Smells and Bells

Green’s subtle feminism throughout Aroma of Righteousness sparked many ideas in my head. In another course I’m taking, Psychology of Women, we recently discussed Freud’s “groundbreaking” psychological theories of women and girls being born with this innate “penis envy”, yes, penis envy. His theory proposes the idea that men are superior, and when girls get to an age when they realize that they do not have a penis, they realize their inferiority and are therefore envious. As a rebuttal to Freud’s prospections, psychoanalyst Karen Horney proposes that power inequalities, not biology, cause the psychological differences observed in girls and women and that there is more likely to be “Womb envy” present among men- an envy of women’s reproductive ability, which motivated men’s desire to dominate women. This made me think of the ways in which, throughout religion specifically, scent has been so heavily associated with women and their oh so evil seductiveness and sexuality. I get really confu...

Deborah Green's The Aroma of Righteousness elaborates on scents and their biblical origins and significance. In chapter three titled "Election and the Erotic: Biblical portrayals of Perfume and Incense", Green discusses the biblical origins and importance of rituals which inherently require and incorporate spices and incense. Two of which Green uses as examples are frankincense and myrrh. "The two spices that most often appear together in the text are frankincense and myrrh. Widespread use of these spices is well attested in the ancient world and long predates the Israelites. Egyptians used myrrh extensively for perfuming and embalming, while other civilizations, such as Mesopotamia, used myrrh for incense in cultic rituals, as a medicine, and as an ingredient in perfume."  The author explains that frankincense (or levonah) is associated with "white" since it is harvested in autumn when it is white in color. (Green 67). Myrrh derives fr...

Smelling Smells My Most Influential Sense  Out of all of the senses, I would say that my smell sense has the most influence. As mentioned in "A Natural History of Senses" by Diane Ackerman, olfactory is connected to our memories. When picking through my memories and trying to find the memory I'm looking for, its much easier to do if I smell something I associated with it, than have someone tell me about the memory verbally. Post my traumatic brain injury in 2013, smell has always been the best way for me to connect to the memories I don't consciously remember.  I have an oil diffuser in my dorm room, as i'm sure some of you also do. I have three oils that I rotate using to make my room smell good: orange citrus, eucalyptus, and "ocean breeze". Ocean Breeze is my favorite because rather than smelling like the salty air I associate with the ocean, it smells like clean, fresh out of the dryer laundry. I was disappointed at first, but grew to love...

Looking back into my childhood I remember my mother cooking dinner every night for my family, except for special occasions where we would order out. The most eventful outing would be when we ordered Chinese food and my father would ask if anyone wanted to come for the ride. I've always loved car rides with my dad, so I was always first to perk up and join him for the ride. There was nothing like sitting with the warm food in my lap and getting to pick at the food before anyone at home had their opportunity. We would spread it all out on the table and our family of six would devour it, but always leave just enough to save as leftovers. Chinese food was a common oder in our family as everyone loved picking their favorite foods for each box. One night when I was around 10 years old, I was sick in my bedroom that was only a staircase away from the kitchen. I kept myself tucked away and tried to keep myself as occupied as a sick 10 year old could be. This was one of the nights where ...

“You can’t pick out a fragrance for someone else.” That was what my mom told me in high school. It seemed to me that perfume was something all the grown-up women in my life used, so I figured it was time for me to get in on the action. I asked her if she would get me some perfume for my birthday and she refused. She told me that everyone has to pick their own fragrance. Perfume is generally a gift only received from a romantic partner because it is so intimate. Even then, a scent picked for you by someone else may never feel quite right because our scent is tied to our personality.  http://stylecaster.com/beauty/perfume-for-your-personality/ Scent is an incredibly intimate, personal sense. It starts with the simple nature of how it works; to smell someone, you must be close enough for their particles to reach your nose. There are very few people in one’s life that spend enough time in this close proximity to actually know someone else’s’ scent. We know the smells of lovers and ...

Deborah Green explained the importance of metaphor, simile, and metonym in describing scents, because of the connection with emotional reaction.   In the Song of Songs, she states, “we must assess the scent comparisons and even the emotions they may evoke, completely and on their own terms, however difficult this may be” (85).   The link between the words shemen (oil) and shem (name) is important as the name of the individual and fragrances are not mentioned, rather the words discuss flowing oil.   By using the word shemen, a metaphor is used to generate a connection between scented oil and the lover.   This metaphor also indicates that that both the name and fragrance of their lover’s perfume is pleasing.   By using scent, the woman is able to yearn for her lover when he is not present by recalling his perfume, indicating a seductive aspect to fragrance.   Scent becomes erotic through references to spices, flowers, and even vines, because they are used ...

Upon indulging my thoughts with the contents of,  Smell,  in "A Natural History of the Senses", I have been stuck with the image of thousands of colorful uniquely shaped molecules floating off of every surface around  me  and invading my nostrils. With such a variety of surfaces in almost every space, it is astonishing that one can possibly distinguish one smell from the next. However, I find it a rather disturbing that almost all manufactured products have been instilled with chemicals with the intention of slipping unconscious wants and desires into our daily lives. For example, as Diane Ackerman described, filling the air with the smell of pizza through the air conditioning of malls to make people want to eat food. Its the exact same idea as subliminal messaging, although it should be called "subliminal smelling" and its almost impossible for us to escape from. It appears our sense of smell, having once been so vital, allowing us to ...