm..about the birth control pill. Wasn’t there something on hormonal shifts in women from more masculine features (during peaks of fertilty) to more femine features (during not peak times)?
Oh goodie. Because finding someone isn’t complicated enough already.
If you want to find an acceptable mate via smell not only does she have to be off the pill, but
-neither one can smoke and should avoid smoking areas
-neither one can wear fragrant deodorants
-neither one can wear cologne/perfume
-neither one can eat spicy food
-don’t use any sort of fragrant fabric softener
-should probably avoid any sort of direct contact with other people like riding a bus or a train where your clothing and hair could be contaminated with other smells
-make sure that both parties have no damage done to their ability to smell and should take care to avoid smells that irritate the nose.
In short, you need to be completely isolated with your partner and avoid all other smells.
I’d rather eat my spicy food than find a mate, tbh.
fascinating. being business minded, now i’m thinking of how to sell a cologne based on your genes.
Put on a cologne that makes your smell opposite. Could sell like hot cakes! Hopefully, the science is grounded. Actually, marketing trumps science.
well you really dont have to keep your mate isolated from smells, or not eat spicy foods, though I would suggest not so much cologne, scented soaps and that type of thing.
We women are excellent at smelling you throught most things, and really the key is how you smell in a clean sweaty way, after sex for instance.
There are some people’s bodies that are so incompatible that the man’s semen will burn the woman’s vagianl walls.. Ph incompatibility. A tragic happening.
The one reason I used the term sexual transformations expert is I get to say it over and over again as I clarify it and no one forgets it :.. people usually have to hear something 3 to 7 times to stick. Ah marketing, aint it grand.
Thanks for the write up Neils,
Thanks for the article. I had heard of the study several years back and wondered if there was an update. PS – I was inspired by this art project and that’s how I found your site: http://smellingcommittee.org/mapit/index.html
Perhaps Tanja could transform herself. I saw the video and she looks rather mannish.
Thanks Sheilah for the feedback.
I guess it’s a lovely thing that the world is full of people that enjoy diversity, so us mannishly attractive people can find love, as well as people that are seemingly bent on being unkind for no apparent reason.
And an update on the sexual transformation thing.. I have newly branded my business identity..
Now I am “Tanja, The Tantra Teacher” and I am here to help you transform your sex life!
Perhaps I will see some of you up in Vancouver at my Men’s Only sexual mastery class on Dec 2nd and Women’s sexual mastery on the 9th…
Until then
be amazing
Tanja