So I was watching TV the other day and saw this commercial for Gillette’s new razor for men to shave off their body hair. The announcer is trying to find out what women want, so he asks some models at a pool party. We learn that one chick prefers a hairless stomach so she can see the man’s six-pack, another favors completely hairless men, etc. Then we see close-ups of a man’s body in the shower as he shaves off that unsightly body hair. You can check it out on YouTube.
The commercial left me feeling a little downtrodden, a little disappointed in modern men. Instead of being in a dominant position, or even in an equal partnership with women, the commercial implies that men are now the subservient gender, forced to bend to the whims of empowered women. It seems as if men are the new women.
If the dominant female doesn’t like body hair, the well-trained, submissive male must go in the shower and shave it off. And he’d better maintain that smooth look if he knows what’s good for him.
I worry for the young guys coming of age in our post-feminist, female dominated, sissified culture. How will they live with themselves now that women expect to be in the power position, to dictate what he wears, what he watches on television, even whether he may grow body hair or not? Good luck, fellas.
One last bastion of masculinity in our society where men can turn for presentations of masculinity is pro wrestling. Over the past century, pro wrestling has served to model for modern men the ideals of manhood: strength, courage, aggression, muscles, and yes, body hair.
Traditionally, men were supposed to be hairy. Chest hair was the hallmark of masculinity. In the 1970’s, men would unbutton about 5 buttons and flaunt that fur, even at work. The ideal guys were Burt Reynolds and Lee Majors who were all about the chest hair. And most pro wrestlers were proudly ungroomed as well.
Maybe it was the rise of feminism or maybe it was changing tastes, but somewhere in the 1980’s, body hair became inappropriate on wrestlers and later, on men in general. Wrestlers like Rick Rude and Paul Orndorff, who started their careers with the natural look, were suddenly smooth. And now special razors are being invented to help men maintain that smooth-as-a-teen look.
But I’m pleased to be seeing some backlash against this emasculation of men — the forced shearing of our bodies like lambs. Some angry comments posted under the Gillette commercial have a liberating tone, espousing the autonomy of men, the ability of the empowered male to grow all the body hair he wants to. You go, boy!
And we’re starting to see the more manly look on certain wrestlers again. Antonio Cesaro, for example, just drips with testosterone and machismo with his hairy arms, chest, and face. Is this meant to be a reference to old timey pro wrestling, or is this a sign of things to come, a re-birth of masculine pride?
And I am not asking for every wrestler to look like a Yeti. What I like to see, as a wrestling fan, is diversity among the bodies. That helps to tell an interesting story. Give us some hairy brutes mixed in with the smooth pretty-boys. Let each wrestler decide if he wants to flaunt his sexy masculinity, or to shave it all off to appear prettier and younger.
When Scott Hall and Sean Michaels were tag team partners, they looked like a married couple. Scott (the husband) was so much larger and hairier compared to young Sean (the wife). This dynamic of man-and-wife played out in their matches as well, when Sean would portray the Damsel in Distress, and big daddy Scott would rush in to rescue him. Later in his career, Sean would adopt a more masculine appearance for his “Sexy Boy” gimmick.
So I guess the moral of this rant is for each man to Man Up and own his body — decide for himself what to look like. It is the contrasts in appearances that makes pro wrestling interesting. And when a brute gets in the ring with a smooth pretty boy, well that just does all kinds of things in my brain!
