From Ancient Rome to 304Tok: A brief history of scent and sex work

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A post on X asking for perfume recommendations to “smell like a French whore” recently went viral, garnering 50,000 likes and a flood of replies suggesting perfumes heavy with animalic notes and overpowering florals. While provocative, the idea isn’t new. The link between scent and sex work runs deep. In A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman notes how many slang terms for sex worker – like the Frenchhellip;read more raquo;