The Vote: Are Men Becoming Too Feminine?

NEVER has a man-i-cure been so literal in its meaning.

You only have to look slightly beyond the building sites to realise men care far more about their appearances these days when compared to 20 years ago.

With a saronged David Beckham hailed as the poster boy for the metrosexual movement of the 90s, male grooming has been taking shape like a perfectly coiffed goatee ever since.

Nearly a quarter pluck their eyebrows, 17 per cent wax or shave their bodies regularly and 11 per cent use fake tan.

As Confidential editor-in-chief Jonathan Schofield quite rightly pointed out, “it used to be virtue to keep it simple as a man” yet these days we’re bombarded with media images of men going above and beyond for the kind of picture perfection once reserved strictly for women.

To put this into perspective, Manchester bar The Living Room recently conducted a survey on 200 men in Manchester. Their findings are what they believe to be a result of TV programmes such as TOWIE which give even the most unlikely lads the go ahead to use all manner of beauty cosmetics.

A third of men said they use beauty products, with one in five using them daily.  Nearly a quarter pluck their eyebrows, 17 per cent wax or shave their bodies regularly and 11 per cent use fake tan. Furthermore, 14 per cent admit to wearing makeup to enhance their appearance, with concealer being the most popular item.

Jean Paul Gaultier Monsieur Bronzer

Beauty brands are savvy to this shift in trends and marketing has since served to make men feel confident, not only to use products such as fake tan, but to go out and buy their own rather than nicking their partner’s. The key, it would seem, is to keep it as cocksure as possible.

Among the Jean Paul Gautier men’s make-up range for example, is a bronzer compact for men – only the design is a very ‘manly’ brick pattern.

The male beauty brand Guyliner, also prefer to promote their products as functional rather than feminine saying ‘Guyliner is the brand for every man. Guyliner have created highly functional products to give guys the confidence to be who they want to be.’ Similarly male nail polish brand EvolutionMan is available in three hardy colours - grey 'Pavement,' metallic purple 'Alter Ego,' and gunmetal 'Stand Out’.

Guyliner

EvolutionMan

Then there are those Old Spice adverts of course. Rebranding what was known as an old man’s product for the young modern man, they used reverse psychology in their last ad campaign to relay a message to men, via women, that “this is the man your man could smell like”.

The man in question was the epitome of modern male grooming if ever there was one; not a hair out of place or muscle undefined. After asking us to “look at your man now back to me” he continues “Sadly he isn’t me, but if he stopped using lady scented body wash and switched to Old Spice he could smell like he’s me.”

It’s clever. Very clever. Men want to look after themselves, but they don’t want to teeter into overtly feminine territory to get results. Some would argue this is due to the pressures for men to be strong and rugged in the clearly defined gender roles of our society.

It’s almost like a new category of manhood, where grooming is admirable, so long as men don’t lose track of who they really are of course.

Or perhaps it’s just the men who drink in The Living Room...

What do you think? Are men becoming too feminine or has masculinity turned a corner?

Follow Lynda on Twitter @lyndamoyo