Manscaping
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Manscaping is a neologism that was brought into American homes in 2004 by Queer Eye for the Straight Guy; portmanteau for "landscaping" the male body by shaving, trimming, waxing, or brushing the body hair.
Until relatively recently, it was considered unusual for American males to shave or otherwise remove hair below the neck. Some exceptions are bodybuilders, who would do so in order to make their muscular definition more visible, as well as swimmers who often shave body hair to improve their athletic performance, and cyclists, who often shave their legs to allow easier application of bandages following accidents.
The front cover of the November, 1993 issue of Vanity Fair magazine featured Sylvester Stallone nude (but seated in such a manner so that the genitalia were not visible) and with a completely shaved body (at least in all of the areas that could be seen in the photo). The cover created controversy at the time, but probably due to the nudity rather than the lack of body hair (Stallone had previously appeared with a shaved body in some of the films he starred in, most notably [[Rambo: First Blood Part II]]).
Towards the end of the 1990s, some American men, especially those in Generation X, began to remove their body hair, some claiming it made them feel "cleaner," others asserting that it made them feel cooler in warm weather. This trend has helped undermine the notion that male body hair removal is effeminate, much like long hair on males regained acceptance for Westerners in the mid-1960s.
Media occurrences
- On an episode of Married with Children, the star Al Bundy is forced to have his armpit hair shaved for medical reasons. He laments this due to his not feeling it manly to do so.
- There is body hair removal in The 40-Year-Old Virgin involving Steve Carell.
- A similar scene was filmed in the location documentary for Jack Black's Nacho Libre Confessional, episode #3. Jack Black's character is based on Mexican wrestlers who are expected to be hairless.
- In the premiere episode of Amish in the City, teenagers from the city felt revulsion at the sight of a bare-chested Amish man and immediately shaved his chest.
- There is a deleted scene in the cartoon show American Dad!, where a character says: "Points for manscaping", after seeing the main character, Stan Smith, nude.
See also
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