When the MAGA fashion police decide you’re a faggot

I was walking across a Menard’s parking lot a couple of months before the 2016 election when a car swerved toward me as if to run me down. It was a fortyish white guy in a white Buick with a red Trump bumper sticker. He got so close I could see the McDonald’s cup in […]

Zoologist Perfumes: animal subjectivity and empathetic imagination

Because, for most people, perfume is mainly about smelling good, niche perfumes — those that, by definition, do not aim to be pleasing to the masses — can be confounding. How, in God’s name, could anyone want to smell like a bat’s cave, oily rubber, or, gasp, a slightly warm armpit encased in a leather […]

My old dog’s nose: On equanimity and aging

My two hound mixes have been dead for a couple of years now, and all I’m left with is this terrier-chihuahua something-or-other who occasionally looks more like a cartoon rendering than an actual dog. Battle-scarred, bug-eyed, and half-deaf, she’s adapted over the years by pushing more and more of her consciousness into her nose. And […]

Chanel no. 5 and our aspirational, fantasy selves

People like to say that Chanel no. 5 is an iconic perfume, but it is so much more than that. Not only is it a consumer superstar and a genuinely interesting fragrance, its cultural associations with history, elitism, and a very particular version of femininity mark it as a watershed creation no matter how you […]

“Granny perfumes”: Real talk about casual ageism

It is difficult to read any perfume review thread, especially one discussing a floral or aldehydic fragrance, without some commenter pulling the “granny smell” ripcord and floating blithely away from the discussion. Some actual examples: “Dude, you are nuts! This isn’t masculine at all. It’s an old grandma scent that I would never, ever wear.” […]

Queer style and aesthetic mindfulness: Breaking the habit of being ourselves

When I was a kid, Alvin was a dog in my neighborhood with an underbite and a pushed-in snout. Mostly soft gray, but with wiry patches of whisker-like black fur sprouting up here and there, everyone agreed that this dog was ugly. Everyone, that is, except Alvin, who wandered from house to house with the […]

Sod off! The feminist frumpiness of Vera Stanhope

The Ann Cleeves character, Vera Stanhope, wears thick walking sandals, no makeup, and is generally unafraid to take up space. A British police inspector from a shady working class background — her father was a sort of thief — Vera has no husband, no children, and no lover. She eschews aerobics and yoga and “fitness […]