The perfume in the relationship to the other
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For once, I would introduce this article with a personal anecdote. The other morning, while getting ready in the bathroom, I doused myself in the next scent from the heritage line. You should know that I wear very little perfume on a daily basis in order to avoid polluting my nose for the rest of the day. Shoemakers are always the worst shod. Anyway, the moment I came out of the bathroom, my girlfriend, after telling me that I smelled good, VIOLET obliges, asked me if I had any appointments that day there and if I saw people. This question left me in awe. For her, perfume necessarily rhymed with interaction. Why is perfume so associated with the relationship with others?
Perfume is a language.
Perfume is a language.
As with our clothing, perfume says a lot about our personality, who we are or what we aspire to be. Choosing a perfume is choosing a garment, we engage in a silent conversation with the one who sees, the one who smells.
Perfume, a weapon of massive seduction
It is not trivial if in the collective unconscious, the femme fatale and luscious wears a captivating and captivating perfume and the virile man of the woods smells of animal perspiration and forest fire. Would these two shots on legs be as fantasized if one smelled of wilted flowers and the other of ibex? Perfume has a sexual connotation, that's a fact. For Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for example, perfume stimulates our deepest desires. Advertisements for the past sixty years have just made sure it's never forgotten.
The perfume influences the other.
Be careful, even if we are talking about minimal influence here, we must not neglect the “power of perfume”. In many cases, perfume has the power to tip the scales in its favor or against it. For example, a scent familiar and appreciated by the interlocutor immediately makes the interaction easier. The article in the international journal of social psychology entitled " Perfume. When a candidate's smell affects the recruiter... or not: a question of determinability" perfectly explains the power of perfumes on those around him (Link at the end of the article).
Perfume hides our animal part from others.
Modern man deviates a little more each day from his nature. But his smell is there to call him to order. Because human body odor is one of the strongest in the animal kingdom. who had it believed ? We secrete far more volatile organic materials than most species. Hiding your smells has become a cultural and societal issue. It is a means of showing civility as already underlined at the time Theophrastus, the pupil of Aristotle.
Perfume is a social marker, a distinction.
Scent is, to a certain extent, a means of recognizing oneself in a group. Wearing this or that perfume will undeniably categorize you. It would be a shame to cite brands so I will take an example that is both general and unfortunately outdated; wearing a patchouli perfume in the 70s and 80s was a sign of belonging to the hippie movement.
Ultimately, for all its reasons, perfume is an undeniable social binder. It engages and arouses. Wearing perfume will never be a trivial act and whether we like it or not, the other will necessarily read a message there. You can wear perfume for yourself as you can dress first for yourself, but it's always in the gaze of the other that your image is built. It's like that. Keep wearing what you like and you will only be appreciated for who you are. It's all that matters.
Finally, to answer my girlfriend's question, it turns out that that day, I did have a date.
Finally, to answer my girlfriend's question, it turns out that that day, I did have a date.
