The new male – successful at what he does, muscular, well groomed and spending most of his time at the gym. This guy wakes up at five o’clock to squeeze in a pre-work workout, have a long shower and get to work where he is named partner or just has a corner office most of us can only dream of. He is probably spending more time in front of the mirror than you ever will. The ladies throw themselves at him, not just because he looks good and earns good money but because his sense of humor is impeccable as is his fashion style (he picked up a few fashion tricks in Italy, Europe a few summers back). Wait, a thought – does this guy really exist or a prototype of who we all should be?
It may be that the previous paragraph described either a super rich and lucky guy or a character from a script starring in our probably favorite upcoming series. The truth? Somewhere in between.
In recent years, we’ve witnessed an amazing upraise of male fashion, we’ve seen guys getting fashion conscious, body conscious and awesomely dedicated to their hours at the gym. These guys have been becoming more cultured, well-groomed, better mannered, intensely focused on keeping up with the trends (the recent one being male bun and thick-and-long-beard trend) and more and more careful about what they’ll wear.
To a point, it got disturbing for the ladies to learn their male partners spend more on cosmetics, clothes, gym memberships than they do and yet – they still manage to shine at their workplace, as if looking as good as they suddenly do takes no effort at all! How do they do it?
The devotion to look good has almost turned to a silent competition within the male community, with the competitors all (un)willingly participating, all running for the first prize. And things have moved a long way from shallow – envying one another’s bicep is not a sport any more, really – now they’re after the entire look. Are they turning into girls?
To be entirely open about this – there is nothing as hot as a guy looking good. A man caring for himself is a man who is disciplined, aware of who he is and what he can do. And everything is perfectly fine until it turns from aware to self-involved.
Looking back, we never thought we’d see a straight guy wearing a fedora, tight jeans or a bun. We never thought having a six pack with turn into normality rather than a trend. Their newly developed fashion sense is pretty amazing, too – at least for anyone with a good eye. They’ll throw on a pair of ripped jeans, a plaid T and a sweater over, put cool sneakers or ankle boots on and rock the streets. If they’re growing a beard (which they probably are), it’ll be properly groomed, all in the right places. Most of them will undergo IPL laser hair removal procedures to have their particular body parts smooth and looking good. And they aren’t even ashamed of all the ways they are caring for themselves! The only problem is that all of them look the same. Well, most of them do anyway.
This male fashion and trend consciousness took a pretty big spin, and the media has so much to do with it – with all the streams of pop culture instructing us (both male and female) to look a certain way, it is inevitable to fall into the trap of particular beauty standards no matter how self-assured you are. If a particular popular option circulates around and it is becoming widely accepted, it is just a matter of time when we’ll all fall into the same trap – the trap of caring (too much) about how we look, what we eat, the way we dress and what protein shakes we are drinking. But then again – why is this wrong and is it, really? Makes you wonder.
This guest post was written by Peter Minkoff!
