Is Sweat Sexy?

My husband has volunteered to be a judge at a CrossFit competition today and he wants me to go with him and watch. He says it will be fun. I say watching other people exercise does not seem like fun to me and that I don't even find my own exercising fun, but at least I get something out of it. I point out that I have been to his gym and the place smells overwhelmingly like sweat and rubber, mostly sweat. We then get into a minor argument about whether or not the smell of sweat is pleasant or unpleasant. Mitch goes so far as to say that "sweat is sexy," whereas I find it appalling. (Conversations like these make me think that lesbians are onto something, but then Mitch points out that many of those people signed up for the competition are in fact lesbians.)

While I am admittedly clueless about many things and thus open to persuasion, I remain convinced that the smell of sweat is gross and disgusting. I can still recall (like he's in the room) the permeating B.O. exuding from of one of my former bosses at The Washington Times who shall remain nameless but is now a prominent and oft-quoted conservative magazine editor, big-time New York newspaper columnist, former presidential speechwriter and author of several books on politics. I'd bet the farm that despite his professional success he still reeks, so I must conclude that the stench of sweat, at least among men, isn't considered a negative.