n ordinary social intercourse are less likely to arouse the sexual
instinct than the antisexual instinct. If a certain degree of tumescence
is required before a personal odor can exert an attractive influence, a
powerful personal odor, strong enough to be perceived before any degree of
tumescence is attained, will tend to cause repulsion, and in so doing
tend, consciously or unconsciously, to excite prejudice against personal
odor altogether. This is actually the case in civilization, and most
people, it would appear, view with more or less antipathy the personal
odors of those persons to whom they are not sexually attracted, while
their attitude is neutral in this respect toward the individuals to whom
they are sexually attracted.[51] The following statement by a
correspondent seems to me to express the experience of the majority of men
in this respect: "I do not notice that different people have different
smells. Certain women I have known have been in the habit of using
particular scents, but no associations could be aroused if I were to smell
the same scent now, for I should not identify it. As a boy I was very fond
of scent, and I associate this with my marked sexual proclivities. I like
a woman to use a little scent. It rouses my sexual feelings, but not to
any large extent. I dislike the smell of a woman's vagina." While the last
statement seems to express the feeling of many if not most men, it may be
proper to add that there seems no natural reason why the vulvar odor of a
clean and healthy woman should be other than agreeable to a normal man who
is her lover.

In literature it is the natural odor of women rather than men which
receives attention. We should expect this to be the case since literature
is chiefly produced by men. The question as to whether men or women are
really more apt to be sexually influenced in this way cannot thus be
decided. Among animals, it seems probable, both sexes are alike influenced
by odors, for, while it is usually the male whose sexual regions are
furnished with special scent glands, when such occur, the peculiar odor of
the female during the sexual season is certainly not less efficacious as
an allurement to the male. If we compare the general susceptibility of men
and women to agreeable odors, apart from the question of sexual
allurement, there can be little doubt that it is most marked among women.
As Groos points out, even among children little girls are more interested
in sc