We are sold the idea that beauty is protection — that enough scent and smoothness will shield us from loneliness, heartbreak, odor, and even harm. By the time I realized it was all an illusion, that bottles of fruit and flowers are full of nothing but false promises, both my marriage and fashion career had collapsed and I was left to stare down single motherhood and middle age with a body I barely recognized.
— Read more in My So-Scented Life: After decades of masking myself in fragrance, I’m finally learning to live in my own scent at The Cut.
Interesting article, but I really don’t see how body odor is embracing independence.
She seems to have gone from one extreme to another.
The part that resonated with me is the obsession some pre-teens and teens have with owning the right beauty and fragrance products, and how nice it is to get older and relax a bit.
I personally don’t wish to get *that* relaxed, I enjoy being clean and smelling nice, and I definitely prefer others around me be at least clean. But I can see how if it was a mania you might need to just let go?
What a deeply unpleasant read. “Raw, unapologetic BO”? Really? I don’t want to smell that on myself and I sure don’t want to smell it on other people. (I work in retail, and sometimes, too often, I do smell it on other people, and it is revolting. Soap is cheap! Water is free!) You don’t have to perfume yourself if you don’t want to, but you also should not smell bad, know you smell bad, and not only refuse to do anything about it, but think it’s a good thing.
And she somehow got to the age of almost 50 without understanding the entire point of beauty advertising. I’ve spent a lot of time with vintage advertising and believe me, it has nothing to do with protection: it has to do with sex, or, if you like, love. Every single personal-care ad (for men as well as women) for at least the last hundred years consists of one proposition, sometimes explicit, sometimes coded, which is that if you use this product, people will want to have sex with you, and conversely if you don’t use it, nobody will touch you (or marry you, if you prefer).
Sorry for the rant but that piece put me in kind of a bad mood. I’m so glad there’s no chance I’ll ever meet the writer.
So sorry! See my response to ringthing…I maybe have more empathy for the author than you do, but agree, would rather not be around people who smell bad, and she does not seem to consider cleanliness as a courtesy to others.
This chick has bigger problems than BO.
Yes.
For me the triggering word was MASKING. I never think of hiding myself in fragrance personally; I think I’m revealing and enhancing something within me. The author’s vulnerable inner core wanted some protection that she thought these products were going to give her, a mask if you will. Instead they didn’t cure her problems or even cover them unsurprisingly. I’m betting this article will get a ton of clicks, but I hope her family and friends help her.
Life is a journey, perhaps she will swing to someplace in the middle 🙂
Oof, I find her argument off and unpleasant. I get her personal choice of no perfume but to deliberately stink is not the alternative. There was a Dove ad that appeared during a Super Bowl that makes a bold statement, I’ve linked it below. Warning: plastic surgery scenes and eating disorders are shown. It does make a powerful beauty comment.
https://youtu.be/Ei6JvK0W60I?si=_X61uxFIwuGFP40X
Wow that was powerful!