Breaking Gender Boundaries in Fragrance

It started when I borrowed my boyfriend’s body wash in college. I needed to take a quick shower before class, so I reached for the closest bottle of manly soap. The spicy, musky scent clung to me all day—and I absolutely loved it. 

I had never understood the appeal of perfume, particularly the traditional feminine scents of the French persuasion that my friends so loved in high school. I’ve always considered myself a bit of a tomboy, so it makes sense that I soon found myself whiffing bottles of cologne at Sephora, selecting one and claiming I was in search of a gift for my boyfriend. It was for me. Thus began my descent into wearing men’s cologne. 

And I’m certainly not alone. I reached out to some friends to see if they’d ever experimented with fragrances marketed to another gender. There was definitely a common thread of women trying their boyfriend’s cologne and loving the scent, but some worried that they would be “caught” wearing men’s cologne. And rather unfortunately, I couldn’t find any men who were willing to confess that they’d tried women’s perfume before. 

But why? What’s so inherently gendered about a scent? Why should the pleasure of wearing a particular fragrance be limited based on gender identity?

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