J.P Gaultier - Fleur de Male

Masculinity and femininity isn´t that easy, I guess there are as many opinions on what is what that there are humans. What I consider to be really masculin can be super-feminin some other place (or time). Stereotype gender-etiquettes have changes during time and doesn´t look the same now, as for 25 years ago. Of course the differences is also big between different cultures and different age groups.


Of course this male/female thinking is common with perfumes as well. Ages ago someone -in Europe- come up with the idea that man and women should smell different. This gender diversion has been followed quite well-behaved since the, at least until the last 15-20 years. I´m not at all immune about it, I also test perfumes that I discover to be much to masculin for me to wear (or even like). But, I also think it´s totally OK if other women would like to wear those scents. Of course also all men that likes it, can wear perfumes that to my nose are super-feminin.


And the we got all those scents that are marketed at unisex, some of them are "really" unisex, but I also find a lot of them leaning a little to one side or the other. And there are also supposedly male scents, that i find to be much more feminine and the other way around too...


J.P Gaultiers scents, but also his design, has often some gender bender features. I know of a lot of women that borrows from Le Male, or even own their own bottle of it. And I guess Fleur de male also is popular with many women... but I wonder if it´s really as popular with the men?


I don´t think of Fleur de Male as unisex, it is much to sexy for being genderless (many unisex scents lack that sexappeal for some reason). Fleur de Male is rather something that got a little too much of the good things, rather than to little. Maybe, like Hermes and Aphrodite´s hermaphrodite child, Hermaphroditus, the human (or god) that gave name to all the hermaphrodites, people born with imponderable gender belonging.


Fleur de Male isn´t without amsculin features, no it has a aromatic and herby notes with some briskness that i find masculin, at the same time it has creamy and powdery notes that I think of as feminine. But the floral notes in Fleur de Male is quite gender neutral in my opinion. Fleur de Male makes me happy, and since I bought it in Norrköping I have worn it much more then I expect. Somehow it is very appropriate in this hot and dry weather we experience now.


Fleur de male makes me think about almost dry late summer flowerbeds with aromatic herbs, dry lawns, sun and heath and a beautful person all dressed in wide, white summer clothes. A women in linen costume or a man in shining white Arabian burnus maybe?


Fleur de Male has similarites to Xerjoff´s Oesel, Fleur de Male is a good substitute until I saved up for my own bottle of Oesel. They have that subtle, discrete masculinity in common and also the floral notes, but Fleur de Male is dryer and more herby, while Oesel is creamier and sweeter, also with a woody base, that Fleur de male don´t have. But there is, more similarites than there isn´t.


My Fleur de male is an eau de toilette, but much stronger than many eau de parfums and the sillage is more than good also. My husband also likes it, usually he don´t care if perfumes are considered unisex or feminine, he wears most of the things I spray him with.


Do you have any favorite scent, that actually belong on the male shelf? Or the other way around if you´re a guy? Maybe you´re one of those that never would dream about wearing a scent supposed for men? Or do you belive that this whole gender thing with perfumes is un-interesting and old fashioned?






Pic: Wikipedia, Hermaphroditus, Louvre