YOUNG MALE WORKERS TALKING ABOUT GASES

A few years ago, an older, cultivated bilingual man received from a feminist, cultivated and multilingual woman of a mature age, a video of a well known, quite handsome, dark haired German soccer player, smelling his balls. She wrote a rather sarcastic remark about men and odors. Men love to smell themselves -she said, particularly the more pungent smells coming from the feet, balls, and armpits. Men also stop eating directly from their noses at a much later age. So, it was not surprising to hear several construction workers talking about different types of farts and their effects on their bodies and moods. The wet ones were -agreed by all- not appreciated: a good loud collective laugh was expressed, accompanied by facial expressions of disgust. Letting a slow one from a rigid, tight stomach was a gift from the gods: “ahhh” followed the description of the gas that helps a bloated belly relax itself. Each of these different types of gases were discussed, using specific events and anecdotes as evidence to support their gas based constructs: a wet one standing in a crowded bus; a bloated stomach being relaxed by an internal slow flow of air before meeting the girlfriend for a date. Then they finished their lunch and went back to the construction site.