Gendered scents are mostly marketing. I own a couple of "real" scents, only two of those I would consider masculine: woody, spicy ones. The others could very well be worn by a woman: mostly citrusy, herbal ones.
I agree that the overall gendering of scents is a bit arbitrary, and that marketing has a lot to do with our perceptions on the issue. I will say that there are many studies on perception of scent and different groups and that the scents found pleasant by a given group can be correlated to culture, but there is evidence to suggest that certain scents can have a different perception by people of different biological sex. Of course- in our society, or most today, biological sex and gender have tended to carry associations to each other, so we can’t say conclusively that “sex” based preferences of scents is even a thing let alone that it is actually biological and not cultural/contextual. With all that said, if we just take for granted that wether inherently or by nurtured preference any sex or gender has scent preferences- I always found it a bit odd that we market the scents supposedly enjoyed by a given group to that group with marketing aimed at “sex appeal.”
What I mean is- if “feminine” types supposedly like floral scents and sweet scents and “masculine” types supposedly like other scents- and so much of the marketing of scented products revolves around appeal to the opposite sex or thinly veiled sexual associations, and is mostly done through a heterosexual lens- why wouldn’t we market flowery scents to men, as in theory those would be the scents favored by the women said men are being told to attract with a “pleasant scent?” And vice versa? To me it kind of shows the silliness of the whole mess- that it’s largely arbitrary and the whole concept of gender identity in our society is crafted- that we market “manly” scents to men and “womanly scents” to women because our concept of gender is so fragile and arbitrary that you can smell pleasant and still be “wrong” because your favored smell doesn’t “match” what your gender is “supposed” to smell like.
Or in very short- I suppose the concept can be summed up as: “if you don’t smell like a man/woman, people might somehow get confused as to what you are”? Very odd stuff.
My favourite pet peeve with gendered products is protein shakes and other gym supplements. The packaging and promotion is always EXTREME! PROTEINS! RAWR! in some silver sci-fi font on monochrome background. I feel like I'm buying some kind of holistic New Age tantric strawberry diesel.
Okay, if I saw NEW AGE! TANTRIC! STRAWBERRY! DIESEL!!!! on a label you can bet I'd be taking a second look. I may not buy it depending on what's in it but you'd have my attention.
Lol. Yeah. Not to take away from your very valid observation which- holds true in my experience making it even funnier-but karlboll- if you don’t work in marketing it might be time to consider the switch because “New age tantric strawberry diesel” would sell like crazy. Or- at least I’d give it a good look over on the shelf. But agreed- I get that perhaps the dosages or formula MIGHT be different between “gendered” products of that nature (though dosage is usually related to body mass or dietary intake independent of gender, and one can argue what if any benefit ‘gender specific’ additives might have in protein powder or pre/post workout powder…) but like- the packaging is a bit of a pet peeve. Like- it’s protein powder… do I need it to be an expression of gender identity? Why is the “female” packaging more likely to have a scantily clad woman on there? I can’t risk buying the wrong “gender” powder or else people will think I’m a pervert or something- because of course it is somehow…
.. more acceptable or more “heterosexual” to have a protein powder with a giant veiny arm or scantily clad beef cake on it than a lady for some other reasons…? It’s all so odd.
It's very odd. Back in the nineties, when I started dying my hair, people would ask where I got the dye. I explained I bought the stuff you see in the shops the response was always song the lines of "But that's for women" as if make hair is chemically different from female hair.
Lol! I’m not laughing at your experience- it is just so wild and you took me back in time. Yeah- here at least there were men who might dye their grays as they aged and people would often dye hair blonde for a sort of “California” look- though there was often a stigma to that and it was sort of seen as something to keep secret. I do recall though a general social attitude dying hair was “feminine.” Towards the 2000’s boy bands started popularizing dyed hair or frosted tips here and it was immediately seen as feminine or “gay” and the word “metrosexual” became a term that started being thrown around quite a bit along with “controversy” over men shaving body hair. That one strikes me as particularly silly- gendered hair dye… lol. Man.
Lol. Exactly. Funny enough to me, that’s basically one of the complaints the Anglo saxons had about the Vikings. They bathed at least once a week vs. once a year and combed their hair and it effected the women in ways that upset the locals.
I dislike most markedly masculine scents as well. But there's so much to choose from, even if it's marketed as "man" or "homme". My latest buy is Chanel Allure Homme. It's citrusy, vanilla, woody. A complex, well-layered scent.
Yeah, I should've clarified I was mostly talking about deodorants, shower gels etc, because men do have some really nice perfumes. I personally prefer unisex perfumes as well, since I find women's perfumes too flowery and sweet, and I usually prefer woody, fresh scents. Basically I want to smell like the forest and some men's and unisex perfumes have achieved that, whereas women's not so much.
As for Fiji and charcoal, I don't actually know that one so I can't judge. My original comment was written a bit clumsily (in my defense I had just woken up and my brain wasn't functioning at full capacity) so allow me to rephrase: in my experience (ie. by smelling what my boyfriend has in his repertoire) a lot of men's stuff, particularly the stuff that's labeled as abstract concepts like "Cool Sport Rush" instead of a specific scent, often smells like toxic waste.
Ah, you were talking about deodorants and so on, yeah, those typically smell really cheap. I usually buy Nivea, or unscented. I'll put on an eau de toilette anyway.
As for Fiji and charcoal, I don't actually know that one so I can't judge. My original comment was written a bit clumsily (in my defense I had just woken up and my brain wasn't functioning at full capacity) so allow me to rephrase: in my experience (ie. by smelling what my boyfriend has in his repertoire) a lot of men's stuff, particularly the stuff that's labeled as abstract concepts like "Cool Sport Rush" instead of a specific scent, often smells like toxic waste.