Interesting theory, Portia.Portia wrote:I was thinking about this, and I think Vorps has the wrong dichotomy. I don't think men who shave their legs look like women--that's silly. They do, however, look more like little boys, perhaps. I wouldn't think a guy who shaved his legs was a future transvestite, necessarily, but I might wonder why he felt the need to revert to a pre-pubescent state. Even when men shave their faces, it's nice to be able to tell that they at least have something to shave--I don't find a complete lack of male body hair to be attractive at all.
I think male movie stars, and the like, have trended towards a more "little boy" look of late: Michael Cera or Matt Damon seem to be current paragons of male attractiveness, versus the more mature looks, say, Charlton Heston or Humphrey Bogart. Even men's voices somehow sound different in older films.
So I think Mr. Blade is making up this feminization phenomenon, but I do think the zeitgeist might trend towards youth at best and immaturity at worst. I would see excessive removal of body hair as a rejection of manhood, not in favor of femininity, but in favor of boyhood. And that's not particularly attractive to me, though it might be to others. I would want a masculine, mature man, and surely mad baking and housework skills, and a rejection of the sexist, lumberjack mentality, can be compatible with that. I do, however, wonder at the infantilization of some men, who have the emotional maturity of young teens (I've met and even dated such specimens), or who, as was discussed in another thread, feel "threatened" by smart, accomplished women.
Maybe it just comes down to more men needing to wear fedoras these days.
I’d just like to point out that reverting to pre-pubescent state is still feminizing men. I’m told that women can dress up or disguise themselves to act like men. Such actresses don’t have near as much trouble playing the part of a very young or very old man as they do when they try to play the part of a man in the prime of his manhood. Youth look and act more feminine than grown men.
In my family we have talked about the “little boy†or feminine look of popular male actors today. My youngest daughter is strongly attracted to Orlando Bloom. To me he looks effeminate. I haven’t seen the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but I understand they worked hard to make him look more masculine. Yet lots of young girls like that feminine look these days.
My next to youngest daughter prefers the more rugged and manly actors, like John Wayne in his earliest movies. Charlton Heston and Humphrey Bogart are in the same class as John Wayne. We watch a lot of old movies. Can you imagine John Wayne saying he shaves his legs “because it feels amazing on the bedsheets. Hoo doggie. It's also much cooler in the summer; most of us guys with year-round hairy legs don't grasp how much climate control is actually involved here, but it makes a big difference.†I can’t even imagine Orlando Bloom saying it, but it seems more likely than John Wayne. But that’s just me, and probably millions of others.
I can’t claim to have been the first to comment on the feminization of America. I don’t think your theory is much different from mine.
