Straight Guys Do Wear Make-Up: Contemporary Masculinities and Investment in Appearance

Abstract

Today's men are less limited than previous generations and do things their fathers would have eschewed, including spending lots of time and money on 'grooming' products and services (moisturiser, body hair removal, even make-up). Our research with 'metrosexual men' and men on weight loss programmes shows that (heterosexual) men are indeed interested in their appearance, but also that appearance-related practices are glossed in conventionally masculine terms. While men do enact a greater range of attributes and activities than before, belying any notion of a 'crisis' in masculinity, we highlight the continued operation of orthodox masculinities which may work to marginalise other men and women.