Groomers and Consumers

Abstract

With the understanding that gender is a complex construct and that masculinity is a process—something that is accomplished or achieved—this research explores the present-day popular discourses around male body hair in two popular men’s lifestyle magazines, examining their significance to a modern-day construction of what it means to be masculine. These findings suggest that male body hair is overwhelmingly represented negatively, with its depilation largely constructed in relation to heterosexual concerns, as important for health and hygiene, and a form of exerting (self) control in a time of masculinity crisis. Additionally, this analysis indicates that heterosexual men are increasingly encouraged to be groomers and consumers in the beauty market. Ultimately, these findings highlight the fluidity of gender, illuminating how the appropriation of marginalized gender practices may actually perpetuate, rather than challenge, class- and race-based power inequalities among men. With the hegemony of affluent heterosexual white men increasingly threatened by the growing presence of class and racial Others in previously homogenous spheres, this research suggests that the development of an embodied, classed aesthetic through body depilation may in fact be essential for the reestablishment of these men’s masculine identities.