Listen Up, Ladies: Here's Everything Real Men Think Is Wrong With You

[MADem]

19. The playing field is being leveled....! It's a slow process, but it is happening....

"Manscaping" is mandatory for the young, it seems--a 22 year old kid with a nickname of "Sweater Man" isn't going to get a date these days (not that people "date" all that much anymore). Unibrow? Fuggedaboudit! Off to the waxing parlor with you! And no abs? Go to the back of the line!

And who knew? Boys can get anorexia too...

http://dailynightly.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/02/22/10477185-boys-dying-to-be-thin-the-new-face-of-anorexia?lite

Okemos, Mich.: Susan Barry, 60, spends every day wishing she had known more about male anorexia when her son, TJ Warschefsky, was still alive. He died in 2007 at the age of 22 after an eight-year battle with the disease. His heart gave out in the middle of his nightly routine of 1,000 sit-ups. He weighed 78 pounds.
“He didn’t want to be skinny,” Barry said of TJ, who was a star athlete and straight-A student. “He wanted a six pack, he wanted rock hard abs. That’s how it all started.”

As for fashion, a 19 year old young man can spend a fortune to look like he just crawled out from behind a dumpster--that's the age when those smurf hats, boxy baseball caps that look like something Rodney Dangerfield would like, and overpriced sneakers and foolish "name brand" shirts/tees/gear are "must haves." Who "needs" to spend two hundred dollars for a pair of jeans so tight that they will make a lad sing soprano? And then there's the "bling." Bigass diamond earring--for what? Ostentatious ring! And don't get me started on tattoos as ornamentation, or those ghastly grilles--to me, they don't look good (they look like a rich person who never brushed their teeth!). But hey, that's status! That's how these youngsters make themselves into peacocks to attract the young ladies!

And if they don't HAVE, they don't "fit in." If they don't make enough at the part time job, they hint, wheedle, plead because these silly things elevate their standing.

I'd say males are probably still far less "appearance aware" than females, but they are catching up. And when worries about how one looks affect self-esteem, that is never a good thing for any person --it gets in the way of achievement. A little bit of struttin' yer stuff is natural for teens and early 20s, but after awhile, if there's too much of the "trendy clothes" happening--regardless of gender--it just looks a little silly; kind of embarrassing. A mature person of any gender looks best when they are comfortable in their own skin, IMO.