2011 Perfume Challenge Week 16: Monday, 4/25/11, to Saturday, 4/30/11
This week’s theme is a strange one, I’ll admit. What you have to understand is that I find the idea of policing gender through scent so fascinating. Why would we do this? What purpose does it serve? Are these scents actually connected to biological maleness in any way? Or is it simply that the areas of the world long dominated exclusively by men to maintain power structures (i.e. the “public” sphere) are typically decorated and occupied by items that carry these scents, such that we come to think of them as “masculine” scents when really we mean “scents associated with the trappings of power and influence in the public sphere”? FN1. And if that is the case, shouldn’t every feminist in the world be eschewing gourmands and florals while running straight for vetivers and tobaccos? FN2.
So this week, I’m trying out six stereotypical masculines to see which ones I find wearable because I like them as scents, trappings be damned. And the best part of this little experiment – at least 10ml of each one can be had for less than $20, and in some cases even an entire bottle is available for less.
