Evolve Your Sweat

(Photo from LA Weekly)

Hi, Neanderthal. Do you just go around huffing people’s sweaty armpits, then grabbing your chosen mate by the hair to go fuck in a cave? If so, bet you thought these Pheromone Parties we told you about, where you do a blind sniff test on people’s slept-in t-shirts and choose who you’re into based on smell, were totally your deal. Well, they’re evolving, so it’s time you do too.

Judith Prays, who invented these parties, has started mixing it up a bit, tossing in flavors of her own shirts (working out, ovulating, unrequited crush sweat) to see what gets the most hits. Now she's thinking about the next phase, which also involves a questionnaire that goes a bit beyond “Do you like boys or girls?” before tossing your t-shirt in a plastic bag for strangers to smell. The original idea was an experiment, she says: What would happen if we dated based on smell? “Now I know what happens—awesome interactions and conversation and matches based on physical attraction.” But pheromones are for prior versions of our species and “animals who mate, then part,” she says. “While pheromone dating is exciting because it addresses the animal, which is very hard in online dating, it doesn't address the rest.”

In the works is a national tour tweaking the party each time, Judith says, “now having profiles on the bags with new information. Maybe one with what kind of relationship people are looking for. Maybe one with religion. This is tentative but something I'm considering. You a lose a lot of the simplicity, but gain potentiality of real lasting holistic relationships.”

For this next party, in Los Angeles on Thursday, it’s the same deal as before—sleep in the same t-shirt for a few nights, then bring it on down to see who likes your stench—except she’s also tossing in a couple extras. One, a shirt doused in pheromone perfume (read our account about spraying down a nerd with the stuff, to see if he could score any better), and two, one from CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, who interviewed her yesterday morning. Might be worth it to find out if her reporting literally stinks?

Pheromone Party
Thursday, June 14, 8 PM sharp
Bootleg Gallery
2214 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles
[$25; $5 off if you use the code “scent” online](http:// http://www.foldsilverlake.com/event/129947/)