Manscaping?

I was watching a television program this last weekend and a commercial came on advertising some brand of razor. Ok, everything seemed normal so far. But, about half-way through the commercial, the camera shows a man in the shower using this super razor to shave his chest.

I was taken aback and thought, Have we come to the place in history where this is considered normal?

I asked my daughter about this practice and she said, "oh yeah Dad, that's just manscaping. Men do it all the time now."

Wow. Now I remember when bodybuilders shaved their body hair to accentuate their muscles. I know that swimmers and bicycle racers shaved for better aerodynamics. The thought being that shaving body hair decreased drag and increased aerodynamic efficiency.

I suppose those pictures one sees on the covers of romance novels often depicted men (who looked prettier than the women) standing behind some swooning debutante with long flowing hair on their heads but hairless chests.

And it's not just the chest that men are shaving nowadays. I've heard that it is now common practice to shave in other areas as well. I don't know. I don't mind trimming the laurels with a good set of shears but I would be very hesitant to pave the entire landscape smooth with a sharp scraper.

All this having been said. I suppose it is only fair that the same standards men have forced on women for years be turned around so that us men can get a little taste of our own medicine.

I must agree that, as men get older, they tend to lose hair in some places and grow hair in other, less desirable areas. For instance, I do not suffer from extreme back hair or anything like that, in fact, I'm fairly hair-less for a guy, but with my age I've succumbed to the additional responsibility of shaving my ears and plucking my eyebrows on occasion. I usually have to perform this maintenance before getting my hair cut to avoid the embarrassment of my hairstylist having to do it for me.

And, I must also agree that there are some men out there that could really use a good trimming (or mowing) over most of their body. I've seen some men that I can only imagine is the reason people have to wear red or some other bright color when hunting. Otherwise, with all the hair on their backs, they may be mistaken for a bear or some other wild animal, and shot by mistake.

I now realize, gone are the days when it was OK, desirable, sexy even, to leave some body hair intact. Just look at all our past leading men and ladies - like Austen Powers!

Yes, I know this is a touchy subject, but I guess I've been living in the past, and it took a television commercial to get with the times.