Why fragrances do not need to be divided into "female" and "male"
In a world where spacecraft travel through the universe, and the ideas of gender binarity are receding, making room for a new approach to the perception of gender, perfumery is still divided into male and female. We decided to figure out why men are considered worthless to smell jasmine, and women are persistently offered “sweet” flavors and what to do about it.
Unlike most patriarchal ideas, the stereotype that certain smells correspond to each sex is relatively new. Guerlain Voilette de Madame and Mouchoir de Monsieur, which were released in 1901 and 1904 respectively, are considered to be the first gender-oriented fragrances that went on sale. The revolutionary concept of paired fragrances belonged to Jacques Guerlain, one of the most distinguished perfumers of his era; According to one of the legends, the set was conceived as a wedding gift by a friendly Gerlaine couple.
Historically, perfumery has no gender: due to the high cost of the bottles and the blatant lack of them, fragrances have always been a sign of belonging to a certain class, rather than gender. One of the main functions of perfume was the disguise of bodily odors, so that the perfume was concentrated and applied generously: in different years perfume compositions were built around musk, amber, myrrh, spices and, of course, colors, but none of these notes was identified with masculinity nor with femininity. Even the accepted designations "cologne" and "perfume" are terminology, speaking exclusively of the concentration of perfume (the cologne is the lowest, the perfume is the highest), but not at all of the sexual characteristics of the fragrance. When it comes to gender targeting of cosmetics, marketers love to talk about the physiological difference between male and female organisms, but in the perfume issues such a division is not biologically determined. According to studies, women's skin has a lower pH, which makes justifying the existence of male skin care products. At the same time, the acidity of male skin is considered by some studies to be higher and others to be lower: biologists have not reached a definite conclusion. It is only clear that the relationship between the acidity of the skin with age or nutrition is much greater than between it and the floor.
Actually, the so-called skin chemistry, due to which the fragrance “sits” on a person or not, is also an object of controversy: the biophysicist Luca Turin, for example, considers the idea that fragrance interacts with human skin, a myth. Turin, one of the most reputable perfume critics, argues that we feel all the flavors in the same way, but interpret them differently. Anthropologists, meanwhile, object - they concluded that intuitively, we choose fragrance in such a way as to enhance the odor of our own body. But none of the researchers talk about gender separation of flavors.
The perfumery historian and creator of his own brand, Roger Dove, states that "the same scent of a rose will be manly on a man and womanly on a woman - roses themselves have no gender." Despite this, he marks some Roja Dove fragrances as male or female. As Dove himself confessed to me during the interview, "I do it for men: many men, if they don’t see the inscription" Pour Homme "or" For Men "on the bottle, are nervous that their genitals will disappear if they wear such a smell." A very accurate description of the influence of marketing on modern life. In the article "Perfume Packaging, Seduction and Gender", published in 2013 in the magazine Culture Unbound, a researcher from the University of Gothenburg Magdalena Petterson McIntyre describes in detail the mechanisms of the impact of perfume marketing on the buyer. The cosmetic industry, and especially the perfume industry, where no visible result can be expected, unlike decorative or caring cosmetics, sells a dream, images, elusive beauty. Thus, the fragrance itself often becomes secondary to the bottle and the advertising campaign - and advertising, as is well known, is the engine of trade through cliché and intelligible framing.
Men sell masculinity, sportiness, sexual attractiveness for women (Ax brand brought this discourse to the limit, which seemed to be included in marketing textbooks) and the idea that the fragrance would make it irresistible. Women are tempted, desire and, where without it, sexual attractiveness again, and in advertising the bottle often acts as a substitute for a lover: the heroine compresses his enlarged version in her arms or lies with him in bed. If you look at the perfume advertising of the twentieth century, you can see that this aggressive sexuality was an integral part of the industry only in the eighties. At the same time, the gender division of perfumery became the most striking, although it was massively popular much earlier.
In infancy, we were divided by the color of the diapers, in childhood, by the thematic departments in the toy store, and now we are supposed to smell like our sex. Aquatic, vetiver, wood and leather are traditionally male notes (they are positioned as attributes of "male" activities - from riding to controlling a motorboat). All sorts of flowers and sweets - the ingredients of female fragrance. Spices and citrus are allowed to be here and there, but only in the appropriate - feminine or manly - frame.
There remains, of course, niche perfumery: many eminent authors, like Serge Lüthans, come up with fragrances all their lives without exchanging gender specifications. But niche fragrances were originally designed for a more free-thinking user, are moving differently, are practically not advertised, and, importantly, cost more. Niche perfumes are initially more elitist - the buyer becomes a part of a closed club. Perfumery is more accessible, which actively uses gender markers, is designed for a quick intuitive purchase and works with the most understandable images and symbols. Sex, seduction, attractiveness, courage, sportiness, bliss, repeat from the beginning.
However, even in such a conventional place as the shelves of a cosmetic multibrand, cutting-edge trends conquer their space. In 1994, CK One came out, the first multi-genre fragrance that blew up the market (according to WWD, in the first ten days after launch, the amount of sales was $ 5 million). One of the main faces of the fragrance was Kate Moss, a symbol of heroin chic and light androgyny. The success of CK One tried to be repeated by a few, and it took twenty years for the multi-gender fragrances to start returning to the mainstream. For example, the most popular Hermès perfume series - Les Jardins - is intended for both men and women, and the same CK released this year a successful unisex CK 2. The denial of gender binary even reached celebrity-perfumes that always broadcast the most conformal, sexualized the image of the star - whether it is "seductive" Britney Spears, "sensual" Jennifer Lopez or "courageous" Antonio Banderas.
So, in 2014, Farrell Williams, together with COMME des GARÇONS, released the fragrance Girl with the slogan "for girls and boys", and Ariana Grande with her brother, Frankie, who calls gender neutral. In addition, if women in the nineties experimented with men's fragrances in search of freshness and androgyny (it is worth recalling the popularity of male Acqua di Gio in girls), now even men gradually begin to look closely at the contents of florist feminine bottles, without fear that their genitals will fall off . In the end, a day borrowed from a boyfriend or a favorite scent is the easiest and safest way to play gender-bending, which is sometimes desirable for both women and men who are tired of the real prefix. And pushing your own boundaries is even more important than smelling good.
Photo: Chanel, YSL, Pour Un Homme de Caron, L'Aimant, Nautica, Moschino, CK
