Those unfashionable male chest hairs
Fausta notes the current trend towards men’s chests that are bulging with muscles and yet simultaneously as smooth as babies’ bottoms:
Why are young men waxing their chests? You look at any ads showing bare-chested men nowadays and there’s not one singe chest follicle on display.
True, all too true, although I can’t say I ever paid much attention to the phenomenon until Fausta did; young male models are rather out of my league these days.
But although the hairy back was never a sought-after commodity even in my youth, men used to want to have hairy chests. Or, rather, they used to not care so much whether they did or didn’t—certainly not enough to submit to the painful experience of waxing.
There’s a tremendous amount of variation in what’s considered normal in the male chest hair arena. Much of it is genetic; in my own family, for example, the males tend towards the hirsute. But in my love life, I can’t say I’ve been aware of any personal preference, and I’ve never really cared whether the man is virtually hairless or quite hairy.
But hey, my preferences (or lack thereof) apparently don’t dictate fashion. And so now, young men in the prime of life are busily stripping their chests of every last trace of body hair just to look good.
Oh, I know that swimmers have done it for decades in order to reduce drag. And body builders do it to enhance the shape of the muscles. But apparently the practice has spread from being the exclusive province of swimmers and bodybuilders to the male models and then to the movie stars and then to the young buff Joes on the street trying to attract the chicks.
Why? I’m never at a loss for theories, though, so I’ll offer up a few.
There’s been a growing trend towards male TV and movie stars who look boyish rather than manly. Leonardo DiCaprio is typical, a fine and wildly popular actor but a perennial babyface who appeared, in most of his early roles, to have been unable to get a beard going if his life depended on it (although now that he’s entering middle age, he seems to have developed the ability to coax out a modest amount of facial hair). I don’t get his sex appeal; I thought that in “Titanic” the lovely Kate Winslett looked as though she could have chewed him up and spit him out for breakfast—or at least told him to go out on the deck and play with the other kids.
One could also say that this is part of a general trend towards androgyny and away from sexual dimorphism, and perhaps one would be correct. But I’m not at all sure; I think the more basic trend is away from age (or even adulthood) and towards youth. It’s not so much that sexuality or even sexual dimorphism are being spurned, it’s growing old—or growing up.
Purposeful and self-inflicted chest hairlessness is also an example of the general tendency to tinker with the human body. Body-building, body-piercing, liposection, plastic surgery—every inch seem to be fair game for transformation and supposed improvement. Throughout history and across the world, people have always been willing to suffer for the sake of attractiveness; the only things that keeps morphing are the details. And if you think about it, shaving or waxing are a whole lot less traumatic than foot-binding or neck-stretching with rings, or so many of the manifold torments to which human beings have subjected themselves in the vain (in every sense of the word) pursuit of beauty.
If you Google “chest hair makes comeback,” you’ll get a bunch of articles claiming that this is so. Some of them even go back quite a few years. And yet the shaved chest is still going strong, which makes me think the vaunted comeback is somewhat of a fantasy. I’ll believe it when I see it in male models. Don’t hold your breath.
I guess I can’t publish this post without a photo; it would just be so wrong. So here’s the male model and actor (and not at all babyfaced) Giles Marini. I confess to intermittently watching “Dancing With the Stars,” and this guy is a natural dancer and favored to win it all.
Here’s Giles as model, minus chest hair:
And here he is dancing a fiery tango (the accent doesn’t hurt, either):
I think the more basic trend is away from age (or even adulthood) and towards youth. It’s not so much that sexuality or even sexual dimorphism are being spurned, it’s growing old–or growing up.
Bang!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who had that same reaction when I saw Titantic – I could not get a feel for any chemistry between the main characters. He looked like he was about 15-16 and she was around 22-23. College senior falls for hot high school sophomore. But nobody I knew saw it that way.
Not to mention that it was two separate movies. First half – a chick flick romance novel, with a pretty mediocre script “Lookee, I’ll teach ya how to Spit” and second half – the Posieden Adventure – I kept looking for Shelly Winters.
One of the more overrated movies of its time. IMO.
That’s not all that’s getting shaved (or waxed).
I have nothing to say about this. (Where did I put that gym membership card?)
Hairy Chest here. Wanna see?
😉
Touching on (maybe not the best choice of words) what br549 alluded to there are a lot of things getting waxed and shaved (by both sexes). I agree, though – it is the pursuit of the non-hirsute androgynous look.
Oh and since you put on the video with Cheryl Burke there is something else that seems to go along with this whole “how I look” thing. The other dancers on the show criticized her when she came back this year carrying a few extra pounds – which no one would have noticed but them. It didn’t eve stop here from getting into her costumes.
There is so much emphasis put on style instead of substance – no wonder we are in the shape (figuratively) we are in.
PS – sorry about the “shape (figuratively)” pun
The Boomer generation refused to grow up, but at least the men kept their chest hair. Maybe this generation is going the Boomers one further.
And yeah, I don’t get Leonardo di Caprio, either.
No kidding. I agree with Neo re Leo di Caprio — that latest Scorsese movie with him as an undercover cop, I couldn’t bear watching it thru to the end — when he beat up two burly mob guys in a bodega, I had to shut it off, it was so ridiculous. But Scorsese thinks di Caprio is amazing — he’s compared him to a young Robert DeNiro.
Yeah, right.
I always swore i’d never be like my dad. Now i read politics, drink black coffee and have hair on the front and back. Go figure.
Male obsession with looks and fashion reflects infection with homosexual culture. Simple as that.
Real men don’t obsess on their looks (let’s face it, all men are ugly; some just let so than others). Vanity is strictly for the bathhouse set.
While you’re at it, neo, what about the tattoo plague? (Not the “Mom” or globe and anchor variety, but rather the Borneo native style.) IMO, nothing says “dirtbag” quite like elaborate ink. Even some attractive gals go in for billboard-like displays. In fact, it’s a great investment opportunity: companies that remove tattoos. Definitely a buy and hold stock.
Sorry, “let” = “less”
Dogman: DiCaprio a young De Nero? Sure—a fetal De Nero.
Plus, he’s got the “De” sound at the beginning of his last name, and it ends in “o.”
Works for me.
Tattoos are saying “look at me, I’m different” Now everybodys exactly different? Lol
Yep. As the old joke goes, “You’re unique – just like everybody else!”
What I don’t get are heads. Every morning? As Ed Norton would say, “Sheesh!
Remember that picture of Obama’s ‘glistening pecs’? Does he wax?
I believe it has a lot to do with one’s father….for women that is. Mine had a full chest full of hair and as a young girl I always thought it was shaped like an anchor. 🙂 But he always seemed to have a few hairs peeking out of his collar that tickled my nose and if he happened to have his shirt off there was no more comforting thing than to be cuddled up in his strong arms and soft curly hair. So to me, manly men like my Daddy have hairy chests. Nothing will turn me off quicker than a man with a chest smoother than mine. Not that I have ever experienced that, unlike Neo I do have a strong prefernece. 🙂 Doesn’t have to be a chest full of muscles but it must be hairy. Leo? He still looks like my son at about 8 years old…..eewwwww!
Of course the irony of Occam’s Beard’s observation is that the fondness for male chest here is currently alive and well in the male homosexual community. Although certain gay men are drawn to the more androgynous looking or even slightly effeminate guys, others are drawn more to the much more masculine-looking type (and that can include either muscles or chest hair or both). Insofar as male fashion and grooming tends these days originate in the gay community, it should be making a comeback more widely before too long.
I also appreciated both Neo’s and SouthernJames’s comments about Titanic. That was sort of my general impression of the movie, the more I heard or read about it. So I never saw it. It sounds like I didn’t miss anything.
I don’t know why this thread reminded me of the old grade school joke about hair on the knuckles.
But for some inexplicable reason, I somehow feel smarter by shaving them.
What D-mom said.
My Elfie, in his own word: “Dude, I’m Italian. What did you expect?”
For that matter, my mom’s male family members all look like they’re wearing rugs on their chests, and are built like very tall dwarves. (of the mithril type, not the growth problem)
I just can’t stand the little boys that keep being offered…it’s icky.
This topic reminds me of an story I read in some Hollywood book about moviemaking.
They were filming a scene in The Ten Commandments or maybe it was Ben Hur, I forget. Anyway they were shooting a scene in close up, a romantic scene where he is holding his sweetheart and she is snuggling her head against his chest.
They kept shooting take after take and finally stopped. The director consulted with the cinematographer and then they took Heston away to his trailer.
Apparently the camera guy said that the shot looked like the girl was lying on a shag rug, her nose buried in his chest hair. So it was off to the trailer to shave his chest.
That’s not all that’s getting shaved (or waxed).
Ummm…some of us have to…what’s the word? ah, yes, do a little manscaping. But only south of the border, or north of the collar…
You really must watch the movie “The 40 Year Old Virgin” just for the chest hair waxing scene. There is nothing quite so funny or horrifying at the same time.
Speaking of ballroom, here’s my favorite shopping outfit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7nunp_We5M
(I guess that makes sense, as I’m not into chest hair)
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Where did you get that picture of me?!
– G
I think that some of this is due to our immense wealth as a society. The fact that many men have disposable time and income to worry about whether they have chest hair or not is an amazing development, when a mere 50-100 years ago darn near everyone was more worried about putting food on the table.
Just for the record, I don’t think it’s a good thing. As a grown man, I attempt to focus on things of more importance than whether my chest is scratchy or not.
The Human race can do better.
apparently not…
I noticed this a few years ago when during the annual spring ritual on campus of guys playing frisbee without shirts occurs. I couldn’t help but notice that of the 40 or so college guys running around, not a single one had chest hair. Strains the laws of genetics.
“Oh, bother Says:
April 10th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
The Boomer generation refused to grow up, but at least the men kept their chest hair. Maybe this generation is going the Boomers one further. ”
And noting that every other part of the body is also subjected to the razor/wax by both males and females; it does suggest a deep need to keep the bodies in a perpetual prepubescent state. The analysis I’ll leave to Neo. Me, I prefer adults who look like adults.
Neo and all – I thought the same thing watching Titanic. DiCaprio looked like a kid and it kinda ruined the movie for me.
I’m a lesbian, so I don’t know how much my opinion counts, but I think chest hair is sexy (on men). But then, I’m not on the pill. : P
While I find the whole waxing the chest thing weird (I have no problem with chest hair as it is soft, but I’m not so keen on facial hair which is not so soft – at least on my hubby), I am more disturbed that so many men seem so attracted to the excessive bikini waxing by women. So, what? They find the look of a 8 year old girl sexually attractive? That is seriously creepy.