Recently, I re-discovered Barbara Kruger’s “Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground)” created for the 1989 March for Women’s Lives In Washington D.C. This iconic protest art is as relevant today as it was then.

After 50 years of legal protection for reproductive rights after Roe v Wade, these protections were nullified with the 2022 Dobbs decision. This has resulted in many states outlawing women’s right to choose. Amidst these setbacks, the specter of growing contempt for women reared its ugly head again after the shocking case in France of Gisele Pelicot. Police discovered that Pelicot’s husband, over the span of a decade, routinely drugged her and invited strangers to join him in raping her. These men defended their actions, saying that they assumed her husband could grant them permission for such acts.

I have created two perfumes to use the art of scent—and its power to provoke our deepest emotions— to speak out against a culture that allows men to control women’s bodies without their consent. I hope that wearing these perfumes can provide a sense of both empowerment and security.

Armor
Armor captures the sentiment of Barbara Kruger’s “Battleground” piece with its gathering dark and foreboding aromas which represent the forces of misogyny. Over time, the axis shifts from aromas of threat to a bucolic garden of citrus, fruits and blooms that offer strength, protection and liberating power. Perfume writer Alex Musgrave, says of this perfume: “Women are not vessels to be hurled to a masculine floor and shattered. Fragrance can be a beautiful armor.”

Sanctuary
Alex Musgrave notes that the power and disturbed beauty of Sanctuary lies in its “smells and dreams of longing, an odd bitterness of feeling trapped in a life that has slowly, corrosively taken you captive.” Slowly being taken captive is how it can feel to lose gender equality, reproductive rights and body autonomy. For many, pregnancy has become dangerous, as doctors fear treating emergency miscarriages in states where abortion is illegal. Likewise, Gisele Pelicot awoke from years of being abused by her husband to see the horrors that had occurred while she was unwittingly held captive. This fragrance is intimate and spectral. It speaks of pollen and flowers, rich fruits, and moist greenery. Streaked like a watercolor painting, its beauty is akin to opening a window in spring. It offers calm and quiet, creating a protective sanctuary to heal and survive.

Photography by Alex Musgrave, an Edinburgh based writer, specializing in perfume. He writes about poetry, love and desire in scent. He is also a visual artist.