billyellis wrote:IMHO, it all started with the assault on body hair on men, and has now spread (no pun intended) to women too.
Body hair in men is a secondary sexual character demonstrating testosterone levels to women. For example, look at gorillas (the Great Apes - gorillas, chimps, orangs, and humans - are all Hominids and very similar). The dominant male in a group develops a 'silverback' of long, distinctive hair. Similarly, many human males start growing additional hair in the same location once they mature and start their own families.
But the fashion and advertising industries have been promoting a hairless male 'ideal' for several decades, which biologically signals lower levels of testosterone. And who runs the fashion industry? To put it delicately...men with significantly less testosterone than the average male. So I don't think this is an accidental shift in body image promotion by fashion/advertising.
And now that we have shifted so far to the extreme in what is considered attractive in men, hairlessness has now become the default accepted standard for women as well.
Great analogy - well put. They say that its a man world - I tend to differ. When the hairless man began to appear, within the confines of this decade or so. It has been the influence of the woman, that has spear headed this movement. And the influence has been passed on to the opposite sex -- although I'm sure many feminist will disagree with me -- that its a man who demand it on women. If these so call men, are cautious victims of fashion, a gay fashion main steamers - then they don't talk for the main stream male world. Although I must say -- it now looks rather awkward when a woman hasn't shaven her muff. I compare it to when European women didn't shave their underarms or legs and American women did. Although, I haven't totally accepted the hairless man - for me, its too labour intensive.