Boyfriend Smell

In Science class last year, I learned something pretty interesting.

You know how, when a girl has a boyfriend, she'll take his sweatshirt and wear it so she can smell him?  From now on we'll refer to that smell as the smell of Boyfriend.  Boyfriend Smell.

Anyway, here's what I remember learning:

Five women each smelled five different shirts from five different men.  The women rated the attractiveness of the smell of each shirt.  I'm pretty sure the conclusion was that if the woman's immune system was different from the man's immune system, he would smell good to her.  The way I interpreted that is if I'm immune to viruses A, C, and E, and Eli is immune to viruses B, D, and F, he'll smell good to me.

Which is how I justified putting my head on his shoulder while he had a cold—I'm immune to what he's not, so I won't get sick.

So a girl is dating a boy.  She takes his sweatshirt because it smells good.  Now which came first?  Did she start liking him, and then notice that he smells good?  Hey, extra bonus!

I don't think so.  I think girls are turned on by certain guys' scents.  Just the facts.  (Also I found this) :

"Hands down, the women found the scent of a symmetrical man to be more attractive and desirable, especially if the woman was menstruating."  (They're talking about symmetry, not immune systems, but it's the same idea.)

On the same website, I found this:

"A 2002 study found women prefer the scent of men with genes somewhat similar to their own over the scent of nearly genetically identical or totally dissimilar men."

So like...I...

...am too tired to analyze that.  Boyfriend Smell.  It's hawt.