It has become an ongoing issue that my wife complains that she smells something, then gets angry at me if I am unable to smell that same smell, sometimes accusing me of gas lighting her or calling her a liar, when actually I just don’t smell the smell she’s smelling.

I’m not making implications or accusations, I’m not trying to mislead or confuse her, I just can’t smell whatever she’s smelling and that fact frustrates the heck out of her as though I’m personally letting her down. Then she gets a bit aggro and I have to change the garbages / kitchen compost in the hopes that perhaps those are the sources of the smells I can’t smell. Sometimes that helps. She will never change the garbage or take out the compost herself.

When she insisted that she smelled a gas leak from our furnace that I couldn’t smell, we called a professional who confirmed our furnace was working fine and there was no gas leak; but I was still the villain for denying the gas leak ahead of time. Three times in the last 6 months this has been a thing.

Can’t speak for every guy, but some of us will make sure to give extra room on the sidewalk to purposefully indicate that we’re not a threat. A bit of mud is a small price to pay to know that we have prevented even a modicum of fear from springing up in the hearts of a random passerby.

Many of us understand why women choose the Bear over the Man.