While Cari Casteel was watching Super Bowl ads about a decade ago, she didn’t expect to find the inspiration for her PhD thesis.
An Old Spice commercial played and “the man your man could smell like” catchphrase caught Casteel’s attention. Her mind wandered, and she started to think about what men usually smell like compared to what women usually smell like, and how personal care products help to construct those scents and connect with ideas about gender.
— Read more in An ‘olfactory identity’: UB researcher studies the history of deodorant at University of Buffalo News Center.
Very interesting. Thank you for the link! 🙂 This is something I think about often. I try very hard not to think of scents in a gendered way, but it’s almost inescapable, an ingrained aspect of life in our society.
Even so, gendered ideas about scent are one of the reasons I get a kick out of “subversively” wearing Eau Sauvage. 😉
And mainstream deodorant is a great way to explore the question, since it isn’t like there are lots of “unisex” products.