Men Cologne For Less

Jews and gays: Taking the road less travelled

When the remnant of European Jewry rose from the ashes of the Holocaust, its members confronted a world that either could not or would not comprehend the blind hatred that can spill out of the human heart.

It took years for the documents of the European genocide to be read by legalists and historians, and still more time for the wider public to absorb the enormity of the state-sanctioned murder of 6 million Jews and some 5 million non-Jews, whose victims included political dissidents, Poles, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roma ? and homosexuals.

The Nazi program to create a “master race” required the elimination of those who did not fit the racial or biological model. In the years leading up to the implementation of the Final Solution, the Nazis tested public opinion by euthanizing those deemed too physically or mentally infirm to be a part of the Great National Project. The term used by Nazis and their medical enablers for these victims was chilling: Lebens unswertes Lebens — “life unworthy of life.”

In trying to come to grips with the shared fate of two distinct peoples, it is imperative that Jews, the most numerous of the victimized communities, pay respect to the murder of gays and lesbians during the Nazi period. Our memories are but a small substitute for the unmarked graves of hatred’s victims.

There is a memorial to the gay and lesbian victims of Nazism in Cologne, Germany. It reads “Totgeschlagen — Totgeschwiegen” (Struck Dead — Hushed Up). To be silent is to condemn these men and women to a second death.

In 1935, the Nazi party passed the Nuremberg Laws to severely curtail the rights and freedoms of Jews. Less well known is that in the same year the Nazis broadened the scope of one section of the law by redefining the “crime” of homosexual acts between males as a felony and increasing the maximum penalty from six months to five years imprisonment.

The parallels between Jews and gays are remarkable. Just as the Nazis made acts of love and intimacy between men illegal, so too did they seek to isolate Jews in this most fundamental area of human existence. The first two sections of the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 made marriage between Jews and non-Jews illegal, adding extramarital relations as well.

Perhaps in some way the Nazis understood that before you could legalize hate, it is necessary to criminalize love. Between 1933 and 1945, as many as 100,000 men were arrested for the “crime” of homosexuality. It’s estimated that up to 15,000 were imprisoned in concentration camps, where as many as 60 per cent were murdered. Jews and gays wore the same striped uniforms, ate the same food, were worked to death together, subjected to medical experiments and marked with triangles (for what is a Star of David but two triangles?

Wear What You Like | That Smell

Maybe you’ve been around a bit and heard a few things surrounding the dos and don’ts of perfume. Maybe these things were pieces of well-meaning advice such as: “Men should wear cologne, perfume is for women”, or “This perfume is too old for your age”, or even “This perfume is too young for your age”. Some pieces of well-meaning advice but here’s the thing–there aren’t any hard fast rules about what you should or shouldn’t like when it comes to perfume.

I’ve seen a lot of men shy away from buying or wearing something labelled as “perfume” because they’re a man and men ought to be wearing cologne. There’s a funny bit of terminology twisting going on with regards to men cologne vs. women perfume. The truth is, if you look at this post , you’ll notice something. Cologne is less of a term used to describe a gender’s fragrance and more of a term used to describe the concentration of a fragrance. So it is with popular culture, I presume, that would insist people call men’s fragrances colognes and women’s fragrances perfumes. A bit of a dangerous tango because it makes people think that just because they’re a man, it’s inappropriate for them to enjoy something that isn’t labelled “pour homme” or “cologne”. I’ve also seen the opposite with women who were worried about wearing men’s cologne just because it wasn’t called perfume.

The truth is, it doesn’t matter. If something’s a “men’s cologne” and you’re a woman who happens to enjoy it, wear it and enjoy it. If you’re a man who enjoys “women’s perfume” then wear it and enjoy it too. By the way, you should not be ashamed of buying women’s perfume or men’s cologne if you happen to be the opposite gender. You like what you like, there’s no shame in enjoying a cologne or a perfume. It’s all about you and what makes you happy. That’s the whole point of fragrances, introducing this “men only” or “women only” garbage just muddles up something that should be fun and enjoyable.

I know I tend to indicate in my reviews if a perfume smells young, but don’t let something that smells young hinder you from enjoying or wearing it. “Young” is a label I personally use to describe a section of perfumes often enjoyed by teenagers. That doesn’t mean an adult couldn’t enjoy and wear them either. This also works in reverse with fragrances typically thought to be “too old” for someone.

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