Cleanliness and Sexual Odors
From Encyclopedia of Sex and Sexuality
There are two main dimensions of cleanliness related to sexuality: physical and psychological. Physically, a certain degree of cleanliness is necessary to prevent diseases. Psychologically, cleanliness may be sexually arousing for some men and women, but it can be a sexual depressant for others.
On the physical and hygienic level, when fingers, penises, or dildos are inserted into the vagina or other body openings, they should be clean so as not to carry any possible infectious matter into the body. For uncircumcised males, failure to adequately clean the head of the penis under the foreskin may result in an unpleasant odor and the possibility of infection from a substance called “smegma,” that is produced by small glands under the foreskin.
The musky scent surrounding the male genitalia when it has not been freshly scrubbed may be very arousing for some, while for many the odor is repugnant. Similarly, the natural scent around the vagina (not the strong odors usually due to an infection) excites many, while others are repulsed by it. Some women are attracted to the slightly perfumed odor of the skin just after a man showers, while other women consider this scent as lacking the “smell of a man.” Odors usually not associated with sex—such as bad breath odors—are usually responded to negatively by both men and women. Perhaps the most feared of all the sexually-related odors, as judged by television advertisements and products dealing with them, are menstrual odors. Anthropologists have maintained that this is probably due to the very complex set of blood taboos attached to menstruation in most cultures throughout history.
In brief, while most responses to cleanliness and corresponding odors are socially learned or psychological in origin and nature, it is wise for one to understand his or her own likes and dislikes and to be able to communicate them to a sexual partner so that a potentially destructive element of lovemaking is eliminated.
