#wanted to re-acclamate myself to academic writing styles

[gay-milton-quotes]

A lack of observed scent marking in humans has led some to conclude that humanity's differing nasal structure leaves them with an inferior sense of smell. Winston Drooly writes as much in On Humans. "The flat and narrow shape of the human nose, his puny nose holes, and his oversized head organ (obstructing the nasal passage) leave him utterly ignorant to scent and scent marking. He is deficient in this regard" (Drooly, 1982 pp. 268). The intellectual movement around Drooly dictates the current tone of discussion even several lifetimes later, with countless textbooks parroting his assumption (and, often, his anti-human rhetoric).

However, others disagree. In her 2017 paper, Gentle Lead: the Strange Happenings of Humanity, Oreo Goodgirl writes, "The human pees into a chair full of water. The human rinses himself once a day in a machine that summons rainfall. The human spreads lotions, sprays perfumes, burns dried herbs, all to cover his human scent. The human is utterly averse to his own smell" (Goodgirl, 2014 pp. 31-32). Goodgirl's observations are accurate: it is not that humans refuse to scent mark, they are averse to scent. They avoid the smells of themselves when ever possible.

If it were the case that humans simply abstained from scent marking practices, they should also be indifferent to canid scent marking. Their supposedly "inferior" noses would not detect the smell of canine anal secretions, canine urine, canine skin and fur shedding, et cetera. Indeed, many dogs report that over-grooming has led them to develop dry skin, and some anecdotally suspect that this has led their owners to further over-groom them (The Health of Our Pack, Whosagoodboy et. al., 2020 pp. 45). All of this suggests that humans do care deeply about scent marking - and they dislike it. One possible conclusion is that human noses are in fact far stronger than our own, sensing strange and pungent nuances that we can only imagine.

- Piper Stinkystinkass, What Do People Smell? 2023 pp. 5