Perfume: an alluring mask of deceit
The incredible inequality of the sexes is revealed in this week’s reading of the Aroma of righteousness by Deborah Green. It is not only that women are not equal to men but that women are practically a different species. According to R. Joshua, the Bible states that Adam was created from the earth while Eve was created from the bone. Therefore, women slowly decay over time and must cover up their putrid smell by using different unguents (137). Throughout this chapter, Green gives instances in which women would purposefully adorn themselves or their garments with perfume. It was believed that the women used the smell of spice to keep their husbands interested for the forty years of wandering through the desert (136). It is as if the only reason to keep a woman around is to entice her husband to have sex with her and that she has no other purpose or used expect to take care of the resultant children. Green also mentions several times how it was Eve who sinned and got Adam kicked o...