Karamel318 posted: What stereotypes about your gender does the media feed that irritate you?
I think that it would be pretty asinine to belittle any man who, naturally, just cannot grow much or any body hair on their chest, arms, legs, etc. It would be pretty ridiculous to make a man such as this feel inferior by claiming that "only real men have body hair," right? Similar to the "only real women have curves" theory.
But why is it that whenever we see a shirtless guy in the media, whether it be in print, film, or television, 95% of the time he's depicted as being completely hairless? I'm sorry but I'm in my 20's, I live in a diverse city, and know guys from all ethnic backgrounds -- not one of them is naturally hairless like that. So why are we being fed this false, idealized image of perfection, as if the only way you can be a "real man" (that the ladies wanna bang by the way, that's the hidden implication) is to be completely hairless?
The sad thing is that a lot of guys internalize this and spend so much of their money on grooming and hair removal products and services. Why is having body hair an "unclean" feature? Why is it "less sexy" or "less desirable?" Damn... in the seventies, you'd be the man! Or so I'm told, lol.
Now, I'm lucky in the sense that I don't have it as bad as some people out there, and I just don't let what little body hair I have bother me. It's not an issue of insecurity for me. However, you gotta feel for those guys who have it worse. Just like the more plump girls out there, they're growing up in a world where being who they are isn't good enough... they're inadequate, somehow.
Anyways, that's just one of the gender stereotypes that annoy me, lol.
