Gender Smells

The other day, I was talking to some corker friends. We were talking about different scents of different things (we work in the food catering business). Eventually, we ended up on the topic of perfumes and colognes. I shared that I got an cologne sample in the mail as a complimentary gift after I placed an order. "It smells so good, but I don't have anyone to give it to! I'm going to spray it on an oversized sweatshirt and wear it myself. People will think it's my boyfriend's." My opinionated coworker expressed how creepy and absurd he found my ingenius idea. He proceeded to tell me I neede to just get a boyfriend if I like men's colognes so much.
   This took my mind on an interesting journey. One of the first questions that came to mind was "What's wrong with me? Why do I prefer some colognes over many selections of perfumes?" As a result of my confusion, I did some informal research. I asked some other girlfriends of mine and discovered I was not alone. Is this a coincidence? Is it a marketing technique supported by society? Why do men's cologne advertisements appeal to females or promise success with the ladies if men wear a certain cologne? Furthermore, why are so many female fragrances based around food, while many male colognes are woodsy and outdoors? Is this a ploy to make women smell like they've been cooking? Who's to say men like to be/ smell like the outdoors?
   In Judith Lorber's article "Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender" she states the following: "In the social construction of gender, it does not matter what men and women actually do; it does not even matter if they do exactly the same thing. The social institution of gender insists only that what they do is perceived as different." So do scents fall under this category? Do men and women have to smell differently simply to differentiate between genders? What would happen if we all simply selected our preferred fragrances based on what we like, as opposed to the gender to which they are assigned?