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How do perfumes and clothes have gender?

Started by SoldierofFortune, June 05, 2022, 12:33:24 PM

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SoldierofFortune

Today my mom was ironing and I jokingly tried putting on one of her jackets, and this thought in the title occured to me.

Is it some kind of social construct?


the_antithesis

Yes.



This is the fedora. In the 1940's and 50's, nearly every man in the USA wore one of these. The hat was invented in 1882 for the play Fédora about the Princess Fédora Romanov. It was originally a woman's hat and was even the symbol of the women's rights movement. It later became fashionable for men.

Pink used to be considered a strong, masculine color suitable for male children because it was close to the strong color of red. I say male children because, at one time, a boy was a servant and both male and female children were girls. Male children were called knave girls and female children were called gay girls.

What is masculine? What is feminine? How many of the answers you come up with are mere societal convention that future generations will easily discard or reverse?

Sorginak

#2
Perfumes, due to scent, I can kind of understand. Not so much with clothes. There have been scientific studies shown that people are attracted to whom they're attracted in great part by the scent of the person. Therefore, to attribute gender to perfumes by scent is understandable. Pheromones play a big part in sexual attraction, and part of a perfume's job is to mimic pheromones.

Although, now that I think on it further, I suppose the same mimicry can be applied to clothing. Due to preconceived and outdated social constructs of gender appearance, of course. To wear a skirt would imply that one is attempting to appear female, for example. Hence, drag. Though if you think further on it, as RuPaul has stated, "We're all born naked and the rest is drag".