Animals groom. It’s instinctive. The Gang of Two lick each other’s heads. Apes pick bugs out of the hair of their closest ape-friends. Personally, I like to pop zits, but I probably shouldn’t broadcast that.
My point is it’s natural, nay, instinctive, to groom. Also it’s fun. Also it feels really good. But grooming has got a bad rap in some circles, because women are expected to do more of it than men, and therefore it is considered a sign of patriarchal oppression. I’m not sure I buy that.
Oh, yes, when a woman must have a level of excellence in her appearance that far exceeds what is expected of a man, and when a lack of that excellence impairs her ability to get ahead, then that is indeed, the patriarchy. I should be able top get the same job as an overweight man. But I just don’t think it’s inherently oppressive to shave my legs.
It’s more likely that the patriarchy makes men afraid to groom, lest they appear feminine, and that’s a big component of why it’s women that groom more. Because women are the “pretty” gender in our species, and because the patriarchy (and its companion, homophobia) forces men to constantly guard their masculinity against the forces of darkness, a large portion of het males think it’s butch to be slobby and smelly.
This explains the popularity of a show like Queer Eye. For all the stereotyping of gays, its ultimate message is that all men can be well-groomed, can smell good, look good, and cook a decent meal, and that it doesn’t make you gay. At the end of each episode, we meet a newly spiffed-up straight guy, still very straight indeed, and yet pretty as a frickin’ picture. The barrier broken down is the homophobia within the straight man; not his fear of the Fab Five, but his fear of himself.
And really, if straight men can accept that grooming won’t make them queer, then I should be able to shave my legs and do my face without accusations of insufficient feminism, dontcha think?
