Participants in the class had their armpit scents analyzed by strangers in the hopes of learning something new about themselves.
Susan Barbour moves around the room and passes out a stack of Ziploc bags, each containing a worn cotton T-shirt. “Gingerly take it out and find the armpit,” she tells her students, who have each supplied a shirt they’ve slept in for a week straight, sans deodorant, during a recent LA heat wave. Barbour instructs them to lift the garments out of the bags, raise them to their nostrils, and take a big whiff. “Remember, the goal is empowerment,” she says before unzipping her own plastic bag, lifting out its contents, and burying her head within.
