{"id":94614,"date":"2013-01-31T16:21:46","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T05:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/starobserver.com.au\/?p=94614"},"modified":"2013-02-08T04:36:01","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T17:36:01","slug":"get-a-whiff-of-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starobserver.com.au\/opinion\/soapbox-opinion\/get-a-whiff-of-this\/94614","title":{"rendered":"Get a whiff of this"},"content":{"rendered":"
I wear men\u2019s cologne. While my mum thinks that\u2019s weird, I know I\u2019m not alone. Heaps of queer girls do. I\u2019m sure some straight girls do too. I wear it because I think it smells nice. I can remember liking the way dad smelt when he applied fresh, peppery aftershave in the mornings when I was little, more than the floral perfumes my mum wore. So now that\u2019s what I choose to spray on before work each day.<\/p>\n
But it occurred to me recently how nuts it is that there are separate men\u2019s and women\u2019s fragrances. I mean, who made that call? I get it with clothes because we\u2019re built differently, but my boobs certainly won\u2019t be squashed by Bvlgari\u2019s Pour Homme.<\/p>\n
Smells don\u2019t have a gender. Someone just decided to market them that way. It extends to deodorant, body lotions, shower gel, shaving cream and almost anything we apply to our bodies. Some are his and some are hers.<\/p>\n
Girls get sugar and spice and all things nice, whereas boys get fresh, bold, earthy aromas to squirt onto their hairy caveman necks.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s really quite silly when you think about it. But no more silly than the traditional blue or pink packaging used to signify which gender these products are being sold to.<\/p>\n
I can remember when the fresh, citrus smelling cologne \u201cCK1\u201d hit the shelves when I was a teenager. There was a big deal made out of the fact that it was the first fragrance intended for a man or a woman. My 14-year-old self lapped up the spin, loving the fact that I was now\u00a0 \u201callowed\u201d to wear a relatively unfeminine smelling perfume.<\/p>\n
But why can\u2019t all colognes be like that? Why can\u2019t they be like Freddo Frogs where you just choose the flavour you like? It\u2019s not like boys aren\u2019t allowed to eat the strawberry ones.<\/p>\n
And when it comes to other ladies, I\u2019m not attracted to any particular fragrance. Whether she\u2019s wearing a girl\u2019s one, a boy\u2019s one, or just smells like Deep Heat, I\u2019ll generally like the smell if I like the girl.<\/p>\n
Some folks might argue that perfume is gender-based on the way men and women smell naturally. Sure women are sweet, but we also smell like ass after a decent work out. If you want to smell unnatural, why not smell however the hell you like.<\/p>\n