Last year at Piece of Cake as the women’s race wrapped back around towards the start on the home stretch of lap one we passed two different men’s fields on the way out. The men’s fields are always much larger than women’s fields, and as we passed them the women were trilling and making catcalls, hooting and hollering at the boys. Meanwhile, the men were mum. There are a couple things that come to mind… 1. If you have energy to holler and carry on you aren’t racing hard enough, and 2. If, as a guy you throw catcalls at women, you’ll be called a sexist pig (it’s so unfair, I know, I know…)
The ladies’ races get a little chatty sometimes, and this was no exception. I remember one woman asking why the men weren’t reciprocating our cheering them on. After listening to this griping for a few minutes I chimed in with: “Hey.. Look on the bright side… Every time the men’s fields come around we have an opportunity to score a major testosterone contact high!”
I have always known one of the things I like about racing is what I call the “guy energy” I get from it. I mean… Come on… I teach yoga for a living. I’m surrounded by female energy all day and night most days. So yeah, I appreciate being able to hang out with guys and “guy energy”. But what I didn’t know is there may be some scientific basis for this preference. This new scientific study explains “guy energy” on a purely chemical level:
Biologists said they found male perspiration had a surprisingly beneficial effect on women’s moods. It helps reduce stress, induces relaxation and even affects the menstrual cycle. Sweat was dabbed onto the upper lips of the women, who then rated their moods on a fixed scale for a period of six hours. The findings suggested something in the perspiration brightened their moods and helped them feel less tense. Blood analyses also showed a rise in levels of the reproductive luteinizing hormone that typically surge before ovulation
The test involved swapping the sweat compounds on women’s upper lips. Eeeuw. Don’t get me wrong. I think sweat is kinda sexy, but… And they thought they were testing floor polish? On their lips? WTF? And what’s next…sweat-flavored lip balm? Talk about “if you could bottle it up and sell it”… I can see it now. Little purse-sized spray bottles of male sweat for those times when you just don’t have (or want) a real man handy.
I’ll have to change my little “smack” tagline now:
“Gardening, yoga, bubble baths, meditation, male sweat lip balm… and I STILL want to smack somebody!”
Oh yeah: I am not making this shit up.
And if you haven’t seen this yet… Well, you aren’t missing much!
