Real Men Are Not Afraid To Smell Like Women

By Chiagoziem Onyekwena

There’s no such thing as a separate perfume for men and another type for women, many fragrance connoisseurs would tell you. They’d argue that its hogwash, a mere marketing strategy devised by fragrance companies to cleverly avoid bruising the egos of the most virile of men and appease the most feminine of women.  Besides, they’d add, that way cosmetic companies could also triple their profits by selling masculine and feminine scents separately, and then turn around to launch attacks on our combined pockets with unisex ones. But  be thou not deceived, they are all one and the same thing!

So I guess what that means is that I can actually reach into my significant other’s drawer early in the morning, a little dab here and there of her favourite cologne – and mine- and I’m good to go for that all important board meeting. No?

But let’s not forget that the reasons men love a particular perfume can never be the same reason the women do. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly love the way it smells on her, in fact I love it so much that I wouldn’t mind unearthing a few layers of her clothes just to get a better ‘view’ of the scent. But on the other hand, she’s probably into it more because it helps her accentuate her Oprah and Funmi Iyanda-inspired ‘femininity’. Our motives couldn’t be more dissimilar.

So what if we played a little game called ‘Reverse the Scent’? It’s really simple, your girlfriend or wife wears your masculine concoction of musk and sandalwood, and you in turn put on her alluring blend of spices and citrus. I’m curious to find out if there’ll still be that energy, that sexual tension that normally resonates in the room when you two embrace or would it feel more like a same sex bonding, bone to bone if you will? Let’s not forget about the neutral onlooker; in a deeply homophobic society like ours, how would you react if I walked past you in the middle of the street smelling like a bunch of flowers?

Scientists point out however that there is actually no difference between the ways the human nose would react to fragrances labelled ‘Pour Homme’ and those labelled other wise. This observation then begs the question, what if your boo couldn’t find the time and/or the finances to get you a lovely perfume for Christmas and she gives you one of her very own brand new, un-puffed bottles instead?

Would you embrace your feminine side and take it, or is that just way too much yuletide zest for one straight guy to handle?