Beauty up was one of the more interesting articles that we have read in this class, mostly due to its cultural differences and the beautification of the male body. The idea of body hair removal in “The Political Economy of Choice” is very directly related to everything mentioned in “Beauty Up,”
In japan, I honestly think that body hair and sleekness is a much bigger deal than it is here in the United States, and being somebody who lives in the US, I think it would be interested to see all of those surveys done here about mens body hair and feminization/beautification techniques. I sent out a few texts to girls from different areas of America. One to a girl in California, one to a girl in Connecticut, and one girl from Massachusetts. Here are a few of the replies in regards to body hair:
“I guess it really just kind of depends on the amount. A little bit in the right places can be sexy, but I don’t think I could ever be attracted to somebody who had tons and tons of body hair, even if they were really good looking.”
“It would be weird if guys didn’t have leg hair or armpit hair. Chest hair is ok if its only a little bit, and sometimes a happy trail can be hot. But I would be turned off if a guy shaved his armpits or his legs. Not because having hair there is sexy...it would just be weird if they did something to get rid of it entirely.”
“Body hair on anyone is just pretty gross. As long as I don’t notice it then its probably not too much, but visible body hair just doesn’t look good. Except on the regular places, like legs and head and arms. I guess a little scruffy beard can look good on some guys, but anything more...I don’t know. I just couldn't get into it.”
Hearing their responses, it was interesting to me that the article didn’t delve too deeply into the amount of body hair, it talked only about the presence of it. According to the responses that I got, and the general vibe that I’ve gotten from living in America, quantity is everything. However, it seems that in Japan, it is either it is there or it is not. One or the other. Here in America, that idea is very different. It doesn’t matter where in America you live, it seems that for teenage girls at least, body hair is a huge factor in attractiveness.
In terms of the beautification of the male body, there aren’t many girls out there that are going to say they don’t like it when a guy tries to look good. Nice clothes, good hair, an athletic body, and a clean cut look go a very long way these days. Guys who don’t even play sports hit the gym just so that they can build up the bodies that they see advertised everywhere. Axe, a company that focuses entirely on manly beautification, sells countless hair products and deodorants that attempt to make male beautification less feminine and more masculine. Because of the image that the company projects, their beautification is engineered more towards heterosexual males.
The same goes for clothes. A polo button down that has the logo on the chest will be considered more manly than a button down that looks exactly the same but says Marc Jacobs on the chest. (I don’t know what the Marc Jacobs logo is, I’m sure they don’t write the name of their company on their button downs, but you get the point.) What the company represents is a huge factor in how manly their beautification method is, regardless of the product.
Miss Representation talked a lot about this phenomenon of advertising and beauty and how linked the two things are. With frightening stats like 78% of girls are unhappy with their bodies at age 17, and 68% of women have some sort of eating disorder, it might be time for advertising to reconsider how they are portraying women and how that is affecting self-esteem along with health. It is safe to say that it is not natural to feel bad about yourself to this extreme. There is no way that 78 percent of women are born self conscious and uncomfortable with their bodies and appearance: that comes from society and pressure from outside sources.
These ideas are reflected in “The Political Economy of Choice.” Obviously if guys didn’t care about women’s pubic hair...then women wouldn’t do anything to change that. However, the extent that it has reached and the lengths that women will go to to get rid of pubic hair has gotten extreme, and in some cases of waxing, dangerous. So, this begs the question: why do something so incredibly painful to yourself for something that you don’t even get any pleasure out of? The answer of course, as it is to pretty much every topic that we will ever cover in sociology, is sex. Women’s pubic hair and sex in todays modern age are not something that generally go together, but that is very cultural and obviously has its exceptions. In America, however, waxing is huge. I don’t know if we are in a place to say that it is morally wrong, for these women to be hurting themselves to please men and society, but I do know that if I was a girl, I would absolutely resent the amount of pressure that there is to do it.
In response to what Zael said about the way girls feel about body hair on men, I would say that I don’t think too much about it very often. Yet, I think it is natural for guys to have body hair, and what I might find more or less attractive is just based on my personal preference, not what I perceive as unnatural or gross. I probably would not be as attracted to a guy if I knew he shaved his legs, arms, or armpits, because I feel as though those are the places on the body where men are meant to have or most likely choose to keep their body hair. It is what I am used to and what society has defined as the norm. I feel that the chest and face for example, are more of an optional area of the body for where men decide to either shave or not, and whichever option they choose is completely accepted and normal. I personally, would probably not prefer a man with chest hair or a beard, because I don’t necessarily find those qualities attractive, but it is not as if men who choose to keep hair there absolutely disgust me. I don’t think of men as having much pressure to look a certain way, besides the feeling of competition among friends, yet they do, but to less of an extreme. Zael also talks about the extreme pressure that women and young girls feel from the media and the percent of women who suffere from eating disorders. It is true how affected girls are by the idea that they need to look a certain way. I know quite a lot of girls, some my friends, who have struggled with eating disorders and it is incredibly sad. The thought process those with eating disorders have is one that is unfathomable and truly sad, and in many cases it is all due to the media and what society puts out there as ideal.
ReplyDelete-Charlotte Sargent
Zael, I really enjoyed reading your response to these articles and the movie. Not only because it was from a man’s point of view, but because of all the outside information you included. When I read those different texts from different girls, I could relate to them. Male beautification may be big in Japan, but I do not think that the same things are happening in America. Personally, I would rather a man have hair in all the right places. It shows that he’s manly enough to be totally comfortable with his own body. As for the girls, I think that we can do whatever we want to make us happy. But in the end, when you’re married and living with the one you love, your spouse is not going to care if you wax, shave or trim. Therefore all this hype about hair removal and intense beauty regimens seems ridiculous. And as you said in your article Zael, « there is no way that 78 percent of women are born self conscious and uncomfortable with their bodies and appearance”. We all need to learn to be more comfortable with our bodies.
ReplyDeleteKelsey Warkentin
I found it very interesting to hear what your friends had to say about male body hair. The only opinion I've ever had on it was that the only hair a man should remove is from his head- top of head or face. I don't find it attractive for a guy to do anything of that sort because I see a hairless body as a feminine one. I know this is a bad view to have, but that's just how I've always seen it.
ReplyDeleteEarlier today, actually, when I mentioned to my boyfriend the articles we read, he told me that he had shaved his legs before (he swims). Even though I knew this was a common practice among swimmers, the thought of it made me wince. It's also come up with us before how he doesn't have a lot of chest hair- something he seems slightly embarrassed about. This to me, though, doesn't give me the same negative feeling that I would get had he removed his chest hair, so I guess its not the lack of hair that I dislike, but the removal.
In regards to what you had to say about MissRepresentation, it is DEFINITELY time for advertisers to reconsider how they are portraying women! This movie more than opened my eyes to the horrific way the media makes the world look at women. There's this whole idea that advertisers are just using what will get their products to sell, but then there's this line in the movie where one women is talking about how the 'media is just giving us what the people want' and how that is not true- 'the media creates consciousness.'
What bothers me most about everything the media does is what happens to boys and how they look at women in society due to these images and everything they hear. My little brother went through a phase not too long ago where he really enjoyed making 'in the kitchen' jokes, which I found to be absolutely disgusting. I shouldn't have been surprised, though, because one of his favorite websites was heavily featuring jokes like that and getting great responses.
-Natalie Bennett
DeleteAnna Grofik
ReplyDeleteIn this post, I agree that the girls’ responses would be typical of the U.S. opinion of male body hair because we don’t analyze or criticize it as much as female body hair. As Zael stated, women wouldn’t dislike a man for taking care of his appearance, but I think that most women would draw the line when men start to partake in female related beauty practices such as waxing or wearing makeup, as mentioned in the “Beauty Up” article. I agree with Zael in the prevalence of heterosexual directed male beauty ads. The ad usually gives the message that the man isn’t enjoying the beauty modification, but enjoying the fact that he’ll gain female approval, which makes the product appealing. In addition, this post’s discussion of “The Political Economy of Choice” offers an evident truth that women wouldn’t feel the need to modify themselves if they weren’t seeking male approval. If a practice such as genital waxing wasn’t so commonplace and expected as it is now then no one would feel the need to do it.
I agree with Zael that the idea of male beauty in Japan is completely opposite from the idea of male beauty in America. Just like the girls that Zael texted, a little hair on a man is considered sexy and appealing towards women. Hair just makes men more manly and masculine in America. In Japan, hair has completely different connotations. Hair is considered dirty and sloppy for men in Japan. Being smooth, hairless, and clean cut is the ultimate desire. In America, these men might be considered feminine or gay. Zael makes an interesting point when it comes to female waxing. He acknowledges that it has become a societal norm for women not to have pubic hair, but then why don’t women resent men for this? I think that women have become desensitized to the reasoning behind hair removal. It is what it is.
ReplyDeleteI think the comments on men’s body hair that Zael, Charlotte, Kelsey, Natalie and Anna all bring up are interesting and I can relate to all of them! When I was reading through “Male Beauty Work” I was semi shocked to hear about all the different places men removed hair (eyebrows, legs, chest). Growing up, I was exposed to my father who worked outside in the dirt, built furniture and cared for animals; he was scruffy and manly and of course my first introduction to masculinity. All my other relatives and my older brother set the same standard. I remember being shocked when I went over my friend’s house for dinner and her father sat at the end of the table with a baby-smooth face in a shirt, tie, and with sleeked back hair. (Of course, this is another accepted ideal of American masculinity, but was not what I was brought up around.) It wasn’t that I saw masculinity as dirty, but more as really, really tough. That’s why, like Anna I would probably be ‘turned-off’ to the idea of a man being super involved in his appearance. If a boy took longer than me to get ready before going out I would be appalled. This has some serious deep-rooted sexism that I’m ashamed of—but it would be my honest first reaction! The more objectively I look at this, the more bizarre it comes. Why is it appalling for a boy to take serious time and effort in his appearance, but expected and almost necessary for girls? --Gracie
ReplyDeleteAnd I can relate to Sarah too!
ReplyDeleteTJ- Great post Zael. Having the girls texts was very interesting and I think most girls aagree with them. Having hair on legs and arms is acceptable, and a little on the chest is fine. Specifically with the chest and back the quantity of hair is the important part for guys. I also agree with the points on the button downs. It could be the same exact shirt, but I guarantee that if there is a polo symbol on one shirt and another symbol on the other one, people will like the polo one more. Certain companies just have the look that men are trying to attain because it's what we believe girls want.
ReplyDelete