Sometimes, men like to look nice too. No big deal.

Earlier this week I began reading David Valentine’s article, “Imagining Transgender,” and I came across a number of thought-provoking points. Although I’m pretty familiar with academic articles detailing women’s issues in society and especially int he media, transgender issues are pretty much new territory for me. “Imagining Transgender” was eye-opening because of, for one, the explanation of Karl Ulrich’s concept of gender inversion pointing to sexual preference (Valentine, p. 42). Upon reading this I laughed inwardly at how backwards 19th century thinking was, patting myself on the back for being part of a world that was, for the most part, more progressive than thinking that gay men were born wishing they were female. But wait. Too many of us DO in fact think that gay men are more like women than straight men.

The first thing that came to mind was this poster for the TV show Happy Divorced, starring Fran Drescher and Robin Williams as her (I’m assuming) gay husband. In the very center of the poster is Williams’ smiling face plastered in a green face mask, a terrycloth headband keeping his hair out of the muck. “All of the good ones are either married or gay. I got both,” Drescher says. I’ve never watched this show so I can’t say for certain that Williams is this campy throughout but this poster was designed to quickly drive a point home to the casual viewer on the street, and it is that Robin Williams is gay gay gay. What better way to affirm a man’s homosexuality than to present him as femininely as possible? What other kind of man would be so comfortable sitting leisurely on a sofa with a a fancy drink in a highball glass, reading a magazine about body sculpting? If he were indeed straight, I think people would be more prone to calling him a metrosexual, as this term was developed to distinguish straight men who care about their appearance from the gay men that do as well.

And for those who like to keep things tidy without ascribing to labels defining their sexuality, I think there is an added emphasis on preserving masculinity. Think “manscaping.” UrbanDictionary tells us that it is a term for male grooming below the belt, or just the body in general. Why not just... grooming? Why the gendered prefix? Is it because hair removal is seen as a mainly feminine activity? How many of your “macho” friends would be caught dead keeping their eyebrows in shape with a pair of tweezers or shaving their chest hair? Although it is seldom talked about it seems to be a growing trend, possibly due to the growing number of posed, sculpted, hairless, yet masculine bodies that embody the 21st century’s designer man (Remember the Calvin Klein and Dolce & Gabbana ads we talked about in class?).

I can’t talk about men that carefully tend to their appearance without talking about a new Dove ad campaign I’ve noticed recently. Watch the video below. The first three frames are of 1. a worn pair of leather work boots. 2. A rugged looking pair of leather gloves. 3. A badass looking leather jacket. The thread that ties these three things together? They’re all made of a notoriously rough and tough material. Just like a man’s skin.

Just look at that side-by-side comparison of what Dove body wash and that other body wash do to the identical swatches of leather meant to stand in for a man’s flesh. The Dove leather maintains its integrity and even becomes more rigid and textured, in contrast to the other swatch, which becomes softer and more pliable. But wait, which one of these would you rather have happen to your skin anyway? My point is that through the established connection between masculinity and ruggedness Dove is trying to persuade men to pay more attention to skin care and buy their line of men’s products in order to maintain their tough and manly exterior. Literally, I guess. For me, this ad only suffices to keep me from taking Dove seriously anymore, especially when juxtaposed with body wash ads aimed at women, which features rose petals drenched in liquid soap. But that is an argument for another time.