Which Race Smells the Worst?

Sweat, Genes, and the Search for the Truth

A young white woman finishes her PhD thesis and becomes a meme. Is she hot? Amelia Louks posted a selfie on Elon Musk’s right-wing social media platform, ostensibly to celebrate her research on ‘olfactory ethics’, but ended up spending days mocking her detractors’ intelligence (1, 2, 3). Her supporters cheered; her critics fumed. Meanwhile, nobody seemed to care about the actual research. So, I will!

I’m not here to join the choir about ‘oppression’. That framing is tendentious, putting the cart before the horse. Louks focuses on how ‘olfactory logic’ works to “legitimise [oppressed groups’] harassment or abuse”. Fine. But do they smell? We all know which groups are cast as Good and Bad in the Woke cinematic universe. I’m interested in a different question: Who is doing the stinking? And can we answer it without a script?

In Louks’ abstract, the only specific race granted mention is Black people, and the only form of racism singled out is 'anti-Black racism.'

Most of the longform commentary defending Louks devolved into a love letter to academia itself (Amos Wollen, DeepLeftAnalysis), sprinkled with jabs against her critics as stupid, woman-hating incels. On the low-effort end, thousands of men priced out of Toronto’s housing market revived a 2021 anti-Indian meme from Black Twitter, riffing on a video from an Indian nightclub: “I know it smell crazy in there.”

Might Indians smell strongly because Indian food does? It’s an easy assumption, but Southeast Asians use the same fragrant spices, and don’t smell. Cultural artifacts like food or perfume can be misleading, especially when they are compensatory. Korean skincare, for example, emphasizes a glassy look, yet East Asians have the least oily skin of any race. Clearly the answer lies deeper, perhaps gene-deep.

The cleanest-smelling race

On a biological level, what causes body odor? The body has two types of sweat glands. Eccrine glands produce salty, odorless sweat for cooling the entire body. By contrast, apocrine glands, located near hair follicles, secrete a thick solution rich in lipids and proteins. Skin bacteria metabolize the latter fluid, generating odor molecules that act as pheromone-based social signals of danger, sexual maturity, or ingroup identity.

Figure from Razib Khan’s 2015 GNXP blogpost about rs17822931

East Asians carry a genetic mutation that results in much fewer apocrine glands, fewer organic compounds in their sweat that cause odor, and less apocrine sweat overall. What may have started as a cultural preference for less smelliness became ingrained through gene-culture coevolution, sexual selection, and genetic bottlenecks. The frequency of the TT genotype at the rs17822931 SNP of the ABCC11 gene is:

1. Almost universal in East Asians

   1. 90-95% in Siberia, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan

   2. 85-95% in China, the Andes, and Amazonia

   3. 60-80% in Southeast Asia and North American tribes

2. Rare in South Asians and Europeans

   1. 20-40% in North Indians

   2. 15-30% in Northern Europeans

   3. 10-20% in South Indians

   4. 5-10% in Southern Europeans

3. Nonexistent in Sub-Saharan Africans (<1%)

I didn’t include “Hispanics” on the list because their ethnic labels don’t map cleanly onto racial genetic patterns. Their frequencies, however, can be inferred based on the proportion of East Asian ancestry passed down via Beringian migrations. North Indians and Europeans picked up this genotype from genetic drift and admixture, not independent evolution. Africans, here and elsewhere, remain a world apart genetically.

Aggravating factors for odor

Although B.O. primarily results from bacteria metabolizing apocrine sweat, another bodily secretion can also be fuel for odor: sebum, skin’s natural oil. Unlike apocrine glands, which are concentrated in the armpit, groin, and nipples, sebaceous glands are found all over the body, especially on the face, scalp, and upper chest. Sebum contributes to a shiny or greasy look, unlike sweat’s dampness or beads of liquid.

East Asians and Native Americans have the lowest average sebum production, resulting in less oily skin and a lower incidence of acne. Next come Northern Europeans, followed by Southern Europeans. Higher melanin levels correlate with higher sebum production, so it’s no surprise that South Asians fall in the moderate range, while Sub-Saharan Africans have the most slick and reflective-looking skin.

Who says both 'white people smell like wet coins' and 'I know it smell crazy in there'? I say, 'he who smelt it, dealt it'—but nonverbally, like this.

A third factor, needing no further world tours, is hair. Sebum accumulates more on coily textures because the oil in kinkier hair struggles to travel down the hair shaft. Cultural hairstyles like dreadlocks often require less-frequent washing, allowing sweat, dirt, and sebum to ferment together. Protective styles like braids or weaves can also trap heat and moisture, further intensifying odor around the scalp and neck.

The final factor I will mention is obesity. Your big booty queen contains multitudes… of folds and crevices where sweat and bacteria gather. Those thicc thighs hide warm, dark pockets with limited airflow, a paradise for odor-producing microbes. More to love ultimately means more to wash. Constant friction and pressure in the folds can irritate or break the skin, compounding the smell with inflammation or infection.

But is it bad to be ripe?

Excluding the case just mentioned, where body odor has a direct link to health, it’s not entirely clear whether having a strong scent is inherently good or bad. Norms around bathing and soap use vary widely across cultures, and in certain sexual contexts, such as among gay men, a fetish for armpits is not uncommon. Robert Stark personally attests to the subversive political potential of savoring a ripe woman:

I felt like this neurotic Woody Allen type, Jewish guy who desired to o-rally service prissy preppy Waspy Shiksas who are extra sweaty from Equestrian activities. […] affluent White women can ironically have worse vaginal hygiene because they are so high status they don’t have to be obsessively clean. […] Making it customary to go down on someone way above one’s league is radically subversive.

It is, without question, man’s right to give oral affection to sweaty equestrians. In a world where laws choke freedom to combat ‘global antiblackness’, the last bastion of personal autonomy lies in love, sex, and dating. As Hunter Ash points out, critics of Dr. Louks sense that calling a dislike of stink ‘racist’ paves the way for mandating tolerance of the stinky, much like disparate impact rules govern hiring and firing.

Whether you’re a proud, pit-sniffing bear chaser or just a commuter on the Tokyo subway, I hope you’re now armed with enough knowledge to seek your preferred level of pungency. And if a little ethnic profiling factors into your quest, know your rights. Consent is key: no odor should invade the intimate orifices of your face without your say. Go forth and build your own olfactory adventure… while you still can.