I’ve been a tomboy from a young age. My friends have always been guys, and I developed a dislike for being around other girls around age 10-11 because the people who bullied me were all girls.
When I was a teenager, I kept hearing that girls and women supposedly have a strong “fishy” smell. I know it’s a meme, but I’d seen and read enough firsthand stories that it stuck with me. I even came across accounts from gay men who said that every woman they knew smelled that way, and that it influenced their attraction to men.
In my case, I seem to be an exception. There’s no fishy smell on myself, just normal skin or sweat when I’m active, or at night when I’m due to shower. But that actually made me even more uncomfortable around groups of girls and women, because I really hate the smell of fish or seafood in general, and if there’s a lot of women in a room, that smell lingers even after they’ve left.
Sometimes I feel embarrassed, because people see me, see that I’m female, and I worry they automatically assume I’ve got a rotting crab factory somewhere.
I could only see this being true if it was a small room and they were all masturbating. Or, if one of them had a particularly bad infection or something, in which case that’s just a sign someone needs to go to the doctor.
I’ve never in my life smelled ‘fishy’ smells from a woman whose vulva my face wasn’t touching.
That particular idea comes from some viral reddit post I think. It’s either a story designed to incite righteous indignation + mockery, or it’s an exceptional medical situation, or both.