Aromatherapy and the Mixed Blessing of Feminization

ABSTRACT

Aromatherapy is a complementary and alternative medicine practice with several distinct lineages and with some uncertainty about the most appropriate way to professionalize. The historical feminization of smell and perfumes means that aromatherapy is culturally marked as a “feminized” practice. This feminization is a mixed blessing in relation to aromatherapy's attempts to advance itself as a discipline. While for many practitioners and clients the traditionally feminized associations of smell, such as its connections to emotions, memory, and the unconscious, serve as a source of value, for others, feminized languages and practices stand in the way of aromatherapy's advancement as a scientifically validated discipline.