what about fragrance?
Long have I thought about multiple implications in regards to the cultural archive of “fragrance”.Particularly, the lack of critical analysis in regards to this phenomenon. Why is the art created for the olfactory sense less critiqued then, lets say, the visual or auditory senses? How come much of the problematic commodity that is “perfume” has been given so much grace by common discourse? In this module I will introduce multiple areas of contention when it comes to the sensitivities that exist in the world of fragrance. I will provide both theory of literary criticism and science to introduce the claims as well as examples of art, advertisement and common discourse.
In the first section, you will find a brief introduction in to the olfactory perception. This includes one of my favorite podcast, where literary and visual cultures get correlated to fragrance.
In the second section, Pheromones and Heterosexuality, you will find an introduction to the interesting claims of pheromone enhancing perfumes, and what this actually entails in science as well as its connotations in culture’s battle against heteronormativity.
Last, in the third section, the aim is to look at what I have called Perfumed Colonialism and Orientalism. From the sourcing of materials to the racialized advertising that is still common in the world of fragrance, it becomes apparent how much of the decolonization still needs to happen in this industry that is operating from a colonial design.
Introduction to olfactory perception
What's this Smell? Shifting Worlds of Olfactory Perception - Hans J. Rindisbache
In this essay, Rindisbacher comprises two movements; contextualizing and interpretive to connect the inherent tendency of everything olfactory to spread and insinuate itself into spaces, times, and memories. The essay is particularly interested in fictional olfactory writing. It investigates knowledge about the sense of smell across disciplines and how these began to fuel “a new literary imagination” (71).
“(…), the growing olfactory knowledge provided by the natural and social sciences, followed by its spreading as popular knowledge, is construed here as a stimulus for literature to draw on and add its own perspectives.” (71)
“While its transgressive interdisciplinarity helps to explain historically the fragmented and decentred manifestations of olfactory perception as object of cultural studies, it is also a central reason for the very fascination this sensory modality holds in postmodernism” (72)
MLA CITATION: Rindisbacher, Hans J. ‘’What's this Smell?: Shifting Worlds of Olfactory Perception’’, _KulturPoetik_, Vol. 15, No. 1, March, 2015, pp. 70-104.
The Joy of Living with Fragrance - AVON
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw3fl1UKpao
This clip originally takes place as an extra to the "How To Be A Woman-2" DVD.
Scents and Sensibility: Olfaction, Sense-Making, and Meaning Attribution - Karen A. Cerulo
This article examines how people make sense of smells, specifically focusing on commercially marketed perfumes. Cerulo addresses current debates on how different cultural elements operate in sense-making and meaning attribution.
Cerulo argues that people use both public culture, the shared knowledge and understanding of scents, and personal culture, which includes both conscious and unconscious experiences, to interpret smells.
The article identifies two cognitive mechanisms, embodied simulation and iterative reprocessing, that help explain the dynamic interaction between these two forms of culture.
Finally, the author explores the role of sociocultural location, including race and class, in shaping how people understand and attribute meaning to smells.
“This partnership of brain, body, and cultured environment makes the study of smell a compelling site for social science inquiry, and several of the social sciences have already entered the discussion.” (362)
MLA CITATION: Cerulo, Karen A. ‘’Scents and Sensibility’’, _American Sociological Review_, Vol. 83, No. 2 (April 2018), pp. 361- 389
Jack Mason's Podcast: ‘The Perfume Nationalist’
https://theperfumenationalist.libsyn.com/
This podcast connects fragrance to literature, visual cultures and music.
2. Pheromones and Heterosexuality
Human Pheromones: Have They Been Demonstrated? - Warren S.T. Hays
In this essay, Hays questions the validity of the human use of “pheromones” for communication. Hays acknowledges the human condition that includes the context of the physiological, psychological and sociological factors. In this study, it becomes clear how pheromones might not work exactly how it is marketed towards us.
“Humans have a number of sensory organ systems that may be involved in the detection of airborne chemicals. In addition to the olfactory epithelium and the trigeminal nerves (which detect irritants on the nasal mucosa), two other such systems have been proposed.” (91)
“Only the first of these pieces of evidence can be taken as unambiguously supportive of the existence of human pheromones, and probably none of this evidence can be regarded as conclusive.“ (94)
MLA CITATION:Hays, Warren S. T., Human Pheromones: Have They Been Demonstrated? _Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology_, Vol. 54, No. 2 (Jul., 2003), pp. 89-97
Perfume, Lucas Crawford
This short, but powerful text by Lucas Crawford, found on page 151 and 152 of the Transgender Studies Quarterly, Volume 1, Numbers 1–2., points at the simulation of “essence”, the artifice of olfactory norms. It critics the resultant binary economy of smell that implies heterosexuality is hardwired. Crawford approaches the transing potential of perfume and insists in using fragrance to build a new praxis of connection and memory.
“By reclaiming rather than refuting Eliot’s judgments, we can acknowledge the artifice of olfactory norms and try to change them. For instance, we can reject the sense of wealth that Eliot attributes to perfume by revaluing the many perfumes of labour. We can eschew middle-class norms of bodily control and hyper-hygiene in order to waft ourselves in uncontrollable trajectories toward the other.” (151)
“The resultant binary economy of smell implies that heterosexuality is hardwired, as if the role of perfume is to solicit more heterosexual interaction through the sneaky manipulation of instinct.” (151)
MLA CITATION: Crawford, Lucas. Perfume. _Transgender Studies Quarterly_, Volume 1, Numbers 1–2. Pp. 151 -152.
AQUA VELVA ''Herbal & Musk'' commercial (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEiUVaV3f1Q&list=PLwMF9q4OKeoDOx15TujKEZlq0iz15ypXZ&index=12
JOVAN ''Man and Woman'' commercial (1978)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-KTb5QYoxU&list=PLwMF9q4OKeoDOx15TujKEZlq0iz15ypXZ&index=24
Hai Karate commercial (1967)
3. Perfumed Colonialism and Orientalism
Atmo-Orientalism: Olfactory Racialization and Environmental Health - Hsuan L. Hsu
See the chapter here or e-mail me if you don’t have access
This chapter delves into the concept of "atmo-Orientalism", a term coined by Hsu to describe the racialization of Asians through their association with noxious atmospheres. This discourse, the author argues, operates on two levels: as a rhetorical tool and as a strategy for shaping space. Through an analysis of historical and contemporary examples, the text explores how atmo-Orientalism has been used to justify discriminatory practices against Asians, particularly Chinese immigrants.
Hsuan L. Hsu examines how both medical and literary representations of Asians have contributed to the construction of their odors as inherently threatening and unhygienic.
Hsu then shifts the focus to Asian diasporic artists who challenge atmo-Orientalism by utilizing scent as a tool for disrupting the racialized perception of smell.
The chapter concludes by highlighting the broader implications of atmospheric reading, suggesting that it offers a vital approach for understanding how race, environment, and sensory experience intersect.
“Because smells must enter and transform the body in order to be perceived, they have histori- cally figured prominently in discourses of environmental health: even common culinary odors “become part of grids that speak to issues of hygiene, disgust, and aspirations.” “ (113)
“As a strategy for producing space, atmo-orientalism both orchestrates and disavows the dispersed, atmospheric materiality of racism—its capacity to be embodied not just in physiognomic or genetic terms but through the ways in which geographically differentiated atmospheres enter and chemically transform racialized bodies.” (116)
MLA CITATION: Hsu, Hsuan L. “Atmo-Orientalism: Olfactory Racialization and Environmental Health.” _The Smell of Risk_. United States: NYU Press, 2020. 113–151.
Perfumery Disoriented, Part 2 - Clement Paradis
Drawing on Edward Said’s influential work, this article delves into the history of Orientalism to demonstrate how this perspective was used to define and justify the domination of Eastern cultures by the West. The text examines how this ideology permeated the perfume industry, influencing the development of scents like Guerlain's Shalimar, and how it continues to impact the industry today.
“Orientalists” have never considered it their duty to give voice to the foreigners they observed: They focused on reporting on their situation from their Western point of view and tried to “domesticate”exoticism.
MLA CITATION: Paradis, Clement. Perfumery disoriented, part 2: Orientalism & colonial aesthetics. _The Olfactory Cultural_ Movement. July, 2022.
GUCCI ''Gucci Oud'' (2014)
Description reads: ''Inspired by journeys to exotic lands, the new Gucci Oud fragrance features an inventive blend of traditional Eastern ingredients. Natural oud is tempered with pear, raspberry and saffron along with other evocative essences for a sensual and modern fragrance, for him as well as for her.''
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmVQdYlvCv0
For any further texts on the topic of FRAGRANCE, please feel free to email it to barbara@enscitatis.com with in the subject: FRAGRANCE