Scent and Trans Identity
Over the years, as a nonbinary person utterly obsessed with scents, I’ve had and heard countless questions about scent’s role in queer experience. Things like: “Why does body odor change during hormone therapy?” “What perfumes do different drag performers wear?” “Can certain scents help someone pass or feel more affirmed in their gender?” I’ve shared anecdotal insights from my own experiences, but I’ve always wished for more concrete, aggregated evidence to point to. That’s why, when I stumbled upon this article via an Instagram post from Minetta Rogers (Director of Programs at the Institute for Art and Olfaction), I was elated. Finally, people are putting words and formalizing research to back up what so many of us have felt intuitively!
In this post, I’ll break down the key findings in Gwyn Easterbrook-Smith’s ““I’ve adopted it as my smell”: transgender identity and the olfactory,” weave in my personal reflections on scent and gender, and share some fragrance recommendations that have been my own “emotional armor.”
Easterbrook-Smith’s research draws from 26 semi-structured interviews with transgender, nonbinary, and gender-diverse people living in New Zealand and Australia.
The interviews explored broad themes around smell and identity, namely
transgender people’s use of and feelings about scented products, including perfumes
transgender people’s feelings about smell in the environments they occupy
if transgender people’s sense of smell, sensitivity to smell, and their own smell changed during the process of transition
This paper chose to hone in on the first and details
smell and scent as an early experience of gender affirmation or gender expansive feeling
scent as something which is used to induce a feeling of gender affirmation
fragrance as something chosen deliberately for what it conveys about identity
fragrance and smell as part of a suite of tactics to manage or minimize experiences of misgendering
The core finding? Scent plays a pivotal role in the “rituals of transition,” as the author puts it, echoing broader anthropological ideas about olfaction in life changes. Participants viewed smell as a form of non-verbal communication—to proclaim, claim, or subvert gender expectations. It’s a “productive site of identity negotiation, performance, and affirmation,” often serving as emotional armor against the world.
Early Exploration
Many recalled childhood or adolescent encounters with deodorants, body sprays, or colognes that felt significant before they had language for their identity. These weren’t always intentional but later stood out as early signs of gender expansiveness.
Personal Affirmation
Scent became part of daily rituals to feel aligned. Participants switched fragrances during transition, often choosing ones marketed to their affirmed gender for comfort and congruence. Over time, needs shifted and early reliance on strongly gendered scents gave way to more personal, nuanced choices.
Communicating Identity
Fragrance was used deliberately to signal gender to others, sometimes to avoid misgendering. In unsafe spaces, participants adhered to norms, and in supportive ones, they experimented. Scent offered control when visual presentation wasn’t enough.
Emotional Armor
Beyond gender, fragrance served as a mood regulator, calming anxiety, boosting confidence, or embodying a mindset. It was a private act of self-possession in a world that often demands explanation.
Trans studies have been occulocentric, focused on the visual (appearance, clothing, voice). This work highlights the olfactory as a neglected but vital dimension of trans experience. Scent is intimate, transient, and non-verbal, perfect for identity work that’s both deeply personal and socially legible.
On my own gender journey, I’ve had plenty of run-ins with the rigidly gendered marketing of scented products. It’s exhausting. Early on, I clashed aggresively with these binaries. To this day, I stick with Head & Shoulders dandruff shampoo because it’s not marketed to any specific gender; it is practical and neutral, like me. These choices feel like small acts of resistance.
A big reason I love independent perfumers is their rejection of department-store gender norms. Brands like Fischersund, FZOTIC, and Zoologist make perfumes, period. No pink bottles for “her,” just artful compositions. If you like it, wear it. This affirms my nonbinary identity. I see gender as a social construct, a system imposed on us rather than an inherent truth. (That’s just me, though. For many people I love, gender is deeply real and affirming.)
It took time, but I started using fragrance like the study’s participants: as emotional armor, a way to embody a mindset or transport myself. We all do this to some extent, but for those of us navigating gender, it can be especially potent.
Here are the fragrances on my shelf that this is particularly true for.
When I am feeling anxious, when I need to remember who I am to my core, I wear Benamôr’s Figo Fogo.
When I want to feel grounded, or connected with nature, I wear Fischersund’s Flotholt.
When I want to encourage myself to write, when I get a tattoo, or sometimes, when going to see a dark film, I will wear FZOTIC’s LAMPBLACK.
Whenever I want to lean into my alien nature, allowing my self to wonder beyond my human form, I will wear Parallax Olfactory’s Nimbis.
When feeling the depths of winter’s embrace and the S.A.D. that comes with it, I reach for Jorum Studio’s Paradisi,
And there are a few scents that have felt just very me recently- Scents of Wood’s Hinoki in Hinoki, January Scent Project’s Northern Flicker, and Xinú’s Ummo.
I’m curious: What are your fragrance armors? Have you had moments of gender exploration, affirmation, or even conflict through scent? Whether it’s a childhood memory of sneaking your dad’s aftershave or finding a unisex perfume that finally felt right, I’d love to hear in the comments.
And regardless of where you are on your gender journey, my advice? Wear what you like. Marketers be damned. If you like it, if it resonates, if it smells good to you, you’re the perfect person for it. The end.
References
Easterbrook-Smith, G. 2024. “‘Boy smell’: Transgender and Nonbinary people’s Experiences of Bodily Smell.” Culture, Health & Sexuality [Online first]: 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2024. 2379871 .
Graham, M. 2006. “Queer Smells: Fragrances of Late Capitalism or Scents of Subversion?” In The Smell Culture Reader, edited by J. Drobnick, 305–219. 1st ed. London: Routledge
Gwyn Easterbrook-Smith (2025) “I’ve adopted it as my smell”: transgender identity and the olfactory, The Senses and Society, 20:1, 49-61, DOI: 10.1080/17458927.2025.2453326
Howes, D. 1987. “Olfaction and Transition: An Essay on the Ritual Uses of Smell.” Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue Canadienne de Sociologie 24 (3): 398–416. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-618X. 1987.tb01103.x
Kjellmer, V. 2021. “Scented Bodies: Perfuming as Resistance and a Subversive Identity Statement.” In Olfactory Art and the Political in an Age of Resistance, edited by G.-A. Lynn and D. R. Parr. London and New York: Routledge.
Le Breton, D. 2017. “Scents of Self and Other: Smell, the Sense of Transition.” In Sensing the World, edited by D. Le Breton. London: Routledge.
I love the list of scents and circumstances at the end. My own use of fragrance has yet to evolve beyond "I want to wear a scent today."
Love this